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1. Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal, white (might be tiny bit black through Cape Verdean great-grandparent) -- generally speaking, Ronaldo looks like Tim Tebow.
3. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sweden (Bosnian father and Croatian mother), white (often accused of being a Gypsy by opposing fans, but at 6'5" looks pretty Balkan to me)
5. Radamel Falcao, Colombia, substantially white, father appears part black, perhaps some Amerindian too, judging from his hair
12. Franck Ribery, France, white (converted to his Algerian wife's Islam) -- face got smashed up in an accident when young, so a little odd-looking.
17. Mesut Ozil, Germany (3rd generation Turkish German), white (looks like Bogart's costar Peter Lorre)
20. Luis Suarez, Uruguay, three-fourth's white, supposedly one black grandfather, could be a little Amerindian.
I'm coming up with the Top 20 being, very roughly, approaching 85% white by ancestry, 10% black, and the rest Amerindian or East Asian. Nineteen of the top 20 highest paid players are at least half white.
Back in 2010 I looked through ESPN's list of the world's Top 50 soccer players and came up with fairly similar proportions, a little less white than the 2014 Top 20 highest paid list, but still much whiter than the NBA or NFL, and probably whiter than MLB.
FIFA could change the rules to make soccer more a test of explosiveness and sprinting ability, like American sports, which tend to favor blacks of West African descent. But, the world seems pretty happy with soccer the way it is.
As I wrote in 2010 before the World Cup semifinals between Uruguay v. Netherlands and Germany v. Spain:
And nobody's in a hurry to change.
As I wrote in 2010 before the World Cup semifinals between Uruguay v. Netherlands and Germany v. Spain:
When people go on about how much they love diversity, what they mean is that they want about an 80% white majority and 20% colorful minorities to spice things up, roughly what high level soccer delivers -- not the opposite. (But the opposite is what everybody will eventually get.)
Much of the glamor of the World Cup stems from it being a mostly white sport.
Do you think up-and-comers like the South Koreans would be fascinated by the World Cup if it were traditionally dominated by, say, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Bolivia? Would SWPLs in the U.S. love soccer if it were associated in their minds with "Kinshasa" rather than with "Barcelona"?
Look at what's happened to interest in track & field over the decades as East Africans have come to dominate the endurance races and the West African diaspora the sprints. (People don't believe me these days when I say that the Olympic running races used to be a really big deal. Who'd ever be interested in people running?)
The rules of soccer could either be more favorable to men of West African descent who are great at sprinting but lack endurance, the way the NFL and the NBA are, by making the game more amenable to sprinters by having more times outs (great for TV commercials) and substitutions. Or soccer could be made more amenable to highlanders with less speed but great endurance such as East Africans, Mexicans, Bolivians, Rif Mountain Northwest Africans and the like by preventing players from wasting time whenever play stops. But the rules are set in such a way that whites predominate in soccer.
And nobody's in a hurry to change.
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232 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 232 of 232>>Dave Pinsen said:
""""""it makes each goal a much bigger deal."""""""
This was the old way of thinking for MLB's deadball era of circa 1880s up thru 1920 when Babe Ruth changed it all. The owners saw the light and the coming future was higher scoring.
Time to evolve, soccer. Time to evolve and allow for higher scoring games.
'"""""""""Compare to basketball when teams trade baskets in the 1st period.""""""""""""""
Basketball is the extreme end of the other side, but they had the right idea. 24 second shot clock to guarantee some kind of scoring within 24secs. Soccer should tweak and do the same to increase the scoring per game.
Either: Widen the nets.
Institute a mandatory 15minute penalty kick. If a team has not scored every 15minutes, there will be a mandatory penalty kick.
Or, do both.
But to claim that skull to skull occurs in soccer at the same occurrence as the NFL is pure disingenuous.
The sport that really needs a revamping of its rules is team handball. I watch a few minutes every Olympics and the rules are awful, which may explain why it remains so unpopular despite being in the Olympics for decades.
In contrast, soccer is, as you may have noticed, popular.
"Both skill and size and athletic ability matter in every sport"
Shaq is not skilled. BB is a joke if he is a great player. Manute Bol played in the NBA. He is a poor athlete with little skill that played in the NBA.
There is no skill in the NFL outside of QB and receiver. Most other positions are just size and speed.
>>Steve Sailer said:
""""""In contrast, soccer is, as you may have noticed, popular."""""""""""""
Right, well except here. And Canada.
But that could be due to the phenomenon Seinfeld said to George Costanza when they were pitching their "show about nothing to a network executive"
Executive: Why should I want to watch this show?
George: Its on TV, what else is going on for you? That's the point, sir. It's on TV.
Executive: Hmm.....Interesting.
But then remember for a long time in human history public executions were higher attended than sporting events. Families used to make a half day out of going to the gallows and watch the condemned walk that final trek up toward the...
One of the games that soccer came from was a number of ancient kicking games where instead of a proper ball they'd use the skulls of the recently executed and pad them with rags so as to ease the pressure on the feet cause when kicked those skulls sure did hurt!
It does say something about society as a whole but I'm not exactly sure what.
Time to evolve, soccer. Time to evolve and allow for higher scoring games."
They have changed the rules. They used to not allow any subs, now they have 3.
They also changed the offside rule several times. Only 1 defender now has to be between the ball and goal on a pass.
"""""""They have changed the rules. They used to not allow any subs, now they have 3.""""""""""""
OMG, 3 whole subs, woah! Lets not get carried away!
""""""They also changed the offside rule several times. Only 1 defender now has to be between the ball and goal on a pass.'""""""""""""
Zzzzz. Uh, yes.
Those are nice cosmetic nips and tucks. Now lets go for the actual evolution of changing rules to make it more high scoring, as in:
Widen the Nets (increased width/goal space 33% on both left and right sides)
Institute a mandatory Penalty Kick if after each 15minute interval there has been no scoring.
No, the one I'm referring to suffered a fatal injury. Scroll up and click the link. There's a video.
"Which results in more goals, NBA or Soccer?"
This is of course in part due to different rules. Goal tending is a penalty in basketball. It's also due to due to the relative ease of getting into scoring position in basketball.
Penalty kicks are taken from 36 feet away, not 10.
A few months ago, after meeting a swede in New York who played handball professionally in Europe, I looked up the US team handball association's site. In theory, it sounds like it should be a fun sport to play and watch, but in practice, it turns out to be dull to watch.
A shot clock in basketball makes sense because it's easy to keep possession in basketball, so a team in the lead could just do that and run out the clock otherwise. It's much harder to maintain possession in soccer.
No, the executive's response to "it's on TV" is "Not yet!".
Scroll up. You wrote, "Soccer knows nothing of a skull to skull type of play.". I gave you an example refuting that. I said those skull to skull plays happen frequently in soccer, not that they happen more frequently than in football.
Basketball is high scoring despite having a small goal. If you wanted to make soccer higher scoring, instead of widening the net you could eliminate the goalie position and treat the penalty box like the paint in basketball. But soccer is already the most popular sport in the world, so why try to fix what isn't broken?
Better to think of ways to make American football more popular internationally. I mentioned a few ideas above.
>>Dave Pinsen said...
""""Penalty kicks are taken from 36 feet away, not 10"""""
So less than the MLB's pitcher's mound of 60'6" which I also said a while back, thank you! And of course, many goals are scored from 5ft. with forwards close in w/ball.
""""""But soccer is already the most popular sport in the world, so why try to fix what isn't broken?"""""
Every sport looks to constantly improve. No sport is ever "broken", but updates periodically to improve.
What is soccer so afraid of? Higher scoring games, apparently so. 1-0 games are still very, very frequent, even at the highest pro levels.
Also, soccer is somewhat "broke" in the next segment, the absence of most protective safety gear. For instance, why don't soccer players have mandatory helmet rules akin to NFL?
See bottom here which deals w/concuss.
"""""""""""""""""I gave you an example refuting that. I said those skull to skull plays happen frequently in soccer,""""""""""""""""""""
I started the entire conversation rolling in that direction by pointing out that soccer is the 2nd world sport of most concussion injuries. Obviously they do occur but they don't occur as frequently as in the NFL. Also, soccer knows nothing of the physically violent skull to skull INTENTIONAL play as in NFL, where a DB, DE, LB, etc consciously launches himself INTO the opposing player with the intent of crashing into the opponent's skull.
It simply isn't the same level of physicality as NFL. If it were as violent as NFL, there'd be more conscious attempts at wearing protective safety gear.
""""""""not that they happen more frequently than in football."""""""""""""""
Now this is a misleading statement on your part. You've been arguing that for the most part, Soccer's head on collusion are on the same level AND frequency as in the NFL, which is obviously not the case whatsoever.
Yes, concussions do occur in soccer as said, it's the worlds second sport for most concussions, but unlike the NFL or NHL, soccer refuses to impose a uniformly mandatory helmet rule for all starting on field players, and they should if they truly cared about player safety.
The NFL can do it and is constantly working to improve the quality of their players' helmets. Soccer could learn from this and adopt a similar policy.
"You've been arguing that for the most part, Soccer's head on collusion are on the same level AND frequency as in the NFL"
Where did I argue this?
World Cup is better than the National Faggot League.
To Anonymous:
Not sure why you're so fixated on the NFL as the benchmark to determine "toughness" and not-toughness. I mean, yeah -- American football is a uniquely physical sport, and the crashing bodies are built into the very design of the game. That doesn't mean that other sports aren't physical or "tough."
I mean, using the NFL criteria, then basketball and baseball are wussy sports too.
I don't even have an interest in viewing soccer as tough. I couldn't care less (though I guess I do have an interest in soccer not being called "wussy"). It's just weird, this notion among some Americans that soccer is some dainty activity like polo. The whole anti-soccer thing is an artifact of a particular historical happenstance (mid-20th Century red scare), and it's getting kind of goofy at this point.
As an aside: Why not use quick italics tags instead of all those hash marks? I genuinely mean no offense, but the comment threads look kind of cluttery and impenetrable when a bunch of your posts are in there.
>>Dave Pinsen said:
"""""Where did I argue this?""""""""""""""
Same level, in that you've been saying the collision occurs and can be quite vicious yet its been pointed out that more NFLers have suffered nearly every single game a concussion or skull to skull (helmet to helmet) injury whereas in soccer it simply is not the case.
Bottom line: Compared to NFL, soccer is not in the same league of violent injuries, and is not a physical contact sport when compared to the NFL.
This is perhaps one of the main reasons why the players don't wear very much in terms of protective safety gear.
But its fine. When over a full third of total goals scored are by accident, it honestly doesnt speak all that well for the sport's skill level when compared to the other major sports.
Are soccer players skilled? Duh. Are they amazingly gifted athletes? Up to a point, yes.
Do you need to be overtly bulked up? No. In fact, one of the greatest players of his era, Lionel Messi, is about 5'5" and contains no visible amount of bulk whatsoever.
By contrast, a 5'5" person would not be drafted by the NFL (unless he were a K or P but even then, the NFL usually doesn't draft their kickers/punters at that meager a height). The NBA would certainly not draft a 5'5" player either and yet such players are found in professional soccer's highest levels.
Widen the net and/or institute a mandatory penalty kick at every 15 minute intervals.
Clarification: For the mandatory penalty kick, one way for determining which team gets to kick is to see which team has had more shots on goal during the 15minute interval. If neither team has had a clear number of shots on goal (which of course is quite common in soccer to have very few shots on goal but it largely varies per match) then for the game's first Penalty Kick the visiting team will go first while the home team gets the next PK, and then rotate for rest of game.
The penalty kick itself will only be taken by the best player, usually the forward(s). He will get only one kick. Then play will continue as usual.
I love football. And you are an idiot.
Polo isn't dainty. It can be quite dangerous.
The NFL, judging my the brief average career, may be uniquely dangerous, but as I noted above, taking into account all levels of play, soccer results in far more injuries.
My old high school football coach, a 6'5", 350lb former lineman at Penn, wouldn't have been surprised by those stats. I remember telling him about how when I was getting a thumb injury checked out out at a hospital, there was a soccer player there with a hideous leg fracture. He said, "that's because they don't wear any protection". Maybe.
Anecdotally, the worst injuries I saw while playing high school football were knee injuries and, once, a dislocated shoulder. But knee injuries were common in lots of sports. At any time, there were 2 or 3 kids on crutches in my school, and at most, only 1 of those was a football player.
In any case, severe injuries are a bug, not a feature of a sport. I'd rather not watch people get hurt.
Soccer needs to be more like the NFL... I hear the NFL is halftime gay marriages on the 50 yard line, and plotting the first tranny draft pick...
"Wasn't Pele the greatest player every?"
No, Maradonna was. Pele is simply the soccer player most widely known to Americans.
Lol. You can't make this stuff up. It's Maradona, with one "n".
IRONY: Most goals scored in soccer (both in penalty kicks and in regular time) occur from about 15 feet away and closer.
Seriously? The penalty spot is 36 feet from the goal.
Belgium
1-0 games are still very, very frequent, even at the highest pro levels.
They are more frequent at the highest pro levels.
In a normal championship/league match the stakes are not very high (all teams can afford to lose one match here and there), but a World Cup final might result in a goalless 0-0 and extra time (or even penalties) at a higher rate than a normal match, because both sides are desperate to avoid defeat.
OTOH small children can regularly play matches with 25-28 or higher results, because their defense is not yet organized. In a normal professional top league match there are usually roughly 3-4 goals per match on average.
Look again. They've reengineered them the last two WC's.
There are only 3 substitutions in a professional 90 minute European soccer game on a 100+ yard soccer field. You can fit at least two basketball courts on that. Basketball has subs at random, with a lot more breaks in it than a game of soccer. I guess all sports are for "wussies", which only a faggot would use that word, because basketball players flol just as much as soccer players, football players flop now, and I'm sure people flop in dumbass hockey because I've seen it. You are ignorant.
Boxing is not becoming a white sport, Name a skilled boxer here at the end of 2014 that is primarily white. Not a race that is "closer to white than it is to black. :
Zlatan is one of like 3 or 4 elite soccer players in the 6 footers club. Him, Cristiano Ronaldo, Balotelli, and I believe Radamel Falcao, are the only elite forwards and midfielders in professional soccer. None of them are primarily white.
During pauses in the action. Soccer requires the most endurance out of all sports.
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