Even pubs in Britain have their own football teams, plus most villages. Kids play in the streets, and local park. All you need is a ball.

The 'soccer takes no talent' is especially funny, seeing as its one of the most talent based sports in the world Ita easily accessible for everyone, height and size really doesnt matter that much, like in american football and basketball theres is clear barriers to entry and how good you can get, if youre shorter or smaller Talent is the one thing that can seperate you from the rest in football (soccer), Messi for example is 1.69m tall, not the quickest or strongest yet he is still the greatest footballer ever to strap on a pair of boots

Brad Freidel has one of the highest number of appearances in Premier League history, he played a lot of his career at Tottenham too. Other Americans that had good Premier League careers that I can think of off the top of my head are Tim Howard, Kasey Keller, Brian McBride and Clint Dempsey.

Zealand grew his channel a lot because of the very popular Football Manager, before he eventually began to mix in these sorts of videos in between. It would be so epic to watch you try it, especially with your background as a coach! Your reactions is awesome tho. And try to ignore the bullies who tries to get you to dislike the sports you grew up with, they are as ignorant as Dana White is to Soccer. The bigger your channel gets, the more hate and envy it will get. Love from Norway

"Pay to play" is the worst thing

The other cultural difference if that adults play sports way more recreationally in Europe than they do in the US, once Americans leave college they seem to stop playing organised sports apart from a few beer leagues or office softball tournaments; whereas in the UK at least many people will continue to play football, rugby etc for many years. It all ties into the community origins of teams too I think

His English accent at the start was outstanding

You didn't deter me with your rambling, lol. In fact, you gained a new subscriber lol. We need more Americans like us to realize the history, issues, potential, and possibility that we have in this sport. Please keep making videos on "soccer" haha, we will be watching.

As someone who played Soccer as a main sport in the US , I also played Football ,Basketball, and baseball . The way the community would look at soccer was as a boring kick about sport and not a sport that took skill, grit, dedication, it made me hate all other sports , I was good in all sports I played and Soccer was always more fun , competitive and just Enjoyable

One of the reasons I like Zealand so much, is he can be both… sometimes play the clueless American gaming personality with all the jokes in the world, and sometimes slow down like this to both research and present very informative videos.

You gotta react to Maqwell on the USA’s failure of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers. This is something Zealand haven’t covered, and this video really shows how quick USMNT recovered.

Damn, not a mention of Landon Donovan. Usually he’s top of the list among recognizable US names, particularly for his antics against Mexico. Secret Base has a good video on that. Tim Howard was that goalkeeper who scored a goal from a goal kick. In true Everton fashion it was the only goal we scored Bolton won that one 2-1 😂 I didn’t know about the effect of Title IX as well, and that 25-30 year period that helped the women’s game, it’s that same amount of time that has passed since World Cup 94, and we are seeing the most talented crop of US Men’s player ever. As much as I love the old grit and grind of the 2002-14 core of players, our current generation will bring us to new heights.

Your ramblings are so enjoyable as it shows the genuine passion you have for the subject, I look forward to more lol

Dana dosent know what his talking about ..his never played any sport in his life and never had a single fight in his career ..hi wish his ufc was as big as football (soccer) ..most of his mma fighters now are begging to fight youtubers cause ufc payday is so pathetic dude ..its just pure jealousy

Really enjoying learning about the different sporting cultures. I hope you can do more of these "American sports for non Americans" type of videos. Wish you all the best with your KZfaq dream!

Luke! I’ve got no doubt that you’ll be as big as Zealand (or bigger) one day if you carry on making thoughtful and interesting videos about cultural & sporting differences. It’s fascinating stuff! Love it!🤓

The main issue that many people outside of america have with the pay to play system is that not only are you cutting off a large amount of talented players whose families can't afford to pay for them to play football but it's also the fact that people are paying top dollar for mediocre coaching/training when in comparison to the rest of the world. Paying hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars PER MONTH just for your child to play football in america to be taught the game by coaches often times nowhere near as qualified as the youth coaches in Europe is insane. Youth programs in america are more concerned about making a profit off of the families as appose to the actual development of the players and ensuring that they have the tools required to make it at the next level. Most academies/youth programs in europe are a lot more affordable to the average family. Football is often looked at as the world's game where anyone from any walk of life can play it. The pay to play system makes that impossible and turns the sport into those who can afford to pay can play.

Most people couldn’t run the 7 miles that the men average in 90 minute match. And eye hand coordination is one thing. But,eye-foot Is another! in my opinion, if you can play soccer well, you’d be good at any other sport you tried!

That accent shift at the beginning though... pure gold.

Also, I love Zealand, but his comparison of the viewing figures for the women's teams was pure numbers of viewers and not adjusted for population. So yeah only 17 million people watched England women win the European Championship, but that's out of a population of 55 mill in England.

Other sport is about physiques but football is about IQ and how smart you are. Regardless of ur height and ur weight as long as you have that football iq and you have crazy reflexes then it can workout. Only if Americans realise how hard it is to play professional football.

Dana: "Soccer is the least talented sport". Baseball: Sit in a dug out wait ages before you can play, swing the bat 2 to 3 times, either walk back to dugout or run 25 meter a pillow on the ground. Basketball: If you're not above 6'5, you can't play. *Such talent* American Football: cover yourself in padding(that stuff women use to look better), hold the egg never pass the egg. Complain I'm calling it an egg. Only kick the egg when it there's no danger from opponents. And still call it Football. The only reason you call it American Football is because you know you're the only country that plays. Everyone else does either rugby or actual football.

I really appreciate the perspective you give Luke. How by not being blinded by preference for only one or the other, you can more accurately describe how Rugby, American Football and Football differ, what's great about each, etc.

Bro you have lots of potential Just keep your consistency and it will pay of soon❤

liked and subscribed because of your little rants! shows you are a true sports fan haha UK football supporter here and i hope you guys get to the levels in europe :) kasey keller played for my team Leicester many years ago and is always remembered as a legend for us! cant wait to see more from you

The big differences for me are that US professional sports teams are franchises, they're more disconnected from their communities whereas in Europe they usually grew out of community teams. There's not even a team for every state in any professional sport in the US, whereas counties and cities have multiple football teams in Europe. This is why College / High School sports are so much bigger in the US - they fill that community gap, they allow you to cheer for a team more connected to you and / or your local community. And that's the other big difference with US sports of course - having academia be the path to academic sports. In the UK I played rugby for my secondary school (middle and high school), we were county champions at points, and I boxed and played lacrosse at University (although not a great deal of either really) and the only time anyone really watched us other than the occasional family member or friend was when we hosted boxing events. If you're playing sport at a university you're generally already too old to have a professional career if you're not already playing professionally (although that varies by sport). The playoff vs league / relegation and promotion structure plays a big part too I think. But I still watch more American football and baseball (and hockey) than I do football. Cricket and Australian Football are up there as my top sports too. I do enjoy football but I didn't grow up with it, my family was a rugby family and football sadly was looked down upon - and I was rubbish at playing it but pretty good at rugby. I've definitely grown to appreciate it more and more over the years but it's quite weird coming to it as an outsider in England.

i think relegation is the most importent thing in a league, because it makes the lower leagues way more impactful and importent. in germany we reintruduced the relegation of at least 1 team in our formerly closed icehockey pro league in 2022, a huge step even 1 team is way to little but its better then nothing. and i really love that ... even ... my city was the first team to ever get relegated :( :( :( :( we were the damn champ and now we got relegated to 2nd league xD and i still am for relegation. because we now have something to fight for, to go back up

the editing was very good, we can all see the progress and time you'v put into it. Thank You ^^

It is an interesting thing that it's always talked about how USA doesn't care about football whereas it's very rare to see something about why other countries don't care sbout American football. It would be interesting to know. I come from a country where I've never myself or seen someone else watch American football like ever and I don't really know why that is

Zealand is an amazing mix of timing, talent and expertise. I learned so much from him about Football Manager, but I am discovering how talented he is as a journalist and broadcaster. I hope to see him outgrow his niche, because he is greatly entertaining in performance and thoughtful in his reporting. I also appreciate the realization that there is a sport, and I would argue 4 sports (american football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey), ahead of soccer/football that draws the talent out of the US, thus restricting the growth of soccer in the US. And even if you're playing soccer, stop flopping. Get up and finish the play.

If he was a American Football Fan .Teams don't get Demoted or Promoted so no competition. A Fight for Survival in a League generates has much passion, as the Top Teams to win the Premier league. To Win a League as Champions and move up into an higher league is a Fantastic Feeling.

Subscribed the channel and liked the video. I'd love to see you do what you want to do in the future, going to europe and creating those kind of content and stuff. Good luck, buddy.

19:48 Always gotta recognize the Secretary of Defense, Tim Howard. I remember that after his world record 15 saves against Belgium at the 2014 World Cup, they briefly changed wiki page to actually being listed as the United States Secretary of Defense. I think Tim is the best keeper the US has ever produced to this day. Others will say Brad Friedel, who is a great in his own right, but what other keeper has that world cup record and has scored a goal from one side of the pitch to the other in the PL? No other I tell ya. 😂

You should watch maqwell's video on the USMNT's 2018 world cup qualifying campaign and how they didn't qualify.

Great video for and props for using Zealand as the tool that he is. Keep up the amazing work!

Baseball predates Rounders actually. Baseball was played UK in the 1700's and earlier in some forms whereas Rounders came up about 100 years later also in the UK. This is documented in various publications of the time. Some modern soccer pitches are marked out on old baseball grounds. For instance, the original ground of Derby County FC was called The Baseball Ground.

some American players who are well respected for you to have a look at; Brad Friedel, Brad Guzan, Kasey Keller, Tim Howard: goalkeepers who've had long careers in the Premier League, Friedel and Howard were outstanding at their peak. Brian McBride: one of Fulham's better players for a fairly long time, played as a striker alongside Louis Saha in the mid-2000s. Claudio Reyna: one of Man City's standout players in their time as a mid-tier club, before the oil money and waaay before the dominance we see now. Steve Cherundolo: probably the most underrated. Full-back who spent his entire 15 year career in the Bundesliga with Hannover 96, was club captain, and a mainstay of German top-flight football. He was so consistent and played at the top level for so long, when I went to look up his career, I was half-convinced he was still at Hannover.

You're a cowboys fan and a Spurs fan. no one can accuse you off being a glory hunter.

As an Englishman who’s team is Norwich City we are lucky to have a great American striker named Josh Sargent, the guy is currently on great form and scoring goals for fun. I’m quite positive he will turn out to be 🇺🇸 number one striker. He has impressive talent by far. He could even take us back to the premiership for next season as the playoffs beckon with the final at Wembley 🔰👍

Your editing is getting better Luke! Good job on this one!

Great video but it brought up some painful memories of November 19th 1989 when my team Trinidad and Tobago needed one point to make 1990 World Cup for first time but USA denied us by beating us 1 nil. I never cried at sporting event but i cried that day. I hated America and Americans for this. It took us 16yrs to make our first and only W/cup in 2006. Keep on learning and growing and love the Beautiful Game.

Very good video! Thanks to channels like yours and zealandon's I'm understanding the reasons why american sports are so focused on themselves and so isolated from the rest of the world by the way they work. To me, as an catalan football fan, I can't even imagine not having relegation or promotion. It is the base of the sport in itself. Clubs have academies, were they form and create new talent.

Very good point indeed that college systems could be a good basis for something akin to non-us sports leagues systems.

Please take your time and do the videos you like. We would love to see them

Women's football is the opposite of men's football all over the world, not just in the US. Football was seen as the men's game, and Women's football as unfemine. While the US created a collhe infrastructure, in the rest of the world there was a lack of interest. The US women's team competed against amateurs at world cups. Thus recently changed, but the game at large is still in its professional infancy.

You have to start with getting young kids interested in football. Parents, buy a football , and play with your kids in the yard when they are toddlers. Arrange informal games in the local park, using coats as goal posts, whether it's 4 a side, or 11 a side. Start a small Sunday league. Great oak trees grow from small acorns.

Growth of the USL league system will revolutionize American football system as it will bring a more impactful atmosphere for the community which can bring the whole country to a new level in football

If you want to break it down into one issue why the USMNT sucks then it's player development. Basically in every other country in the world, kids can go to a local club just around the corner and play soccer (almost) for free. All you need are shoes but if you're poor the small community clubs often give you shoes too. And these clubs develop the kids because they have a high incentive to do so, especially from age 12 upwards, due to the FIFA solidarity payment. Every club the player played for between age 12 - 23 get a percentage of 5% of ANY future transfer fee until the player ends his career. Miroslav Klose for example, the all-time World Cup scoring record holder, played for almost his entire youth for SG Blaubach, a small club that was in div 5 or lower for his entire history. They got 4.5% of the 15 million Bayern paid to Werder Bremen for Klose. This one single transfer financed their youth program for decades. The FIFA solidarity payment rules counts for the USA too but there are just no transfer fees being paid. Kids go to highschool, then to university and then to the MLS. If they make it to the MLS and doesn't have to get a normal job. And these kids have to fight for their spot in the youth academies. In Germany just 1 out of 450 kids that went to a youth academy make it into pro soccer. And pro soccer means division 1 - 3. 1 out of 350 will get a contract they can live from which includes many but not all players in division 4. And this just ins't the case in the USA. I won't say that players in the MLS don't have a competitive mindset but it's different to anywhere else in the world. The USA, Mexico and, for some extend, Japan are the only major countries in the world where soccer is pay to play. There just isn't a network of small clubs like somewhere else, which means kids have to by driven around by their (soccer) moms to be able to play. Which of course is expensive and just middle class families can afford. And their isn't a youth scouting system like anywhere else. If you want to get your kid into a better club, you have to make highlight videos yourself and send them to a scout. Who then demands a fee for forwarding the footage to his contacts. Poor families can't afford that. Development for kids is mostly done in private and for profite performance academies, which cost a ton of money. And again, the coaches and scouts at these academies demand money to get you in contact with teams. Even normal middle class families can't afford that without going into debt for their kids dream to become a pro soccer player. And then you'll need to pay for university if you don't get a scholarship. At the end most of the players that arrive in the MLS are (youn) men that had their way up to the MLS being paid by mom and dad. These kids are great athletes but lack the competitiveness and their tactical knowledge is mediocre compared to other countries. Soccer in other countries are better to be compared to the NFL or NBA, where kids from the ghetto can get into because there are a ton of scouts and other people that make a living from developing these kids and get them into pro sports. And there is also a lot of local pride involved that also brings money to institutions that develop players. Everyone knows the universities and highschools NFL and NBA players spend their youth at and schools advertise with it, which brings money to these schools. But who cares which highschool the average joe MLS player attended? No one does. And this won't change unless you implement a grassroots local club network where normal and poor kids can play too and the clubs/schools are rewarded for their player development but not just a few scouts and owner of performance academies.

I can tell you my story in regards to soccer/football. I'm an immigrant to US. Have been living here for almost 33 years. Soccer is the main sport in my native country, however, i also played and learned all the American sports and have developed a big appreciation for American football. However, there's just nothing like soccer, just nothing. It's not just a sport but a phenomenon that binds people across the entire world. It's pretty much like some sort of global language and global culture and a basis on which you can develop relationships with people in pretty much any part of the world. The only somewhat similar feeling i get from American sports is in college football. That's it. I don't bother following the NFL as it's just a corporation with it's group of subsidiaries playing in a completely closed off system. I understand your feelings support for the cowboys but it's also hard for me to convey to you completely how it feels to support a club from your own community that carries the essence of that community, the cultural nuances. It's like the club is part of the DNA of your community and you are a part of your club's DNA. Again, the only somewhat similar feeling I've found is in college football and that's because i went to a university with a very prominent football program. In fact, it's one of the top programs in the country. Anyway, my two cents.

Nice video 😊 happy to learn something new.

the fact that the Dallas Cowboys matches are watched by more pople in USA than the women's world cup is normal because it is the women's world championship plus each el clasico is watched by 150 to 225 million people, which is 2 times more than the super bowl for Americans who read this el clasico is the game between barcelona and real madrid

Don't forget Dana White is the man who gave the world Power slap 😂

His take on MLS is spot on. I was so excited to have a home team to support in St. Louis CITY SC, finally a town with such a deep history in assoc. football dating back to the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup in 1917 with St. Louis’ Stix, Baer and Fuller FC, STL Kutis FC and Saint Louis Simpkins-Ford and all played on a pitch i passed every day i walked to school… But MLS is all a Corporate Superleage franchise based system… ecch. St. louis CITY SC is a great team but closed to me simply because of ticket prices. I’d rather eat and enjoy a USL League 1 team but there are none here now, thanks to MLS.

the federal government can make push , If they start promoting the creation of local clubs for kids to compete in a local league, it starts with some funding , and then , when the community is involved in the clubs , the Gov leaves and let it take the natural path of growth , and then , when the kids start growing , the promotion of a second division , and later a third division of football , and a national federation system which replaces the MLS in function , the name may be the same , with promotion and demotion each years between leagues . and that is it .

Friday Night Lights!!! Pure form of community sports.

It’s funny you should say that in the U.S it’s often a case that the kids that couldn’t make it in other sports or were too weak ended up playing football (soccer) here in the U.K. it’s sort of the opposite most stories you hear are kids wanting to join their school football team but not being good enough, fast enough or technical enough so they drop into Rugby Now don’t get me wrong there are plenty of kids that grew up with a lot of love for sports outside of football and genuinely go into them because it’s their first love but I would say it’s incredibly rare in the U.K. to find someone that ended up playing football because they weren’t good at something like Rugby or Cricket, yet often you’ll come across Rugby and Cricket players with dreams in football they gave up on I think the U.S’s biggest issue in regards too football is from what it sounds like, is that you all start too late, in any other country in the world the chances are they have a ball at their feet shortly after they are able to walk, 6-8 years old is around the time kids start playing regular in some form, whether that’s at school on a lunch break in the playground, during P.E, after school as part of a training activity. It’s also the frequency, I don’t know about other countries (I suspect simile) but in the U.K. it is perfectly normal for a kid to turn up to school early, have a short kick about with their friends before the day starts, then have a game at lunch either on their playing fields, on the playground or anywhere there’s space to set up some form of a game, they might have a P.E class where they play that day depending on what sport they are doing that time of year, they then go home have dinner and go out with their friends to either play football in the street/in an alleyway, against a garage door/over in a local park or green space and they do this each week day, the weekend comes they watch their team play either at a game or on TV if it’s televised and they then might play football for a local team on the Sunday as part of “Sunday league football”. I don’t think the U.S has that culture and yet I would guess people in Spain, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, France and so on will all have very similar stories

7:40 Dude, you were going against us. Be thankful you got that far. Pd pμtos orientales!

I think it'd be good for you and the channel to react to videos about the history of football and how the original sport played in universities evolved and became Association Football, American Football, Rugby League and Rugby Union, which aren't exactly the same sport either. Also, you should watch more rugby if you want to see a really brutal and physical sport, even more than American Football, which is already very physical. Videos about the history of the sports could be very good content.

every professional player.. every footballer you see on tv.. has been playing continiously the game scince they were very little kids... DANA...

Zealand is a brilliant channel. He has another account called Zealandism where he just chats about a recent footballing story. Whether they are the sort you’d react to on the channel or not I don’t know but they’re great if you want to watch in your spare time

Landon Donovan was very good too, he was class, I always respected him and I'm from Barcelona.

*McKinney need to react to this too*

Bro you should start your own sport analysis, not just a reaction video. With those kind of smart thoughtful comments and analysis, I have no doubt your channel will be huge.

It really up to the individual athletes of what sport to pick. If you are a good all round athlete that could play anything well, it up to the coaches that the person listens too. Most of americans most talented male athletes will go to Track & Field, American Football, Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey, even thought their chance of making it to a professional level is very slim. It just the way of the american system funneling it's most potentially talented sports people into their home grown sports from a very early age. The American culture would have to change substantially so that Soccer is seen as the same standing as American Football, Baseball and Basketball, then Soccer could complete fairly for the most talented athletes that the other sport would also like him to play.

It's ironic and funny because we also used to condescendingly despise other sports like Gridiron (rugby with pads and no endurance) and basketball (no leg strength and no endurance) for the same reasons you gave for football. In any case, we've learned to respect other sports (by trying it) and to recognize their best qualities.

If you are planning a trip to Europe, will you be visiting England? If so you may want to visit the North. (You could check out MUFC, MCFC, Liverpool, Everton grounds etc). If you do, visit the peak District national park, only 20 miles east of Manchester. That's where I live, I always recommend foreign visitors to the UK come and see how beautiful it is here. But Americans always just flock to London. (Where most people aren't even British!)😂😢

I’m 46. I grew up in a part of Atlanta where soccer was huge. A guy from my neighborhood scored for the USA in the 2002 World Cup. In spite of that I was always given slack for being a soccer player.

The video from Zealand was really dope. I think the way out for the American Association Football to improve is to make it a desirable career, just like other sports are. In Brazil, football is the way out of poverty for many children and families. Thats also the case for the french living in Paris periphery who are from immigrant families. The same case can be seen in American Football (the eggball) or anyother american sports such as baseball and basketball. I think that must be the first focal point. The level people play in major league is due to the fact that for most, this is a matter of having a good life or not for them and their families. Just like basketball players see the possibility of going to college. There is no way an american kid will bet all in association football when the opportunity cost for it is to give up more secure options for their future (like american football, baseball, basketball or even try their luck academically). I think 26 american teams in the MLS is a job pool too small for being attractive. Specializing in one sport is a life bet.

Football aka Soccer is the most difficult sport it takes a God like talent to be a World Class player

Similar to England in the 2000s with Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard. I don’t mean the quality of the players, but how the managers, players and fans view football. Their culture have to learn that physicality, athleticism, hardwork and passion do not mean talent. Being direct is not better than being step by step and methodical.

I think the US Football team has come a long way since the team's of the 90's, as a nation, you take football more seriously now, once your domestic league attains a higher standard rather than being a place where ex-premier league stars can make a final buck your National Team will improve as you'll have more talent to draw from. Great video Luke. 👍🏻

In American throwball the worst side gets to choose the best players, that means teams at the bottom actually have an incentive to loose and there is no jeopardy for loosing sides in the form of a relegation. Football leagues are more competitive because the bad teams at the bottom still have something to play for.

As I'm English, I'm not a fan of American sports, I've Love our Football though, but like many Americans like don't watch out sport, I've never taken the time to look into your sports, so no-one is wrong, what we grow up with we love, I mean I am from Nottingham and all my family and I mean all are Nottingham Forest fans but me..... Well since I was 7 I am a Liverpool fan, oh it gets fun here sometimes😂

I play American football for my university down here in England , the pads do nothing , season ended 2 months ago and I still have some pains😂

"Pay To Play" to British people when it comes to football equates to chipping in for a minibus, or paying subs towards getting kit laundered. I honestly don't believe American soccer will have solid foundations until there is some sort of regionalised or national pyramid system with clubs providing coaching for young people. Leagues can be amature or semi-pro even, there are leagues and mini-pyramids all over the UK that are amature where players have full time jobs or are students. Private academies are not good, someone on YT has done a great video about similar problems in Australia.

Luke, in reality the United States could have been a world power in soccer if it had wanted to. It has everything, a large population that loves sports and money, but they didn't want to. In the 1930 Uruguay World Cup (the first in history) the United States came in 3rd place, not bad. big hug and greetings from uruguay!

There is kind of the same vibe in Finland towards football. Ice hockey is the number 1 sport, and football is considered girly sport and often laughed about, but it's much more closer to that 1a 1b scenario. Lot of immigrants play football here, but very few immigrants play ice hockey. There is some sort of hatred between the two fanbases. Football fans are attacking ice hockey because of fighting, and because football is the global number 1 sport and they feel it should be treated the same in Finland. While ice hockey fans laugh about flopping in football and call it kickball, but that is just hardcore fanbase. Many professional hockey and football players have played both sports, and chose in age of 15 or so which one they prefer.

Keep up the content!!!

25:55 never heard that to be honest, i hear the opposite, at least here in Italy, that it is just more violent Rugby and that people have to wear protection because it is too brutal.

Wow, so tough to wear helmets, and padding, unlike rugby. So tough to keep stopping and having a rest.

Argentinian here. The US national team right now is probably the strongest it's ever been, do pay attention to this year's Copa America. The video is very informative and so is your reaction. Good job!

Brad Friedel and Roy Wegerle both played for my team Blackburn Rovers. Wegerle had a touch of class and could score some beautiful goals and Friedel is the best keeper I've ever seen playing for the Rovers. Some of the saves he pulled off seemed almost impossible and he could guarantee at least 10 points a season from his saves.

In the small town I live in we have 4 men’s sides and from u6-u18 the men’s first team is in step 6 of the football pyramid in England

The secret of football is its simplicity, you don't need anything, just a ball, if there are two of you, you can play practically anywhere. Nevertheless, to play at a high level, you need outstanding talent and physique. An area as big as a football field is eaten up in 90 minutes, it is no coincidence that the performance of most players drops drastically after the age of 32-33, while you can play basketball and ice hockey at a high level around the age of 40. Despite this, it's still attractive because you don't need big sizes and you don't have to be 2 meters tall and 100 kilograms to be good. Therefore, soccer has no competition among sports in the world, there is no need to argue about it.

My entire college thesis was basically about Title IX and the gender and racial politics of soccer in the US in the 1990s.

I think American football and football are both amazing sports. I grew up in Europe, that's why I have a football obsession. But when I started to get into American football I recognized that the surface level criticism you mentioned indeed exists here. I think both sports have their elements which make them unique and to hate them just because it's not a part of your culture is just stupid. So being open amongst new things does really help you and I'm so happy that I discovered the world of American sports

The single most important factor is the MSL's closed league system, which removes any real urgency to win. Everywhere else, the danger of relegation to a lower (and less lucrative) league makes every goal and every league point crucial, as even a single goal not scored could see the team missing out on a title, or qualification for international tournaments, or relegated with a large loss of club income, and players being let go because they can no longer be afforded. Similarly, the rewards for promotion are huge: my own club team (Leyton Orient) have moved between England's first and fifth tiers in my lifetime (currently holding their own in the third) - this generates extreme engagement and passion in supporters. I have watched US league soccer: it looks like a training exercise when all the coaches are absent - no urgency, no passion, no great exertion. Until this changes, the USA will not generate a large enough pool of skilled home-based players to form a credible national side - the few good USA players playing in overseas teams cannot carry all the load.

In England netball (basketball) and rounders (baseball) are girls games

In every American city there are poor kids playing basketball in pick up games. Soccer doesn't want them. Soccer makes money from suburban soccer moms and their daughters and sons. Soccer moms like US soccer the way it is. But if you ever got the kids who go in to the NFL and especially the NBA, playing soccer you'd be invincible.

Even though I am English (in England) I knew that title 9 from 1972 was the major factor for the progression of Female football (The World Game) in The U.S. That is why they became World Champions. Coming back to your grid iron game ... Around 1880 the English Upper Class game of Rugby Union was brough to the U.S. and Canadian Colleges. You played that game of Rugby Union ... however over some 20 years you changed the rules of play and turned it into your grid iron game! The English Upper Class snobs called it "Rhaggah" At the same time, The World Game of FOOTBALL came to North America as well ... yet it was NOT just The English Upper Classes bringing to your Collages nick naming it as "Soccer" as the governing body was called The FOOTBALL Association = soccer By that time the working class from Europe and Central - South America came to North America playing The World Game of FOOTBALL.

Also, you should compare women’s NFL to women’s world cup. Also, who is watching those NFL games? Is it only US fans or also includes non US?

Early college football likely looked *something* like Rugby Union, he’s a bit off on that one

It's tough with America - I think it would be possible but there wouldn't be the willingness to completely rewrite the structure to closer match what happens elsewhere in the world, though I think a blended approach could be functional: MLS owners wouldn't ever feel that it's worth allowing relegation, but I believe USSF could introduce that from USL downwards (USL is already considering it within their own leagues), and create a proper pyramid - due to the size of the country, keeping geographic conferences makes sense, I'd put one relegation spot in each conference, and one promotion spot in the league below - and extend that going down, splitting relegation with regional leagues etc to fully link up each state and region's leagues that already exist Again it probably won't happen, but this would be the most functional way of it becoming more like the rest of the world

The problem is the culture, the culture is different in USA than Europe or Latin America ✌️

i have a question tho: if the "armor" in NFL doesn't really "protect" from the impact and also lead to some injuries being even worse, why wearing it then?

Pleaaaase do a video on US soccer players in Europe history. It’s your prime subject - esp ahead of the upcoming World Cup. Our team is different now

Turkey, although plays in the European confederation is geographically situated in West Asia and finished in 3rd place at the 2002 World Cup, so you could say that the USA is not the only team outside of Europe and Sth. America to finish third in a World Cup.

Were. And, frankly, rightfully so. As stated here. Now? The rest of the world started to heavily invest in the game. But because they had the foundation in place to make use of that investment they've not only caught up, but have more than started to surpass the US. In time, I suspect the gap will increase. But I really would love to see the US men become a genuine top ten nation. It'd be great for the world game.

Have you ever thought about having a podcast where you and others talk about soccer and other sports.

I'm Scottish. I and all of my friends played football every chance we could get. We arrived early at primary school to play football in the playground. At weekends we played formal amateur club or school matches, went to watch professional or semi-professional games at all levels, from village teams all the way up to internationals. We played bounce games at the local park until it got dark. It would start with maybe three against three with jackets for goalpost, then more people would arrive and join in until the game moved to a full sized pitch, often ending with more than eleven a side. When there was no one around to play with, we'd practice skills by hitting a ball against a wall or garage door. Football was in our blood in Scotland. You can't replicate that America, not in 50 years at any rate. If you expect to win at the elite level any time soon, you're kidding yourselves. Play, compete, lose, learn and enjoy the process. Stop expecting the moon on a stick because you're a big country. Take your wins when you get them, but accept your losses too. That's how you progress - organically, not by spending millions of dollars on it and expecting to be world-beaters tomorrow.