speed is irrelevant in soccer

frederic38

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here is usain bolt, world's fastest man playing soccer:

[video=youtube_share;9IkUgZi8SOQ]http://youtu.be/9IkUgZi8SOQ[/video]

he said that after his athletics career he would like to be a professional soccer player

like you can see in the video, being fast is useless in soccer
 

davidholly

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Being fast has its advantages but it means nothing if you can't properly manage a ball.
 

MilanClass

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Speed is useful....BUT you have to have the brains and skill to know how and when to use that speed. Arjen Robben and Gareth Bale are the perfect examples. They know how to use their skill along with their amazing speed.

By the way, the Jamaican sprinting football team has two World Cup Qualifiers coming up soon against a mostly white U.S. team. I think I might put some money on these games if the U.S. fields a mostly white starting lineup
 

frederic38

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Speed is useful....BUT you have to have the brains and skill to know how and when to use that speed. Arjen Robben and Gareth Bale are the perfect examples. They know how to use their skill along with their amazing speed.

there are 3 kind of "fast" players:

-the ones that have close to 0 skills (for some of them you can't even notice that they are fast, because they can't keep the ball under control so they never seem to be fast: see for example the video of usain bolt posted here)

-the ones that have the skills to match more or less their speed, like for example walcott althought he's not very skilled, that's still better than other sprinters
but these have mind slower than their body so what they might do is useless

-the ones that have speed, skills, and a quick enough mind


i heard it from top french trainers
and here is a video of schevchenko scouting with the one that discovered him: http://youtu.be/z4Ut4J7qZH8
notice that the only time they mention speed that's something to belittle the importance of speed
 
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frederic38

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something which shows how speed is really useless and shouldn't be measured: a few months ago i saw this study about the fastest players in the premier league (it was advertised as "the fastest players in the world", but these kind of rankings exist only in england, maybe in the USA, in france too - we don't have any stats on speed but the coaches care a lot about speed)

http://www.ftbpro.com/posts/ian.stewart.palmer/41536/the-premier-league-s-10-fastest-players

walcott first, but then sol campbell second :icon_confused:

then in the top 10 you have cesc fabregas

i watched the euro champs final with arsene wenger as a commentator
then there was this goal:

Andres Iniesta cuts Italy apart with an inch-perfect ball through, Cesc Fabregas beats Giorgio Chiellini to the byeline and cuts back a perfect cross to allow David Silva to head in from six yards. Brilliant and thoroughly deserved.

wenger said that chiellini was obviously injuried because there was no way cesc fabregas could get passed him based on speed because he said fabregas was not a fast player (and fabregas is one of his favourites players, he knows him very well since he was his coach at arsenal)

and he was right because chiellini was injuried and he was subsitited early in the game
 

frederic38

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Alex Ferguson wants Usain Bolt to play in charity match between Man Utd and Real Madrid legends

150723626.jpg


http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/socce...n-bolt-play-charity-match-042040854--sow.html

in football the most important things are the ability to accelerate with the ball, which is because of coordination, skills and power
pato has an unreal ability to accelerate with the ball at his feet
messi too

in a few touches these guys are at full speed
players like adebayor or other similar players are never at full speed because they don't manage to keep the ball under control (like bolt in the video)

then ofcourse there are the things related to intelligence like tactical awareness, ect
 
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Zeus

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I do not fully agree.
If you can combine skill with speed, then you make a perfect player ala Christiano Ronaldo!
Speed alone is useless in pretty much every sport, excluding sprinting of course and specific positions in American Football and Rugby!

But skill alone is useless in most sports. In today's sports, if you are not willing to be athletic and work hard, talent alone won't lead you anywhere!
 

frederic38

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I do not fully agree.
If you can combine skill with speed, then you make a perfect player ala Christiano Ronaldo!
Speed alone is useless in pretty much every sport, excluding sprinting of course and specific positions in American Football and Rugby!

But skill alone is useless in most sports. In today's sports, if you are not willing to be athletic and work hard, talent alone won't lead you anywhere!

in soccer what matters is very short "sprints", or more precisely turns
what matters is changing direction very quickly
mantaining the speed or trying to run at top speed is useless
also when you play football you are closer to the ground , you don't run standing up like you would do in a sprint

cristiano is a total athlete, i believe that he could have been a sprinter
but he's not the "fastest" player out there, yet he's the best (with messi and a few others)
also cristiano has great stamina ect, something that is very important in soccer (it used to be the most important thing, back then the "cooper test" was used, and only that test, no test for speed)
what ronaldo also has is an ability to play 60 games per season whithout getting injuried, it's a huge aspect of what a player has to do in order to be one of the bests

so when they measure the top speed of players they don't measure the quality of the player ofcourse, but they don't even measure the athletic abilities of the player, because ronaldo is the most athletic player yet there are some bums ahead of him in those speed rankings

here is an interesting video on ronaldo and they compare speed in straight line and zig-zag speed:

[video=youtube_share;v9-hC0XwubI]http://youtu.be/v9-hC0XwubI[/video]

here is the full video of all the test on ronaldo: http://youtu.be/BeNLd68TTsM
 

Matra2

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I'd heard about Big Soccer so I went over there to have a look. The first thread I looked at was about the decline of the US team (USMNT Decline in Recent Years? in the USA Men section) and it contained this astonishingly stupid remark by a poster. ("LD10" is Landon Donovon, "Demp" is Clint Dempsey, and "BB" is former coach Bob Bradley).

LD10 gotten worse
Demp is getting older
We no longer have the speed we used to have
the region is much stronger
No one can create for anyone and we confuse at what style should we play.

I seen this coming. BB constantly overachieved but his team's play was limited to how far can we go.
People want a contender, that's only possible via Freddy Adu and no one else. I tried to tell you guys but Adu is the only way we will have a shot at a cup. He is one of the best creators in the world and our personnel is a great fit for him.

Without Adu, I see us regressing. We don't really have good skill, our size isn't that great anymore and our speed has dropped from top 3-5 in the world to top 15 which is huge for us. We are still very fast but not elite like we were in 2006. No one to create for others. Just boring football with a bunch of hard workers but creating nothing in the process. BB long ball strategy worked till we lost our speed demons like LD10, Beas, EJ to age or regression. We don't have someone like Ching or McBride anymore either.

The US is going down unless they build around Adu.

This is so idiotic I thought it was ironic trolling. It seems the poster is serious!
 

John

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Speed is very important for full-backs and wingers - they are the most athletic footballers. A great winger is one with speed and technique. A lot of full-backs today such as Spain's Jordi Alba weren't good enough to be wingers, so they've been converted into defenders.

But for central defenders, central midfielders, and old-fashioned goal-poachers athleticism is not as important as skill and mentality. That's why players like Pirlo and Alonso thrive.

As has been discussed here, football is a White-dominated sport, and there is no shortage of highly athletic White footballers. Modern football today seeks well-rounded players that are athletic, skillful, and hard-working.

Here's France's pacy and skillful winger Jeremy Menez out-smarting and out-running a typical Black defender:

[video=youtube;Eg2B9khiSUE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg2B9khiSUE[/video]
 
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frederic38

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As has been discussed here, football is a White-dominated sport, and there is no shortage of highly athletic White footballers. Modern football today seeks well-rounded players that are athletic, skillful, and hard-working.

ibrahimowicz is very athletic for example:

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...3x403/419308_430278907009616_1020052422_n.jpg

http://taha-base.voila.net/ibra.jpg

there are many very athletic white players, some of them are very fast, but still i believe that speed is way over-rated in soccer
 

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frederic38

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Just saw this article with video of Christiano Ronaldo sprinting 96 meters in just over 10 seconds on a counter strike. Here's probably the best example of good use of speed in soccer.

http://www.givemefootball.com/european-news/cristiano-ronaldo-rivals-sprint-king-usain-bolt-wi

As others have mentioned, there is no doubt Ronaldo could have been a world class sprinter if he chose that as his discipline.

impressive considering that he has 0 sprinting technique (soccer players run differently: http://youtu.be/v9-hC0XwubI?t=5m11s because sprinting is useless in soccer 99% of the time )
 

Matra2

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"Mata is good but he’s too small. Rooney’s good but he plays a bit slow, and as a midfielder you’ve got to really move quickly

Then with an unlimited supply of big speedy guys Jamaica must have a great footballing history:

[video=youtube;4dn4t_p1O0Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dn4t_p1O0Q[/video]
 

frederic38

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also there was another list of the fastest players with the ball at their feet recently, bale was first so one could believe that it actually means something, but then there were defenders in the top 10, sergio ramos was even 2nd or 3rd i think
 

davidholly

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I wonder if Bolt just runs his mouth to stay relevant in between Olympics. The Olympics are all he has after all.
 
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also there was another list of the fastest players with the ball at their feet recently, bale was first so one could believe that it actually means something, but then there were defenders in the top 10, sergio ramos was even 2nd or 3rd i think


Robben holds the record for the fastest sprint in a football game,right?From this goal back in the World Cup:


icAaNCKdGxgX5.gif



ibs3N1XVNsYchu.jpg



Lol,funny you mentioned Ramos.
 

frederic38

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robben wasn't even the fastest player at the world cup (because ofcourse they record the speed of the players at the world cup :icon_rolleyes:)
if i remember correctly the fastest of the world cup was an unknown player from costa rica
more proof that speed is irrelevant
 
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robben wasn't even the fastest player at the world cup (because ofcourse they record the speed of the players at the world cup :icon_rolleyes:)
if i remember correctly the fastest of the world cup was an unknown player from costa rica
more proof that speed is irrelevant


Its confusing actually.This source names Junior Diaz,an obscure Costa Rican as you rightly mentioned was the fastest player in the WC:

Running Magazine:

Well, the fastest player of the entire tournament was Costa Rica’s Junior Diaz, a defender who was clocked at a blazing 33.8 km/h, or 9.4 m/s.

However this article from the Daily Mail claims the Robben sprint for the goal I posted was the fastest in a

[h=1]Arjen Robben is the fastest footballer in the world after rapid sprint for Holland against Spain at World Cup 2014[/h]
Arjen Robben looked as if he was embarrassing Sergio Ramos when beating the hapless Spaniard in a straight foot race as Holland humiliated the world champions.

The Real Madrid defender was left trailing in his wake as Robben stormed through; it appeared Ramos was leggy, only for FIFA statistics to later reveal that the 37km per hour sprint was the fastest ever recorded by a footballer.

And they dish out these statistics:

[h=3]THE TOP EIGHT SPRINTERS IN WORLD FOOTBALL[/h]Arjen Robben: 37 km/h, Theo Walcott 35.7, Antonio Valencia 35.2, Gareth Bale 34.7, Aaron Lennon 33.8, Cristiano Ronaldo 33.6, Lionel Messi 32.5, Wayne Rooney 32.1


And most confusingly,another article written just three days later in the very same Daily Mail after the above one claims that Darijo Srna broke Robben's record:

[h=1]Darijo Srna beats Arjen Robben in the sprint stakes as he records a 20mph dash to become the world's fastest footballer[/h]
While Robben recorded an impressive top speed of 19.3mph, Srna beat the Dutch wing wizard with a sprint that would leave him a whole two kilometres further forward if recorded over an hour-long run, hitting 20.5mph.



I think that the while the Costa Rican was indeed the fastest "runner",Robben and Srna's sprint was with the ball.I can't imagine a black running above 20 kmph with the ball at his feet and losing control of it.
 

frederic38

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yes i remember those articles
robben wasn't the fastest in the world, but the fastest in the world cup
and he did that in the opening match
in the matches after that, many players were faster, and by the end of the groupstages i think that the ivorian defender serge aurier was the fastest
and then by the end of the tournament the fastest was the costa rica defender
they need to stop keeping track of the top speed like that because it's obviously useless
 
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yes i remember those articles
robben wasn't the fastest in the world, but the fastest in the world cup
and he did that in the opening match
in the matches after that, many players were faster, and by the end of the groupstages i think that the ivorian defender serge aurier was the fastest
and then by the end of the tournament the fastest was the costa rica defender
they need to stop keeping track of the top speed like that because it's obviously useless

Again,I doubt those blacks could really control the ball at those speeds.Impossible,what with them being endowed with the first touch of a duck wearing a trash can for a boot.
 
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