Brazil: Interesting read before the England v. Brazil match

Great article about how football is valued as a way of life in Brazil. Also, a way to escape poverty, beautiful free flowing football that mesmorizes fans around the world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/footbal ... 700897.stm

 

RE: Brazil: Interesting read before the England v. Brazil ma

Good article, it is not a surprise that a decline in a countries sport comes when the majority of the population live above the poverty line.

In the UK we are being selfish by trying to clean and mend inner city slums. We need to plunge areas such a Manchester and Liverpool back into the dark ages so that we can once again be a great sporting nation. A Shanty town drifting from Leeds up to Newcastle should give us our next Bobby Moore. Not sure how the bleeding hearts would see it but....

 

RE: Brazil: Interesting read before the England v. Brazil ma

Toxeth gave the mighty reds Robbie Fowler. So, you just might be onto something there.

 

RE: Brazil: Interesting read before the England v. Brazil ma

Shouldn't be too surprising of a relevation considering most of our professional NBA players and the like come from impoverished areas of the country.

Not often do you hear about the new Michael Jordon coming straight out of The Hamptons.

 

I also believe that the youth systems in place all around the world are far superior to the United States high school and college athletic programs. Kids that show promise at a young age are allowed to attend academies that focus their attention on their respective sport and facilitate their studies as well. The kids are around top class coaches and train with professionals and reserves as well.

The college and high school programs in America set back the development of these talents at vital stages in an athlete's development. Simply playing and training for a sport 4-5 months out of the year won't cut it to reach the top level.

 

So much for some off the cuff sarcasm! I think the US model is looked on with envy over here. People like Luke Donald went to a golfing uni and so on. The UK system for football only works because we have 92 professional clubs concentrated in a fairly small area with a network of talent scouts. The UK is working hard at removing all school playing fields and cutting out time spent playing sport, while complaining that our kids are fat and lazy.

The US is competitive in all the major sports that have some mainstream appeal. This is surly a good endorsement of the current system?

 

Agreed I wouldn't trade our system for any other.

 

True they do get to play year round, but are you saying that our athletes in reference to football are on the same level or as prepared as our european counterpart? You would have to be mental.

I am not saying scrap our program, but the academy program have the top youth coaches and staff available while here you may have someone's dad as a coach of a AAU coach. Hmmmm...same level of training and instruction. Of course there is training year around here, but the emphasis and importance placed on the training is a far cry from Europe.