[rottenapple]

(10-11-2017 10:18 AM)Rossi Wrote:  

(10-11-2017 09:57 AM)rottenapple Wrote:  

As far as I know, football is also the nr.1 sport in Russia. They just have bad youth policy and teams buy too many foreigners. The same with Turkey for instance, one of the most football crazy countries in the world, but they have shitty policies.

Hockey is number 1 sport in Russia.

As for Turkey, Turkish league is the most expensive 6th league in the world but they can't grow any players because their youth system sucks so bad. 2nd division Turkish teams have brand new stadiums that are much better than Roma, Napoli, Fiorentina's stadiums.

Nope, soccer is definitely most popular sport in Russia. Based on the fact that everyone can play it at any time. Hockey is very popular, mostly for watching, but ask any Russian and they will say overall soccer is more important, most watched and most played. However, Russia is not so good in soccer so they will say that their national sport is hockey or whatever.

Agreed with the above analysis of culture and youth education. That is however, for the US to become a major power in soccer. What I meant is more directed to the fact that culture is not an excuse to not qualify for the World Cup in the already weak CONCACAF. With just a better youth setup, for a country as the US, qualifying should never be a problem.

To get to the level of the top countries, yes that will take a lot more.