Question for World Cup aficionados

[DeusxMac]

Do these World Cup national teams represent ALL the best players from their respective countries, or only some of them?

I ask because I know there are professional teams/leagues competing concurrently all over the world.

[space-time]

Each countries selects their best players. I guess it is up to the coach to make the selection, but it may vary from country to country.

[davester]

What space-time said. Also note that for the professional teams, the players go wherever the money is. For example, there are players from all over the world playing on teams that play within the English Premier League. However, when it comes to the world cup, those players play for their home countries, not for England (unless they're English). There is a twist though... players are entitled to play for their country of origin, parents (generally, family) origin, or citizenship, meaning that they could potentially choose one of three countries (though this is rare). This is part of what makes the World Cup so great IMHO.

[DeusxMac]

So then the teams playing non-World Cup professional matches now may well NOT have their best players on the field because some (or all) are off at the World Cup?

And as a result their league win/loss record during the World Cup could well be worse than during the rest of the season?

[space-time]

I don't think there is any national championships going on now. Usually in Europe they have a season in the fall and one in the spring. There is a long Summer break for World Cups (every 2 years) and European Cups (every 4 years, 2 years offset from WC). I believe Americas (North and South) also have a continental cup, IIRC in 2014 it was at the same time with the European cup.


If you see "non-World Cup professional matches" they are probably for training, friendly games, fundraising for charities, etc. They are not championship games, at least not at this time when the best players are at WC.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

[Pat]

Other than MLS, most league schedules are planned around international competition. The various associations are required by FIFA to release players to participate on national teams even during regular league play for qualifiers etc.

[Ombligo]

In baseball terms, think of the world cup as a prolonged All-Star Break.

I've never understood the Soccer is boring mentality - it is two 45-minute halves with essentially no breaks (maybe 2-3 minutes per half). Compare that to American football - 60 minutes spread over three hours; hockey - three 20-minute periods with 15 minute breaks; baseball can go on an indeterminute amount of time with minutes between batters. Basketball may come closest with four 12 minute quarters with a 15 minute half time.

Americans tend to associate high scores with excitement. Yet baseball or hockey will often have scores of 1-0 and is considered exciting. Football games the system with a single score being worth up to seven points, so a 21-7 game is actually 3-1.

Part of the problem with American Soccer is our youth programs are too structured. Soccer became popular throughout the world because all you need is a ball. Here in the states that turned into youth leagues with shoes, shin guards, nets, refs, and new rules. Now we have youth leagues that don't keep score, won't allow goalkeepers and limit skills. Consequently, we have failed to develop a quality feeder program. Our teams are second rate. Americans won't embrace a sport that we can't control (beyond soccer, look at F1 racing versus NASCAR or Indy).

[Lew Zealand]

Generally by the 8 year old stage, players in American youth soccer leagues play positions including goalie, keep score, and generally hew to international rules with logical exceptions for match duration, field size, and no headers and a few more. My referee handbook is from FIFA, with those adjustments delineated in the front.

I'm sure there are other leagues which delay the application of these standards to older age groups but in reality, there's more $ in basketball, football, baseball, so there is a significant talent drain at those ages to the embedded money sports in the US.

[davester]

Ombligo wrote:
I've never understood the Soccer is boring mentality

Kind of a ridiculous idea considering that it is the most watched and most played game in the world, by a long shot. I'm convinced that the "soccer is boring" meme is something created by american professional sports leagues and TV networks to keep it from overtaking american football. After all, american football has so little actual ball-in-play time (average of 11 minutes per 3 hour game) that they can pack in tons of commercials...they've even changed the rules over time to allow even more commercial breaks. In comparison, soccer has almost no time for commercials...one brief half-time break and that is it.