no soccer pros in ufc events...

Don't trust wikipedia on everything. A football player averages about 10 kilometers of distance covered during the 90 minute game, and "rest" is walking or running slowly, there is no sitting on the bench after every offensive or defensive phase and drinking gatorade, waiting for the coach to send you in. Some players even cover 12-13 kilometers per game on average, and a lot of it at high pace. Also, a lot of time you fight for the ball and having 2 players on your back can drain your energy as well. There is lot of left-right movement, turning, changing direction fast at full speed etc.

Total football is mostly a joke if you don't have a specific type of player. Now, I'm not saying those players have to be the same and have the same style of play, but they have to be absolutely amazing and more importantly, incredibly consistent. Cruyff is one of the top 5 of all time, and any serious journalist and real football expert that has watched thousands and thousands of whole games and not just youtube clips will agree on this. His football intelligence, agility, speed, dribbling skill and masterful technique are something not often seen, and what makes him an all-time top 5 player is the fact that he was able to demonstrate this almost every game and he lasted on a very high level for a long time. In other words, team was built around him. Now, the only reason Spanish national team had such great success was Xavi. Yes, other players were here too, but he was the backbone of the team.

Now, so called journalists call him a playmaker, which is incorrect. He is a retainer. His unique physical attribute, that is the ability to change direction and be so light on his feet while avoiding physical duels with most players was second to none. That combined with his passing accuracy and the fact that he was constantly moving and was 99% of the time free to receive the ball, made him a serious threat. Any player in his team was able to count 99% of the time that Xavi was free and if he passed him the ball, the team won't lose possession. Both in Barcelona and in the national team, there were offensive phases where ball would return to Xavi 20-30 times before the team would even get close to the opposing team's box. Now, that kind of ball possession doesn't really do anything, but it drives even the most disciplined teams crazy and more prone to make a mistake, which often happened after 20-30 passes and Xavi was excellent at knowing when the mistake was about to happen and would execute a deadly pass as soon as the opening was created. More often than not, when you have guys like Messi, Eto'o, Villa or Henry, they will get a chance to score. Physically he wasn't a great specimen at first look, but his endurance, agility, ability to know what to do with the ball and have such great awareness of what's going on and how every single player is moving even before he received the ball made him extremely dangerous. And of course, half of the Spanish national team was from Barcelona and most of other national teams are not that coordinated.

The problem with total football is that it's a utopian idea, because a player around which you can make a team is not born that often, they are very few and far between + if they get injured or lack consistency, you will not be successful. Football is a very physical game, especially in England where even the last team on the table has absolutely zero respect for big names and big teams, they play with no fear and they play to win.

It is absolutely true that the lack of physical fitness can be to a degree compensated by technique, but this is really only the case in short cup format tournaments like national cups, world or European championships. There one team can be very inspired, get a bit lucky and really just have great performances and good days. This can happen when we're talking about 6-7 games, but it doesn't work in a 38 game season, and that's only the national championship, excluding cups, European club competitions and games for the national team. That's why any serious coach favors disciplined players, because in the long run that's the way you win trophies.

Perhaps the best example of a player lacking discipline is Roberto Baggio. An incredibly talented player, "one man against the world" type of guy. A player like that is amazing to have in a world cup, because he has balls to try anything and the skills that go with that. In a maximum 7 game tournament, this can be great, but in a 38 games league this is not the way you want to play. That's why Baggio had his best games in relatively small clubs, although he played for all the great Italian teams at the time when Italian league was by far the best in the world. On the other hand, a player like Alessandro Del Piero was only getting better with age. He could never do on the national team level what Baggio could, but he was way more disciplined and suited for rigorous requirements of a highly structured plan of any coach to win the league. That's why Del Piero had some of his best seasons when he was already approaching his mid thirties. His free kicks were getting better, he needed less and less chances to score and he was able to elevate the whole team to a different level. That's a good comparison when it comes to overall discipline.

Nowadays football players are very fit and no serious team tolerates players who are out of shape, so I can't really find a recent example of this. I can find a bit older one. Robert Prosinecki was one of the best young players in the world back in the late 1980s. He won the youth world championship, I believe in the 1990. he was voted the best young player in the world cup and shortly after that won the European cup(now called the Champions league) with Crvena Zvezda Belgrade, which is something almost impossible nowadays. Anyway, his technique and dribbling abilities were absolutely masterful and his ability to shoot from long distances with both feet was also amazing. However, he smoked 3-4 packs of cigarettes a day and except in his early 20s, he was never again in a shape he was supposed to be in. He was a spectacular player and produced some all-time moments and goals with his technique, but although he played for both Barcelona and Real Madrid, he was never able to become a standard starting 11 player in those teams due to his lack of discipline and his best games post Crvena Zvezda were in Oviedo, Sevilla(which then wasn't as good of a team that it's been for the last 10 years or so) and Portsmouth. On the other hand, you had players like Didier Deschamps and Gennaro Gattuso that could not reach Prosinecki's skill level if they lived 3-4 lifetimes, but both have way more decorated careers and were in starting 11 of some glorious teams and played vital roles. It was because of their conditioning, discipline and consistency.

{<redford}
 
Don't trust wikipedia on everything. A football player averages about 10 kilometers of distance covered during the 90 minute game, and "rest" is walking or running slowly, there is no sitting on the bench after every offensive or defensive phase and drinking gatorade, waiting for the coach to send you in. Some players even cover 12-13 kilometers per game on average, and a lot of it at high pace. Also, a lot of time you fight for the ball and having 2 players on your back can drain your energy as well. There is lot of left-right movement, turning, changing direction fast at full speed etc.

Total football is mostly a joke if you don't have a specific type of player. Now, I'm not saying those players have to be the same and have the same style of play, but they have to be absolutely amazing and more importantly, incredibly consistent. Cruyff is one of the top 5 of all time, and any serious journalist and real football expert that has watched thousands and thousands of whole games and not just youtube clips will agree on this. His football intelligence, agility, speed, dribbling skill and masterful technique are something not often seen, and what makes him an all-time top 5 player is the fact that he was able to demonstrate this almost every game and he lasted on a very high level for a long time. In other words, team was built around him. Now, the only reason Spanish national team had such great success was Xavi. Yes, other players were here too, but he was the backbone of the team.

Now, so called journalists call him a playmaker, which is incorrect. He is a retainer. His unique physical attribute, that is the ability to change direction and be so light on his feet while avoiding physical duels with most players was second to none. That combined with his passing accuracy and the fact that he was constantly moving and was 99% of the time free to receive the ball, made him a serious threat. Any player in his team was able to count 99% of the time that Xavi was free and if he passed him the ball, the team won't lose possession. Both in Barcelona and in the national team, there were offensive phases where ball would return to Xavi 20-30 times before the team would even get close to the opposing team's box. Now, that kind of ball possession doesn't really do anything, but it drives even the most disciplined teams crazy and more prone to make a mistake, which often happened after 20-30 passes and Xavi was excellent at knowing when the mistake was about to happen and would execute a deadly pass as soon as the opening was created. More often than not, when you have guys like Messi, Eto'o, Villa or Henry, they will get a chance to score. Physically he wasn't a great specimen at first look, but his endurance, agility, ability to know what to do with the ball and have such great awareness of what's going on and how every single player is moving even before he received the ball made him extremely dangerous. And of course, half of the Spanish national team was from Barcelona and most of other national teams are not that coordinated.

The problem with total football is that it's a utopian idea, because a player around which you can make a team is not born that often, they are very few and far between + if they get injured or lack consistency, you will not be successful. Football is a very physical game, especially in England where even the last team on the table has absolutely zero respect for big names and big teams, they play with no fear and they play to win.

It is absolutely true that the lack of physical fitness can be to a degree compensated by technique, but this is really only the case in short cup format tournaments like national cups, world or European championships. There one team can be very inspired, get a bit lucky and really just have great performances and good days. This can happen when we're talking about 6-7 games, but it doesn't work in a 38 game season, and that's only the national championship, excluding cups, European club competitions and games for the national team. That's why any serious coach favors disciplined players, because in the long run that's the way you win trophies.

Perhaps the best example of a player lacking discipline is Roberto Baggio. An incredibly talented player, "one man against the world" type of guy. A player like that is amazing to have in a world cup, because he has balls to try anything and the skills that go with that. In a maximum 7 game tournament, this can be great, but in a 38 games league this is not the way you want to play. That's why Baggio had his best games in relatively small clubs, although he played for all the great Italian teams at the time when Italian league was by far the best in the world. On the other hand, a player like Alessandro Del Piero was only getting better with age. He could never do on the national team level what Baggio could, but he was way more disciplined and suited for rigorous requirements of a highly structured plan of any coach to win the league. That's why Del Piero had some of his best seasons when he was already approaching his mid thirties. His free kicks were getting better, he needed less and less chances to score and he was able to elevate the whole team to a different level. That's a good comparison when it comes to overall discipline.

Nowadays football players are very fit and no serious team tolerates players who are out of shape, so I can't really find a recent example of this. I can find a bit older one. Robert Prosinecki was one of the best young players in the world back in the late 1980s. He won the youth world championship, I believe in the 1990. he was voted the best young player in the world cup and shortly after that won the European cup(now called the Champions league) with Crvena Zvezda Belgrade, which is something almost impossible nowadays. Anyway, his technique and dribbling abilities were absolutely masterful and his ability to shoot from long distances with both feet was also amazing. However, he smoked 3-4 packs of cigarettes a day and except in his early 20s, he was never again in a shape he was supposed to be in. He was a spectacular player and produced some all-time moments and goals with his technique, but although he played for both Barcelona and Real Madrid, he was never able to become a standard starting 11 player in those teams due to his lack of discipline and his best games post Crvena Zvezda were in Oviedo, Sevilla(which then wasn't as good of a team that it's been for the last 10 years or so) and Portsmouth. On the other hand, you had players like Didier Deschamps and Gennaro Gattuso that could not reach Prosinecki's skill level if they lived 3-4 lifetimes, but both have way more decorated careers and were in starting 11 of some glorious teams and played vital roles. It was because of their conditioning, discipline and consistency.

I know Wikipedia isn't the source of Everything but it can give a noob some information.

I don't agree total football is about 1 superb player. Feyenoord won the European and World title playing total football in 1970. They didn't have a superstar, they had 4 or 5 superb players.
When Ajax won those titles in the 90's they had good players but not 1 superstar.
Ajax was so good because they were well disciplined. Not because they had the best athletes.
 
You dumb muthafucka really think long distance runners for example are not insanely athletic? I mean REALLY? The fuck outta here widdat bullshit, hombre

Long distance runners are way more athletic then soccer players. Those runners spend a lot of time on core stability. I think a good core is the base of an athletic body.
 
I know Wikipedia isn't the source of Everything but it can give a noob some information.

I don't agree total football is about 1 superb player. Feyenoord won the European and World title playing total football in 1970. They didn't have a superstar, they had 4 or 5 superb players.
When Ajax won those titles in the 90's they had good players but not 1 superstar.
Ajax was so good because they were well disciplined. Not because they had the best athletes.

That's correct to a degree, but without Cruyff all that collapses. As far as Feyenoord goes, the concept of total football was still relatively new back then and the opposing teems needed some times to adapt. Total football can very easily be countered by teams that play strong defensively and are physically tough and try to make their opponents fall into that trap when they bring the game to a stalemate. For countering rigorous defensive and physically powerful teams, you need players like Maradona, Ronaldo(Brazilian), Cruyff etc., and those are also very few and far between. Even Barcelona's total football was crushed by Chelsea and Inter almost completely just by physical dominance.

I'm just saying, football is as much a physical game as it is technical. Fatigue makes cowards out of men and if your opponent is better conditioned, in the last 10-15 minutes of the game your legs can get very heavy and they can shift the momentum.
 
Long distance runners are way more athletic then soccer players. Those runners spend a lot of time on core stability. I think a good core is the base of an athletic body.

It's a different type of athlete.
Soccer has many sprints during the game, and ball disputes, constantly changing directions while running, a lot of physical contact - this taxes a lot the body if you're not used. Plus the balance and coordination you need to have to control, pass and kick the ball while running.

Most major team players are amazing athletes, but of course they're specialized in soccer.

Put a long distance runner in tbe field, and the dude will be all sore in the next day due to the intensity.

You can see amazingly skilled guys playing on these "freestyle" tournaments that wouldn't never come close to a soccer team since they lack the necessary athleticism (and tactical mind) to play.
 
I have not read the posts in this thread but i can tell you the reason. ''soccer'' players are usually gay and crying actors that rolls around 3 times on the grass from a toe to the shin. Real sports is to extreme for them
 
ive seen nfl, nba, mlb and many celebs from different places in ufc events but i've never seen any soccer player attending. Not even in latin america or europe where soccer is 10 times bigger than nfl, nba and mlb combined....

maybe i missed it, if not i wonder why...
In the last UFC event in Mexico City, we have non other then Ronaldo (Brazilian Legend)... I believe that he had also attended to Brazil events to support Anderson.
 
They clearly know a lot about MMA too:

VSrB16D.jpg

Legit lol at this one... So hilarious.
 
The "original" Ronaldo was awesome to watch. And I don't even particularly like football.

tumblr_m7ll36aJdd1rtequ6o1_400.gif


vZJUpS.gif
this is the real Ronaldo....best 9 ever. Ctistiano Ronaldo aint shit.
 
thanks guys.....i was dead wrong and unaware of so many soccer players who attended ufc events.......
 
well the ufc events in europe are not worth attending...
 
ive seen nfl, nba, mlb and many celebs from different places in ufc events but i've never seen any soccer player attending. Not even in latin america or europe where soccer is 10 times bigger than nfl, nba and mlb combined....

maybe i missed it, if not i wonder why...
Are you talking about American league players? not sure about that, but a lot of European footballers have attended the UK events.

I'm sure if those big events were in Europe you would notice it more, Messi or Ronaldo aren't going to fly to see an event on a Saturday when most of the times they have games on Saturdays.
 
Well, Aldo is a semipro football player (i refuse to call it soccer), so there you go.
 
Ronaldo was probably at some.

He has (or had) a sports marketing company (9INE) and used to handle the contracts of Anderson, maybe Cigano too.

Usually in Brazil is mostly TV actors at events.
 
I don't know if this has been mentioned, but Wayne Rooney and a few Man Utd co stars were at UFC 70 to see Cro Cop get his head kicked into the 17th row.
 
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