How does "european" football compare to american in terms of speed etc.

[LB42]

Just wondering, here's a vid of Sweden vs France in a Under 19 game.



What are your spontanious thougts about the speed/skills of the players? I realize that US high school football is like 10x better etc. but I'm still curious to know what you think.

The same yt channel has a bunch of more videos with eight different teams.

[notamuppet]

they look really small but I'm sure they could beat some american high school teams

[Joe145]

They'd beat the raiders, and lions.

[Dom_88]

Way too different to be compared. Skills are completely unrelated; crossing a ball to someone's head is completely different to a QB throwing a hail mary.

[vancarez]

Way too different to be compared. Skills are completely unrelated; crossing a ball to someone's head is completely different to a QB throwing a hail mary.

nah bro, its a game of Sweden vs. France playing AMERICAN football (Gridiron) whatever, not "Football" (soccer)

[Vermonta]

Looked like an average hs game.

[dgcoats]

Way too different to be compared. Skills are completely unrelated; crossing a ball to someone's head is completely different to a QB throwing a hail mary.

He means American football played by Europeans.

They look athletic but I would imagine the skill set isn't quite there yet were they to play Americans. For reference, we sent a squad of lower tier college athletes to compete in the 2007 IFAF of the world's best American football players and beat every country soundly. Japan gave us trouble, but we still won. Maybe if football gets more popular we could see it in the Olympics in 20 years or so.

[vayx]

The gaps that the white team (whoever it was) left on defense were HUGE.

Dont know if they played that way cause outside linebackers were too slow to get outside, or if they are scared of an outside run/hitch passing attack but if i was the other team i would have ran up the middle until they learned to close them a bit.

Other then that, looks pretty competitive, didn't watch the whole video but didnt look like there were too many long throws, or even short up field throws, mostly hitch passes, and runs.

Speed/skill wise, hard to tell unless a European team played an American team. They didnt look too much slower.

I think a lot of the difference is the amount ppl get paid in the US to coach as a job, which in turn makes them put in a lot of time/effort/theory into coaching and raising a better overall team instead of players. You can have 11 (or 12 if your canadian) great players, and still lose if you have bad coaching. Or they can be average players but win with great coaching, so hard to judge what exactly is the difference.

I know they hold a world bowl every year right before the superbowl (i believe it is an 19 and under bowl) and i know the US and Canadian teams tend to dominate it, so that would be something to look up and read about.

[vayx]

He means American football played by Europeans.

They look athletic but I would imagine the skill set isn't quite there yet were they to play Americans. For reference, we sent a squad of lower tier college athletes to compete in the 2007 IFAF of the world's best American football players and beat every country soundly. Japan gave us trouble, but we still won. Maybe if football gets more popular we could see it in the Olympics in 20 years or so.

As for the olympics thing, i don't think so. Hard to do when football is like a game of chess, its not something you could play like baseball, hockey, soccer, or other sports where you have a game plan and stick to it. You prepare differently for every team, and it takes time to be able to prepare for going over tape, putting it into practice by position then bringing it together.

Also being a very physical sport games usually happen only once a week, sometimes more in tournaments but i don't believe there would be enough time to complete a football tourny in the olympics

[maranello]

knowing about both american HS football and football at comparable age played in europe, id say there are 2 major differences.

1. Football is nowhere near as popular as in the states. In Europe, most kids grow up playing soccer from an early age on, organized soccer usually starts at age 5 or something around that. And if it aint soccer, then its tennis, martial arts, handball, whateverr... there's not really enough kids interested to have anything like popwarner. Finding players at the high school age, or later college age kids is still difficult.

So the effect is obviously a much smaller talent base which they can build from. In the states, kids can't escape football... they'll get in contact with it latest in high school. So football ends up attracting a great deal of the good athletes.

2. Football in Europe doesn't have the opportunities of HS football in the states.

In Europe kids usually play for local teams, that don't have the same financial budget as High Schools. Usually equipment has to be bought by the players themselves (further burden when trying to find kids to play).
And the biggest problem is that these teams usually only have practices twice a week for the most part. Add to that poor attendance in many cases, and you should see how it's hard to play at the same level as US high schools that practice 5 times a week.

[LB42]

knowing about both american HS football and football at comparable age played in europe, id say there are 2 major differences.

1. Football is nowhere near as popular as in the states. In Europe, most kids grow up playing soccer from an early age on, organized soccer usually starts at age 5 or something around that. And if it aint soccer, then its tennis, martial arts, handball, whateverr... there's not really enough kids interested to have anything like popwarner. Finding players at the high school age, or later college age kids is still difficult.

So the effect is obviously a much smaller talent base which they can build from. In the states, kids can't escape football... they'll get in contact with it latest in high school. So football ends up attracting a great deal of the good athletes.

2. Football in Europe doesn't have the opportunities of HS football in the states.

In Europe kids usually play for local teams, that don't have the same financial budget as High Schools. Usually equipment has to be bought by the players themselves (further burden when trying to find kids to play).
And the biggest problem is that these teams usually only have practices twice a week for the most part. Add to that poor attendance in many cases, and you should see how it's hard to play at the same level as US high schools that practice 5 times a week.

Yeah, I would agree those are the major isssues trying to improve the sport here. Like you said, pretty much all sport in europe is based on club teams and it's obviously creates some financial difficulties.

[vayx]

man half of you guys missed what he is talking about.

LOL AT PPL TALKING ABOUT SOCCER!

[maranello]

well from what i can tell there was merely one guy that thought this was a comparison of soccer and football. might wanna re-read them other posts...

[dgcoats]

As for the olympics thing, i don't think so. Hard to do when football is like a game of chess, its not something you could play like baseball, hockey, soccer, or other sports where you have a game plan and stick to it. You prepare differently for every team, and it takes time to be able to prepare for going over tape, putting it into practice by position then bringing it together.

Also being a very physical sport games usually happen only once a week, sometimes more in tournaments but i don't believe there would be enough time to complete a football tourny in the olympics

The IFAF is played tournament style with 2-3 days rest inbetween games. Maybe if they increased the rest to 4 days it would work better for the players. Football being a "chess game" is a tired cliche; football coaches are no more and no less adept at strategizing and game planning than their coaching brethren. If anything football is easier mentally, as football players have certain assignments and have to worry about little else.

EDIT: As ^^ said, only one person confused football with futbol

[Affliction88]

Looked like an average hs game.

An average High School game??? sorry but i disagree strongly! Very strongly!

[maranello]

An average High School game??? sorry but i disagree strongly! Very strongly!

mind elaborating?

[cadengrant]

they definitely can't ****ing kick.

[dgcoats]

they definitely can't ****ing kick.

Irony.

[roid_monkey]

they definitely can't ****ing kick.

ha first thing i noticed.. what was with the normal shotgun no step punt

[Dom_88]

Oh, my bad. Was posting on dial-up. I can't imagine it's anywhere near the same standard. It's like American rugby vs NZ/Aus/RSA; not even close.