How fast are US Women national soccer team players?

just to name a few stars that came from the soccer pitch,Rupp,Wheating,Mutola,Ato bolden,Hicham El G

vere wrote:

just to name a few stars that came from the soccer pitch,Rupp,Wheating,Mutola,Ato bolden,Hicham El G

Yes, but were they GOOD soccer players?

Honky Lips wrote:

I can pretty much guarantee none of these women can run a sub 5 mile. By "fittest" they mean they are able to cover the whole field for 90 minutes (or more like on Sunday) with very few breaks. They have to be quick, but endurance plays into it more than say track speed would. Many of them (especially midfielders) would be above average 5k-10k runners, but even then, a sub 20 5k would be pretty impressive for any of them I think. You also have to consider that most of the US players are carrying quite a lot more muscle and bulk than any good runner would. I would guess their best runner on the whole team could go 5:30-5:45. Some of them would probably have trouble running under 7:30 (goalkeepers most likely).

Amazing athletes and amazing game though- so pumped for Wednesday's semi-final!!!

Probably none of them could run under 5 for a mile, which is understandable becasue that is quite fast. A sub 5 miler could make the roster of most NCAA D1 programs. However, I would not be surprised if a few of them could not run sub-20 in a 5k. Pro soccer players have good endurance, but they are usually too heavy to be an efficient distance runner. Soccer is a good base for mid distance and for a lot of them it is simple a matter of learning how to run, losing a few pounds and they convert well to ruuners.

................. wrote:

What school did you go to, I've never heard of a 20 min 5k requirement, that seems insanely fast for a soccer team (think about it, 20 min 5k is a pretty good mark for a woman).. maybe the course was short.

Our high school soccer team was one of the best in the country.. I think the fastest soccer player could have done around 5:40, and there were 2-3 more who could go under 6 but everyone else was slower than that (though I doubt anyone was over 7).

For women at the level of these athletes - i.e., the equivalent to top 10 or top 5 in the NCAA XC meet - 20:00 is laughable. They run faster than that for 6k. Not saying a person who is focused on another sport could do that, but at top level Div. I programs there are women who can't even dream of ever making the varsity lineup who are running 18:00 for 5k. So to think that every player, or at least every forward and midfielder, on an ACC or PAC-10 team could break 20:00 for 5k is quite believable for me. Probably not a division III school - 20:00 would make most DIII cross lineups - but we aren't talking about anything remotely like division III athletes.

As for the high school times, people seem to think that 6:00 is challenging, and that a mile is a long way. Neither of those is true. A six-minute mile is only challenging for women who aren't good athletes, which most track and cross country teams have an abundance of. But we are talking about people who were, at worst, among the top five soccer players in the country in high school. They are phenomenal athletes. The number one defining thing separating the great players from the so-so ones is speed. And they do repeated sprints late in a game after they've been on a field for more than an hour. Anyone who can do that can get through a mile without falling apart like a decathlete.

For specific examples, Andie Cozzarelli just made all-American in the 10,000. In high school she ran part time while starting for four years (I think) on a soccer team ranked in the top 10 in the nation, and ran 5:01 and 11:01 (during the HS soccer season). She did it looking like a soccer player, in both her body and her form. I really doubt that at that time she could have run away from the people on the national team in the mile. I was at another Raleigh school and had a pair of soccer players run under 5:15 with less than four months training, and two other soccer players who broke 9:30 for 1.5 miles in a time trial who I could not convince to run - and our soccer team wasn't even in the top 10 in the state.

Let's remember that to even be in the discussion for making the US team in track, you need to be a sub-4:30 miler (or sub-2:01 800 runner or sub-15:15 5k runner). When someone says that almost every US World Cup soccer player can break 5:30 and many could run 5:00, we are still literally not putting them in sight of the best runners in the country. For those who have ever broken 4:30 in the mile - do you remember how easy 5:00 was when you were that fast?

If you play soccer long enough your running form will suffer. In soccer you have to run with a low center of gravity - you can´t "run tall" like a runner, because you would be an easy target if someone tackled you.

This article on 9:56 US steepler Stephanie Pezzullo might add some light to this discussion.http://www.uticaod.com/sports/boilermaker/x655873338/From-the-pitch-to-the-track-Pezzullo-presses-onIt's an interesting read. She is a woman that played soccer for Penn State for 4 years - winning 4 Big Ten titles. Went out for track her senior spring and now is a 9:56 steepler which is within striking distance of the US team.On an unrelated note, I love one of the quotes she had as well.

Pezzulo said:

“I do also feel that God created me to be tough and I feel like I can suffer more than others sometimes and that comes out most in running."

I coach a high school track team in Iowa....we have the Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year (apparently this is quite an honor for soccer players) on our team. Not only is she just a freshman, but she plays on all the Olympic Developmental teams, travel teams, etc. Has gotten recruiting letters from EVERY decent D1 team in the nation. Our soccer team won State and our track team was runner-up.

She ran 56.90 for the open quarter, 25.71 for the duece....on very little training.

She is thinking about going out for XC this fall....we'll see what she can do. I have no doubt in my mind this girl would be the top XC runner on the team and our girls finished 6th in XC last year (with everyone returning this year).

Soccer players are pretty fit....especially the extremely talented ones.

rojo wrote:

This article on 9:56 US steepler Stephanie Pezzullo might add some light to this discussion.

http://www.uticaod.com/sports/boilermaker/x655873338/From-the-pitch-to-the-track-Pezzullo-presses-on

It's an interesting read. She is a woman that played soccer for Penn State for 4 years - winning 4 Big Ten titles. Went out for track her senior spring and now is a 9:56 steepler which is within striking distance of the US team.

On an unrelated note, I love one of the quotes she had as well.

Pezzulo said:

“I do also feel that God created me to be tough and I feel like I can suffer more than others sometimes and that comes out most in running."

I think Molly Beckwith (who has broken 2:00 or is right at 2:00 for the 800) also played soccer for Indiana before making the jump to track.

Soccer Coach X wrote:

Maria Mutola played soccer as a teen but show me records that she was "very good" or "world class". There is no evidence.

Google is a wonderful thing.

Making even a scrub Mozambique national team at the age of 38 is at least "very good."

hurdlethief wrote:

She ran 56.90 for the open quarter, 25.71 for the duece....on very little training. (..)She is thinking about going out for XC this fall....we'll see what she can do. I have no doubt in my mind this girl would be the top XC runner on the team

Oh wow, not sure where to begin.

You have a runner that has shown to be good at 200m and 400m and now you think about letting her run XC?

This is just as stupid as those "how fast could Usain Bolt run a Marathon" threads.

Soccer Expert wrote:

hurdlethief wrote:

She ran 56.90 for the open quarter, 25.71 for the duece....on very little training. (..)She is thinking about going out for XC this fall....we'll see what she can do. I have no doubt in my mind this girl would be the top XC runner on the team

Oh wow, not sure where to begin.

You have a runner that has shown to be good at 200m and 400m and now you think about letting her run XC?

Are you kidding me? The fact that she has run fast 2 and 4 doesn't mean she can't be a good cross country runner. Here's a thought--maybe she's just a very good athlete. I have coached two different high school girls who could have done this. My best XC girl one year was my best 200-3200 runner in the spring, and won state in the 8. Years later, I had a girl who was all-state in XC who was my best 100, 200, 400, 800, HH, 300H, HJ, and LJ.

Back to the point: The color commentator on the USA-France game just said this is the best-conditioned USA women's team she has ever seen. I'm willing to accept her expertise. Also, check out Hope Solo's Facebook page. While some of the photos are staged, she's clearly very fit.

I love distance running, and I recognize how hard it is to do well, but I also know that talented, fit athletes could do it reasonably well. It seems to me that those who are arguing that these elite athletes couldn't run decent college marks are trying to justify our little niche of the world as being inaccessible to anyone else.

I had the pre game on today and noticed the leading scorer on the US team, a little older and a little heavy, noticed how big her arms were, not muscled, just big. No way in Hell she could break 5:30 in the mile, I would be shocked if she could break 6:00.

I couldn't care less that there are some very good runners out there that used to play soccer or come from a soccer background. Soccer did not make them good runners, they were very talented runners who happened to be playing soccer until they decided to become runners.

My 2 cents, and 2 examples:

I ran at a Big 10 school. One of my housemates was on the soccer team. We took him running one morning for an "easy" 5 miles and he was just chatting up a storm. Actually annoying me and my other roommate -- who also ran XC and track -- to no end. (We never talked in the mornings trying to sleep our way through the runs.)

So, we ketp dropping the pace trying to get him to shut up. Every 800 or so, we'd up the tempo. Look at each other, shrug, and go harder. We were clearly runnig 5:30 pace by the end and he was still talking and not out of breath. He didn't even seem to notice.

I was 6'3 and 150 then and ran low 15 for 5K. My roommate was sub-15. Soccer dude was 6'0 and 180-185 lbs. I'd say. No doubt with a little training he could have run sub-16. Not stellar, but good for a bigger guy. Clearly if he tried and trianed he could have been a much better runner than I was.

Coached sisters who led our high school cross country team to a state runner-up title. They ran 3 days a week with the team and raced maybe once a week, sometimes not at all. They were Olympic Development Program-level players.

They finished 4th and 6th for us at state with both in the middle 19s on about 15-20 mpw of specific training. Soccer practice was an additional 6 days a week on top of that.

Older girl also won two 800 meter state titles. Her PR was 2:17? Think she ran low 5s for 1600. She was doing spring soccer during, too.

Older sister was thick and muscled. Probably carrying what letsrunners would say is 15-20 lbs too much weight. If she was exclusively a runner doing typical training, no doubt she would have been a low 18s girl in XC and probably low 4:50s in 1600.

And if she transformed her body, would likely have been a Footlocker finalist.

If she transformed her body? Huh? What the hell does that mean?

Hell, if I transformed my body into 7'3" tall, I would be playing in the NBA.

I'm sure all you HS coaches out there remember Chelsey Margey who one year ago jumped into running and ran a low 4:40 something mile (girl)within a couple of months, she was either a Lax player or a soccer player as a soph. Well this year she was a full time runner and did not run any faster than she did last year on limited training. All this garbage about how some soccer player ran this off of nothing and with a little training could be the best ever is a bunch of crap. You are what you are.

Obviously this thread is BS but one question is legitimate. If there is that much running talent in the USA that gets wasted in other sports, what are these other sports?

Generally, I'd say that someone who has potential to be a great distance runner would likely also have talent for:

- cycling

- XC skiing

Both not very popular in the US? So where are they? Certainly not in soccer, football or basketball.

Kristie Mewis just missed out on making the squad, she'll be there next cup for sure, she has a school record in the 600 at her highschool after 1 or 2 seasons of track (limited workouts, practices, etc with national team duty)

http://whtrack.org/records.php?id=4

FWIW, Tiffany Roberts played on the national team and was on the gold medal '96 Olympics squad. She placed 2nd in the 800 at the 1994 California State meet when she was a senior in HS. She ran 2:11.81.

Many (if not most) decent high school and college runners started out as soccer players or swimmers.

In my experience, many soccer players try running, then realize that they're much better at the 800/1500 than they are at soccer. I know two 2:11 girls that this was true for, and they aren't anywhere near as good of athletes as the members of the USA national team. I think some of these women could run 2:05-2:10 if they trained seriously for a year, and I think at least a few could run 2:10-2:15 right now.

Sub240 wrote:

Obviously this thread is BS but one question is legitimate. If there is that much running talent in the USA that gets wasted in other sports, what are these other sports?

Generally, I'd say that someone who has potential to be a great distance runner would likely also have talent for:

- cycling

- XC skiing

Both not very popular in the US? So where are they? Certainly not in soccer, football or basketball.

Exactly. I think by and large the most talented runners in the country are running competitively. Are there some soccer players that are also good runners? Of course, but most of them do at least try running track at the high school level. In my HS, the soccer players who knew they were fast and had a talent for running tried running track. And they usually ended up running in the low 2s for 800 and in the 4:30s for the mile (males). People on this site like to overestimate what people are capable of, because they're comparing everyone to elites and highly competitive college runners.

A woman who can run a mile in sub 5 even with college level training is a highly talented runner (not an olympic level phenom, but far and away faster than what most women could ever dream of running).

Running is a fairly major sport in the US. Just because it doesn't have a fan base like baseball, basketball, and football, doesn't mean that there is a small talent pool from which to select from. Lots of kids run cross country and track and most of them never crack 19 for the 5k or 22 for girls. Hundreds of thousands of people run road races every year and most of them run very slowly. This is because most people don't have the athletic ability or running ability to compete at even the college level.