Watching the Belgium-USA game and from about an hour in the commentators have been pointing out how tired some players looked.
Really?
They have been playing more games in a harsher environment than they are used to ?
Aren't they allowed to be tired?
Watching the Belgium-USA game and from about an hour in the commentators have been pointing out how tired some players looked.Really?
Really, what?
Really, what?
Am I really watching the game or am I in some sophisticated Matrix like illusion.
or
Can they really only perform well for 60 mins and if so why?
Matrix like illusion.
Matrix like illusion
Fitness upload?
Can they really only perform well for 60 mins and if so why?
IIRC physical exertion is tiring
Spin, do you know much about football?
IIRC physical exertion is tiring
Yeah but an hour of running around a park doesn't mark some fundamental limit of human endurance.
Or does it?
Spin, do you know much about football?
F*ck all, which is why I asked.
Ok, imagine doing any sport in hot conditions as hard as you can for an hour? Tell me a sport where you wouldn't start to tire?
Yeah but an hour of running around a park doesn't mark some fundamental limit of human endurance.
Yea, and Bolt can't even manage 10 seconds, lazy ****er
Players run something like 10-12km in a game, some more some significantly less. A fair bit of that movement is spent at full sprint. That would get pretty tiring after a while.
an hour of running around a park doesn't mark some fundamental limit of human endurance.
Of course not that is why they are tired and not dead.
Commentators talk BS
The heat is sapping energy
they are in the middle of a tournament at the end of a long season
They are a bit tired.
Clearly a case of the wrong recovery drinks post match,ask molgrips.
They are a bit tired
Me too. I'm off to bed 🙂
Have you ever played a competitive football match Spin?
Ohh and each and every player in the Tournament will be exactly about a million times fitter than any of us could ever hope to be.
Or does it?
Yes, it does.
It's not a gentle 90 minute jog - watch the players. They spend a lot of time sprinting. There's enough money in football that if a team could just do a bit of training and get fitter than everyone else, they would.
Players run something like 10-12km in a game, some more some significantly less. A fair bit of that movement is spent at full sprint. That would get pretty tiring after a while.
That's pretty impressive, especially for the goalie 😉
Ok, imagine doing any sport in hot conditions as hard as you can for an hour? Tell me a sport where you wouldn't start to tire?
crown bowls.
I reckon i can take the players in a bike race, if it lasts more than 90 minutes 😉
26deg C ATM in Salvador. Footballers play in the winter in temps averaging between 3 and 12 deg C. Yes they are professional, but that doesn't change the fact it's a tad warm and humid in Brazil.
Here's something to try. Go out tomorrow on your bike at midday for 60 mins and do sprint intervals with zero rest. I wonder if you'd feel tired?
I'd be ****ed.
I ride bikes a lot.
I play football(wendyball) weekly. Oh how we laugh everytime that's rolled out.
I find the running about and the physical contact a LOT harder than mtbing.
Hour on the bike, hour playing football. Imo football leaves me more battered.
Ok, imagine doing any sport in hot conditions as hard as you can for an hour? Tell me a sport where you wouldn't start to tire?
crown bowls.
Cricket.
Yea, and Bolt can't even manage 10 seconds, lazy ****er
I'm told I can't even manage 8 seconds.....not sure what mrs b means? 😕
They run a lot and get kicked.
Football isn't the same as running. It sprints and a lot of twisting and turning. Its much more physically draining than running. And quite a world away from cycling.
Trying doing a hours worth of 100 metre spints and that's only half the story.
Seosamh said it while I was checking a stat.
The distance run stat is misleading. It's only about 12km in an average 90 mins, a distance runner would do closer to 30. And it's not the fact that it's often at a sprint - the refs do a similar distance, often at a sprint, yet while they are 40-45 year olds you don't see them cramping up with 15 mins to go. It's the constant direction changes, turns, acceleration, jumping, twisting.
Get 3 mates and a tennis ball. Mark out a 10*10 square. The 3 have to pass the ball between them inside the square while you try and intercept it. If you last a minute at full intensity, well done. Now rest for a minute and do it again, and again, and again....
Meh, Tuesday nights down the park we'd play for 3 hours.
15 all some nights and even the 'keepers had to do a stint.
theotherjonv - Member
Seosamh said it while I was checking a stat.The distance run stat is misleading. It's only about 12km in an average 90 mins, a distance runner would do closer to 30. And it's not the fact that it's often at a sprint - the refs do a similar distance, often at a sprint, yet while they are 40-45 year olds you don't see them cramping up with 15 mins to go. It's the constant direction changes, turns, acceleration, jumping, twisting.
plus getting barged, kicked, hit, bitten, elbowed, knocked over etc
By comparison - rugbyists do an average of about 8km in 80 mins. Basketball about 4km in 48 mins. Tennis 3-5km depending whether it's 3 or 5 sets. Distance tells you nothing, you need to be supremely fit for all of them.
i havent seen many fat knackers out there those still in the competition all seem to have god like physiques.. those that havent have been in las vegas for the last week
Still, at least they don't need epo to make it interesting.
Still, at least they don't need epo to make it interesting.
Um.
Etc.
Still, at least they don't need epo to make it interesting.
That's debatable given footballs rewards and lack of drug testing.
I'd have thought steroids would be more useful than EPO though. Or maybe both.
Judging by how knackered I get if I play a game I'm not surprised they're tired.
I think if you try searching some stats you'd be amazed at the times they can cover a distance in. It's very stop start and 90 minutes of real pressure.
If you mean why can'y they play football for hours on end like a tour rider would cycle on a long stage...well. That thinking would make Usain Bolt the most pathetic over paid athlete in the world.
I know it's fun to knock the players, I think mainly because they get paid shed load and they and their sport is adored world wide, we'd love'em if they got fifty quid a week. But to think they ain't good athletes is very very naive.
Not a footy fan by any means, but I'm guessing that by getting to and staying at the top of the tree isn't easy in any sport
Ok, imagine doing any sport in hot conditions as hard as you can for an hour?
No one told the England players that's what they were supposed to do then?
I played football to a fairly high standard (Northern League)
Imagine doing very intense interval training for 90 minutes, very, very short sharp spikes, again and again and again, its relentless, and i imagine the higher you get the more relentless it becomes.
Make no bones about it, professional footballers are very very fit, but it's a very specific fitness
add in 30c heat, the amount of water the players will be losing is huge, and they won't be getting chances to fully replace it, they'll be dehydrated after 30 minutes.
Fell asleep in the England-Tunisia game
Must be far more tiring sitting in the clubhouse than running around kicking a ball for 90mins 😉
May be tired but some are still more than alert enough to make dives and face holding a near apparent reflex action, in a calculated decision to appeal to the ref. 😉 And to eat other players for dinner 😉
Can they really only perform well for 60 mins and if so why?
Game went to extra time. If anything, the performance level went up.
Commentators, and [s]trolls[/s] casual observers, make mistakes.
they all certainly 'put a shift in'
If I never hear that phrase again with regards to footballers doing their job it will be too soon
That bolt geezer only manages 20 seconds before he's tired. I'd imagine he could last longer if he went slower but then he wouldn't win.
Same for footballers, although some have the position on the field, and the benefit of experience and skill to make the ball do more work.
A World Cup series of games is brutal.
That Bolt geezer also contests several rounds in a day or consecutive days. No rest days / holiday in Rio till the next effort.
Ok, imagine doing any sport in hot conditions as hard as you can for an hour? Tell me a sport where you wouldn't start to tire?
darts, tiddly winks, chess ( maybe) 🙂
I don't think they'd last long in our fives tournament tbh.
We should also remember that footballers are gifted footballers, many of them may not be gifted endurance athletes, just being able to run hard for 90mins wont make you a footballerist but being very gifted at kicking a ball can take you to the top, look at Gaza. Obviously you can train hard, but you cant put in what millions of years of evolution left out.
darts, tiddly winks, chess ( maybe)
I think we need to define 'a sport' a little better (not like it hasn't been done before) 🙂
If we leave aside Hemingway's famous quote and use a more apt test, we should get somewhere, or maybe not.
If you can compete at the highest level wearing a brimmed hat and smoking a pipe (including regular relighting and trying to set fire to your thumb etc.) then it is not a sport, merely a pastime or a game.
OK? 🙂
15 all some nights and even the 'keepers had to [s]do a stint[/s] put a shift in.
FTFY 🙂
Top flight football is so fast especially in the PL that you can't not be at the top of your game fitness wise, if you aren't you'll get found out. One lapse of concentration due to tiredness and that's it: Switzerland vs Argentina last night was a good example.
Did anyone see the montage of skills the BBC put together yesterday? It was staggering! The level of sublime technical ability at this world cup has been breath-taking at times.
Being an uber-fit, supreme athlete is the very minimum requirement. Your brain has got to be faster than your feet.
Edit: [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28095789 ]found it....[/url] well... some of them. There was a longer one that was absolutely amazing 😯
I don't understand! No England players feature in that clip. How did that happen?
If you can compete at the highest level wearing a brimmed hat and smoking a pipe (including regular relighting and trying to set fire to your thumb etc.) then it is not a sport, merely a pastime or a game.
If one cannot smoke a pipe while carrying out said activity it can hardly be said to be sporting, but rather a tiresome exercise in sweating like a navvy.
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Being an uber-fit, supreme athlete is the very minimum requirement
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I think if you try searching some stats you'd be amazed at the times they can cover a distance in. It's very stop start and 90 minutes of real pressure.
What about the refs? Unlike the players they always have to be near the ball so cover the whole pitch and still have to be able to watch the actions of players. Then get a load of abuse for doing it.
I think the photo of Rooney points out the ridiculous idiocy of judging fitness based on photographs.
I think the photo of Rooney points out the ridiculous idiocy of judging fitness based on photographs.
Or, that skill can compensate for (relative) lack of fitness.
When was that Rooney photo taken? We all know he's struggled with his fitness, and one example does not prove much.
They don't really do a huge amount of fitness training compared to many sports. I'd argue whether:
each and every player in the Tournament will be exactly about a million times fitter than any of us could ever hope to be.
Hyperbole aside, there's a huge amount of skill in football, and it's an apples:oranges comparison, but I'd wager some of the folk on here are 'fitter' than a number of the WC players.
but I'd wager some of the folk on here are 'fitter' than a number of the WC players.
+1
Although of course it depends on how you're measuring fitness. Vo2 max, 10km run time, 100m sprint time, etc...
Hyperbole aside, there's a huge amount of skill in football, and it's an apples:oranges comparison, but I'd wager some of the folk on here are 'fitter' than a number of the WC players
Depends how you measure fitness - fitness to cycle long distances or fitness to play 90 minutes of competitive football or 80 minutes of rugby? The cyclists may have better endurance/aerobic processing but they simply would have the conditioning for the sprinting or the muscle stamina for the tackling/rucks/mauls. As you say different fruit - but all equally as valid.
What about the refs? Unlike the players they always have to be near the ball so cover the whole pitch and still have to be able to watch the actions of players.
I said this before - the refs cover a lot of ground, similar distances to the players, but it's in a more controlled way. Lots of sprints, for sure, followed by recovery, but they don't tend to do so much in the way of direction changes, pushing off in different directions at full tilt, twisting, etc.
And also (and trust me- this gets easier, not harder as you go up in standards) a decent ref can read the game and make moves to be in a certain area in preparation for the ball getting there rather than following it there. At lower / local league level the ball can go from end to end to end unpredictably based on no-one having the ability to control the ball and keep possession for more than a microsecond. Couple that to the 5's and 9's having only got in from the night club 3 hours ago and still fancying a punch up, and they were physically the hardest games i ever reff'ed, doing repeated 75 yard shuttle runs just to be vaguely close to the action when finally it all kicked off!!
Then get a load of abuse for doing it.
Of course. But you get travel expenses, and a pint afterwards, and everyone's your mate, at least they are for as long as it takes them to realise that no you can't be bribed and that yellow card will be being reported to the county FA in the morning and they will be getting a fine for it.
... and I have lots of friends who could run a marathon faster than any Olympic champion rower - but are they fitter?
... and I have lots of friends who could run a marathon faster than any Olympic champion rower - but are they fitter?
Exactly. My Mrs beat Steve Redgrave. Don't fancy her chances if they were racing boats though somehow.
So, basically, we're all agreeing this needs to get recommissioned for a new series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstars
... and I have lots of friends who could run a marathon faster than any Olympic champion rower - but are they fitter?
Which was, in effect, my point (albeit made in a roundabout way), I suspect there are folk on here who could run a marathon quicker than most WC footballers, which is perhaps a more relevant comparison of fitness - ultimately the measure of fitness in a footballer is running (you can put some cones chicanes in the marathon course so they have to change direction suddenly too!).
Saying that every single WC footballer is a "million times fitter than any of us could ever hope to be" is elevating them above their stations IMO, and that's the last thing most footballers need!
Remember seeing a thing about ballet dancers vs footballers - footballers won hands down. (Ballet dancers were stronger but less aerobically fit)
Oh and fat Waz covers more ground than any of his team mates in virtually every game even carrying a few layers of steak bakes.
... and I think I was trying to expand the definition of fitness beyond simple aerobic efficiency.
Interesting: most elite soccer players have a VO2 max in the low 60s:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23118070
Also interesting:
[i]
"Relative to body mass, VO2max among the professional players in this study has not improved over time. Professional players tested during 2006-2012 actually had 3.2% lower VO2max than those tested from 2000 to 2006 (P = .001)."[/i]
I think the photo of Rooney points out the ridiculous idiocy of judging fitness based on photographs.
Indeed
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Here's something to try. Go out tomorrow on your bike at midday for 60 mins and do sprint intervals with zero rest. I wonder if you'd feel tired?
With zero rest they wouldn't be intervals .