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Comment by colmvp | Hacker News Reader

I didn't realize soccer players were so much shorter than a lot of North American athletes in hockey, basketball, American football, and baseball.

For example, the average height of Brazil's team is 181.7 cm or 5 foot 10, whereas I wouldn't be surprised if most North American sports teams had an average height of 6 feet (much higher for basketball).

Of course, if I look at Team USA's stats, the average is 6 feet.

Also interesting to note is that the goaltender on most teams is the tallest guy.

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Agility and speed is more important than size in football (soccer). Someone smaller is likely to have more agility than someone larger, but someone smaller will also get pushed around more and less likely to win head-balls or catch balls in the case of goalies. So there is a sweet spot between size, agility, and speed.

181.7 cm is half an inch smaller than 6 feet.

Another trend is that a lot of the best midfielders in the world are usually significantly shorter than the average of their teams:

Germany: Philipp Lahm 5'7" and Mario Gotze 5'9" Belgium: Eden Hazard 5'8" Italy: Andrea Pirlo 5'9.5" Netherlands: Wesley Sneijder 5'7" Spain: Xavi and Iniesta 5'7"

etc.

Diego Maradonna - 5ft 5.

I'm not all that clued up on non SI units, but your numbers seem to be off to me - according to Google:

5'10 = 177.8 cm

5'11 = 180.34 cm

6'0 = 182.88 cm

So, that would put the 181.7 number for Brazil a tiny bit closer to 6' than 5'11, never mind 5'10.

Messi is one of the smallest soccer players at the WC and yet the best player there. Size doesn't matter.

Having a single example of a good short player doesn't mean size doesn't matter. There may be a positive correlation between size and "skill", and Messi is one of the best despite his size disadvantage.

Germany: Philipp Lahm 5'7" and Mario Gotze 5'9" Belgium: Eden Hazard 5'8" Italy: Andrea Pirlo 5'9.5" Netherlands: Wesley Sneijder 5'7" Spain: Xavi and Iniesta 5'7"

historically the best players have been on the shorter side. Maradona was 5'5'', Pele 5'8''. One of the greatest parts of soccer is that it doesn't immediately disqualify 70%+ of the potential talent pool based on the importance of a single attribute, like height in basketball.

size does matter. You're not going to be a great soccer player if you're 7'4".

It's not correct to disqualify a statement mentioning an exceptional cases - 7'4" is such.

Within limits of regular height, football does not disqualify anybody.

why not? I'm 7'4" and it would be foolish for me to believe that I can become a great soccer player. I'm not trying to be "correct" whatever that means. I'm just saying your size matters. Your coordination and motivation matters too.

For football, the speed guys start at ~5' 10". The rest of the team is usually taller:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/players

Baseball trends lower, but they still sort of start at 6':

http://espn.go.com/mlb/players

Hockey is there too, they occupy a somewhat tighter range, but still easily beat 6'.

(I'm just a bit less than 6' and had the opportunity to stand next to a Div I NCAA football team, the majority of them towered over me, so I felt compelled to find some numbers)

I was actually surprised by how big some of these guys are. Romelu Lukaku in particular, 6'3" and 208lbs, that is much bigger than I would have expected a striker to be.

Helps them get up and head the ball, I imagine?

There seems to be a trend (which would also be good to visualise) of attacking players - who used to be selected by pace and ability to nip round defenders - to larger, stronger forwards who can charge through defenders

It makes sense that the goalkeeper is tallest, no? He needs to be able to cover a certain area and get his hand to the ball.

For tall strikers, you have Peter Crouch as an outlier at 6ft 8.

What do you suggest is a good height for soccer? Is taller always better? This might go against American thinking, but more is not always more. ;) (though I don't know if this is the case when it comes to soccer.)

> For example, the average height of Brazil's team is 181.7 cm or 5 foot 10

That's closer to 5" 11.5'.

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