In a perfect soccer world, the only sport of prominence in the United States would be soccer.  All of the great athletes that we lose to basketball, football, baseball, track & field, and … NASCAR … would instead be die-hard soccer lovers with a domestic league that would rival the big leagues of Europe in a combination of peerless athleticism, huge amounts of sporting dollars, and incessant media coverage.

So then in a perfect soccer world – who would compose our U.S. Men’s National Team?  Our players would be plucked from under the lights of Friday nights, from the bricktop courts of the ghettoes, and from the fresh cut grass of smoldering summers.  Here then is one man’s dream of what American soccer could look like.

With every aspect of the team I’m living and dying by the old sports adage: you can’t teach speed.  One of the amazing things about the American athlete is the strange combination of size, strength, and Olympic sprinter pace.  We’ve got linebackers that weigh in at 240, bench 550, and run a 4.4 40′.  This world dominance can be proven: two of the top five 100m world record times belong to the USA.  The 200m is even more dominant with 4 of 5 of the world record times.  The medal counts at each summer games speak for themselves.  China has diving, Eastern Europe gymnastics, Australia swimming, but track is our national Olympic pasttime.

I’ll examine the four areas of the team in detail: forwards, midfield, defense, and goal.  From each of these, I’ll use a rationale criteria to build my 23-man roster.  I’m purposefully blending experience (29+) with youth to create a realistic stratification of players for future development, as well.  In terms of the sports that I examined, I’m ignoring hockey altogether.  Baseball is tough – because most of the crazy atheletes were not born in the USA and I’m emphasizing fitness, as well.  Basketball is great, but once you start to get above 6′ 3″ you’re losing your soccer prototype, so we’re really looking at point guards only.  Thus, most of the athletes that I’m focusing on are football players, particularly RBs and WRs.

Here we go … (part 1: Forwards |  part 2: midfield | part 3: defense & goal)

Fowards: For my criteria to select my pool of strikers, I have to examine a few key aspects.  Clearly, coming from another sport there is no way to gauge their creativity on the ball, shooting power, or accuracy, but I’ll look at the other concrete as well as intangible factors to help me gauge their effectiveness as a soccer player.  The psyche of a player is important – strikers have to be selfish players.  They want the ball at all times, they’ll shoot and miss ten times, but shoot again without a second’s pause.  Supreme self confidence.

How then can I focus on any other position in sports than the Wide Receiver?  They’ve got the speed of Olympic sprinters, an intuitive connection with the ball and where its going to be, first step quickness and guile, as well as a passion for big moments.   At the same time, I’m also considering running backs for their power and inhuman agility.

Steve Smith (5′ 9″, 29): Though he had an offseason last year, Smith is one of the most dangerous offensive weapons in the game.  He is a 3x Pro Bowler and 2x All-Star.  At the NFL Combine, he posted a 4.31 forty time and a 38.5″ vertical.  Surprisingly, he was chosen 74th overall in the draft – probably because of his size.  This guy is the poster child for soccer.  He’s incredibly fast, athletic, and the perfect size for a soccer player.

It’s players like this that really inspired me to start thinking about this column, in particular the physical geniuses that wash out of the NFL or NBA because they never get a chance.  That is why Steve Smith is one of my starting strikers out of the deepest pool of talent for the team.  I’ll admit that he’s on the downside of his career at 29 and accumulated injuries, which is why we’ve got younger players lined up to fill his spot.

Smith has the perfect chip on his shoulder and hunger for glory that would make him a stellar striker.

Devin Hester (5′ 11″, 25): Hester is well known in the USA for his blazing speed and ankle breaking cuts.  When he first appeared on the scene, Hester was tearing up the field on punt and kick returns.  He has led the league in most return TDs for both seasons that he has played.

He’s a relatively new player, but he’s already a 2x Pro Bowler, 2x All-Pro, and has set a string of NFL records as a kick and punt returner.  Though he posted a 4.35 forty time at the NFL Combine (along with a 38″ vertical), its clear that Hester is much faster on the field.  Not only does he possess Olympic speed, but his several TD punt returns also attest to his lateral quickness, agility, and first step.

Hester is the starting striker along with Steve Smith for Team USA.  One of the qualities of Hester that really equates well to an attacker is his efficiency with opportunity.  As a striker, he may get one or two quality opportunities per game to challenge the keeper or put a shot on goal.  With his flair for big plays (including the Superbowl), I’m confident that his strike rate would be exceptional.

Randy Moss (6′ 4″, 31):  Moss’s resume beats any active WR in the league and is only revivaled historically by Jerry Rice.  Despite his tenure in football hell (see Raiders), he is a 6x Pro Bowler, a 4x All Pro, the NFL Rookie of the Year in 1998, and holds a string of NFL receiving records, including most TDs in a single season (23).

Supporting the stats are his physical abilities.  In his younger days, Moss was clearly one of the fastest players in the NFL of any position.  While he was timed at a 4.39 at the NFL Combine, he’s another player that is faster in-game.  Moss is probably the best leaper in the NFL as well.  Madden ’09 ranks him a 100 on his Jumping, the only player to receive a perfect score in JMP in the history of the game.

Here are the drawbacks.  First, he’s a crazy bastard.  I love his game and his country-ness, but he’s crazy.  Second, he takes plays off and has admitted to it during his stints in Minnesota and Oakland.  Fortunately, as a striker in soccer, he can actually get away with that.  Finally, he’s getting old and has lost a step or two.  At 6′ 4″ he’s a big striker, but I love his speed and athleticism.  At one point, Moss was starting, but now he’s an experienced veteran and super sub.  Points on the hair as well.

Adrian Peterson (6′ 1″, 23):  Along with Devin Hester, Peterson represents the youth infusion into our corps of strikers.  He was an immediate star at the University of Oklahoma (my home sweet home) as a freshman and made a big splash at the NFL Combine with a 4.38 forty time.  To put that into perspective, Peterson is 220 .lbs, though he’d surely be smaller as a soccer player.

In his first and only year so far, he was a Pro Bowler, All-Pro, NFL Rookie of the Year, and set the single game rushing record with 296 rushing yards.  He’s the only rookie to have 200+ rushing games in his first year, as well.  He’s big, strong, and insanely fast.  As a running back, he’s got supernatural agility, cutting power, and situational awareness.

Peterson is one of the back up strikers, a star in the making.  He’ll be the starter by the 2010 World Cup.  Not only does he hail collegiately from the greatest state in the Union, he’s got the looks of a black Clark Gable.  Ladies, prepared to be swooned.

Who I Didn’t Pick: There are plenty of players that have unbelievable physical abilities, but just haven’t made the transition into star player for whatever reason.  One of these was Michael Vick.  Say whatever you want about his star power, his production as a passing quarterback was almost non-existent.  At 6′ and world class speed and agility, on the soccer pitch he’d have torn through defenses.  Unfortunately, he’s currently unavailable.

The other guys I was considering were T.O. (only one crazy per position and Moss is quite frankly better), Santana Moss (perfect size – not enough production), Laveranues Coles (twin brother to Santana Moss), and most difficult to exclude, Reggie Wayne.  At 29, it was either him or Steve Smith.  I went with Smith for two reasons.  First, Steve Smith has Jake Delhomme and Wayne has Manning, so his production is more impressive for the lack of a QB.  Second, he was a step slower than Smith (4.3 vs. 4.4).  It’s a no lose situation either way.

That’s the offensive third of the field.  Be sure to check out my Midfield and Defense & Goal selections.