Baltimore Ravens futbol club?

The world cup came to a thrilling end today as France’s national team downed Croatia in a memorable 4-2 final. Watching it as an American always has me stacking up how the U.S. Men’s National team may do against the competition currently on the field.

With the USMNT in a pretty dire state right now, the conversation around soccer in the U.S. is as bleak as it’s been in a while. The common refrain is “what if we actually put our best athletes out on a soccer field? Wouldn’t we dominate?”

Well, let’s take that even further. As a Ravens blogger, I began to wonder how the team would look if they were to ever take the pitch in a meaningful sort of way. Thanks to EA Sports’ FIFA, I was able to find out.

Using create a player, I fielded Baltimore’s current stars against now champion France, and streamed the video which you can watch above. Here’s how the roster shook out, in case you were curious:

• GK: C.J. Mosley
• LB: Tony Jefferson, RB: Marlon Humphrey
• CB: Ronnie Stanley, CB: Jimmy Smith
• CDM: Eric Weddle (Captain), CDM: Hayden Hurst
• RW: Michael Crabtree, LW: John Brown
• CAM: Lamar Jackson
• ST: Joe Flacco
• Substitutions: LW: Willie Snead, CAM: Alex Collins, RW: Justin Tucker, CDM/CB: Anthony Levine, LB: Tavon Young, GK: Marshal Yanda

I made all measurements true to life and tried my best to match the stats to their physical abilities, with some help from Madden ratings as well. Let me know what you guys think of this video, as I’m interested in potentially streaming more Ravens FC matches should you all want to see it.

If that’s the case, drop a comment letting me know, and there will be more where this came from. In the meantime, enjoy!