The Ball

JBN

JBN

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The Ball

What is it with the new ball?

There probably is a certain amount of science put into it, but FFS it is a football.

Can they do much more to it apart from change its shape, add dimples, seams, change the size, make it furry, add a few bows and a different logo?
 

The Ball

The next ball will be the 99p ball from markets
 

The Ball

JBN said:
What is it with the new ball?

There probably is a certain amount of science put into it, but FFS it is a football.

Can they do much more to it apart from change its shape, add dimples, seams, change the size, make it furry, add a few bows and a different logo?
Click to expand...

I don't understand this tbh. As far as I know different balls are used in the premier league, FA cup and Champions league and nobody says a word about it behaving erratically. Yet as soon as a world cup comes the ball sponsor declares that all previous balls were inferior and that the latest ball will be the best thing ever and will do exactly what the players want it to do, show off the flair of the elite yadda yadda yadda. I didn't see much wrong with the ball when Barca and Srsenal went hammer and tong in the champions league last season!!

Yet every world cup the ball is slated by goalkeepers. In this world cup it is worse than ever as even the outfield players don't have any idea what it will do.

Other than the ball I am struggling to see why so many of the top players are struggling to put a decent cross/ free kick and even basic passing move together. Not just England either...
 

The Ball

I dont understand how every free kick gets blazed over the bar but they cant beat the first man at a corner.
 

The Ball

hanworthbee said:
I dont understand how every free kick gets blazed over the bar but they cant beat the first man at a corner.
Click to expand...

Exactly.
Its a spherical object.
Its been around for a while before this world cup
 

The Ball

Craig Johnson - ex-Liverpool, Australian, made the Predator boot - gave a good explanation on TV last night about the problem.
He said because it has fewer panels and is fused together, rather than lots of panels being stitched, it has less drag and therefore does not dip or swerve like "normal" balls.

That would seem to make sense, no-one has been able to shoot properly from any sort of distance and I don't believe there has been a single goal from a direct free kick, and few from corners/set pieces.
 

The Ball

Its a disgrace, did you the see the way heskey tried to do a double ronaldhino step over against andorra and he trod on the ball and scooped his cross thirty foot over the bar? .... useless ball!

I dont know what was wrong with the last ball, long shots and free kicks have been killed off completely, crossing is no longer a viable option and corners may as well be handed staright to the goalkeeper to get on with the game to prevent wasting time. However the short passing game seems to be the way forward as the argies and brasil are showing to some extent.

Englands long ball game is not suited to it at all.
 

The Ball

It also doesn't make football sense (though probably commercial sense) to introduce a new ball at the biggest event in the world before it has been properly tried and tested in ordinary leagues.
 

The Ball

Paul O'Brien said:
It also doesn't make football sense (though probably commercial sense) to introduce a new ball at the biggest event in the world before it has been properly tried and tested in ordinary leagues.
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I do believe that it was offered to various leagues around the world, England included, to try it out but it was refused for commercial reasons.

Germany have been usig it in the Bundisligue.
 

The Ball

TW3Bee said:
I do believe that it was offered to various leagues around the world, England included, to try it out but it was refused for commercial reasons.

Germany have been usig it in the Bundisligue.
Click to expand...

It was offered around, but I think FIFA were clever with that too...

They know that a lot of the bigger nations (England, Spain and Italy for starters) all have major contracts with suppliers.. Most have contracts with Nike and Umbro to supply their balls, whereas Germany use Adidas, creators of the current World Cup ball.
So, although they have a contract too, theirs is with the supplier of the World Cup ball, and would not be breaking contractual obligations by accepting the ball.
 

The Ball

ladbroke said:
It was offered around, but I think FIFA were clever with that too...

They know that a lot of the bigger nations (England, Spain and Italy for starters) all have major contracts with suppliers.. Most have contracts with Nike and Umbro to supply their balls, whereas Germany use Adidas, creators of the current World Cup ball.
So, although they have a contract too, theirs is with the supplier of the World Cup ball, and would not be breaking contractual obligations by accepting the ball.
Click to expand...

That makes sense but we should surely cry foul if Germany get through, Human rights and all that through the european courts.
 

The Ball

Got to say I was well impressed with the way the ball helped the Germans beat the Serbs. Now wait a minute......
 

The Ball

the ball is terrible. As someone said, no goals yet from free kicks or medium to long rangers. Today excepted I haven't seen any goals.

- about 4 goals in this world cup have been from GKs diving too far and trying to go back at the last millisecond. When for most goals you would think the goalkeeper hadn't dived far enough.
Despite the leagues some of them play in, all are good keepers, and are in the squads of what currently (on paper) are the best 32 teams in the world.
 

The Ball

Adidas have made the World Cup balls since at least 1970. There's a surprisingly interesting series of articles on wikipedia about the evolution of the balls used from which it sounds like criticism of the ball has come ever since they got rid of leather. It seems that the real criticisms have been because the ball is too consistent and predictable regardless of wear or weather.

Had a little kickabout with a Jabulani on Friday. Unsurprisingly with my level of skill I couldn't really tell any difference with any other ball!

England team criticisms of the ball are IMHO the classic "bad workman blaming his tools" - the more skilful and controlled teams have played perfectly nicely with the ball, and Forlan didn't seem to have any problem using it to play an inch-perfect long cross-field ball for Uruguay's third against South Africa so it isn't even that the ball is unsuited to long balls.
 

The Ball

I think it just takes some getting used to - but it has seemed to me so far that when people try to really leather it, it moves a lot or just goes straight up. More measured strikes (pass or shot) seem to react fine...

Generally though, I agree - the players just like to moan and the papers have to talk about something.
 

The Ball

What I don't understand is, why change the ball half way through a tournament?

The World Cup started when the first Qualifiers started. They should use the same ball throughout all the qualifiers, until, and including, the Final.
 

The Ball

Until that crossed goal by Portugal yesterday, what I noticed was that almost all crosses when miles over everyone's head. The ball just seems to carry in a way that is unexpected for wide players.
 

The Ball

the "roundest" ball ever they are calling it!!!!!

:owusu:
 

The Ball

According to the laws of game as I remember them, every ball should be a stipulated circumference, weight and pressure and made from acceptable materials. As such any ball should behave pretty well in the same way as the next one. If they are not, it's likely they are tampering with them during manufacture to deliberately cause them to deviate during play.
 

The Ball

still doesn't move like a 'normal' football for me, the amount of crosses that are still rising now, the way it swerves like a 99p shoot football - just cos 2 teams have quickly learnt how to belt it and keep it low doesn't mean it's normal
 

The Ball

again yesterday for Forlans goal, 1 where the GK dived too far then tried to turn back - that makes it about 10 alone in this tournament where that's happened.

it's obvious the commentators have been told to keep schtum and not bad mouth the ball any more...
 

The Ball

LboroBee said:
again yesterday for Forlans goal, 1 where the GK dived too far then tried to turn back - that makes it about 10 alone in this tournament where that's happened.

it's obvious the commentators have been told to keep schtum and not bad mouth the ball any more...
Click to expand...

Whereas von Bronckhorst's was as straight as a die (sp). Wonder if Forlan has worked out a technique for striking the ball that induces the erratic movement?
 

The Ball

Even NASA have entered the row.

I guess Obama has ordered them to look into why USA didn't win. FIFA will be probably get a writ from the good old US of A for ball tampering or something.:rolleyes:

You would think NASA have got better things to worry about, like space shuttles & space stations:rolleyes:
 
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The Ball

JBN said:
Even NASA have entered the row.

I guess Obama has ordered them to look into why USA didn't win. FIFA will be probably get a writ from the good old US of A for ball tampering or something.:rolleyes:

You would think NASA have got better things to worry about, like space shuttles & space stations:rolleyes:
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It's all BP's fault.

:cool:
 

The Ball

i was practising watching the new ball for six months before the tournament started and it has certainly paid off as i don't think i have missed any of the goals!

:cool:
 
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