More Jabulani match ball chat, now from a U.S. player perspective
by Steve Davis on Jun 15, 2010 1:55 PM EDT
Email
Print
PRETORIA, South Africa – I have officially dropped my working theory that carping about the flaky ballistic tendencies of this naughty new ball was just the product of something new being introduced at a bad time, mixed with some understandable anxiety over the event.
OK, I’m convinced. The balls is screwy.
We’ve all seen more than our fair share of balls sailing well high on free kicks. (Seriously, when will players start to adjust and take a little something off those free kicks from dangerous spots?)
If there was any lingering doubt in my mind,
Major League Soccer (along with a couple of other leagues around the world) has used this exact ball since February. That’s when adidas introduced it, just in time for MLS training camps.
Bornstein said there were, in fact, some wide-eyed reactions when players began hitting this particular pelota.
“Actually, in preseason people were commenting on it,” Bornstein said. “It just wasn’t as publicly out there.
“It was like, someone would hit a shot and say that it really moved. You would see it and say, ‘Wow, the ball does move quite a bit.’ Then when we got here, I’d say the ball moved even more than in MLS.”
Everyone guesses that the difference is in the altitude. As Chivas
Bornstein did allow that players like himself, Landon Donovan, Robbie Findley and other MLS men don’t have the same adjustment period, since they’ve used the Jabulani for months now.
“Everyone’s gonna get used to ball, no matter what,” Bornstein said. “Everyone has to deal with it, so I don’t think it’s anything to complain about or to make a big deal about.”
Donovan had to be prodded a bit to offer an opinion, declining initially to wade into the politics of it all, the choice to introduce a new ball at this time. He said decisions about balls and such simply aren’t his to make. When asked again, he said he was “old school,” that he preferred old school shoes, shin guards, etc. (Now, as Donovan is only 28, I’m not so sure what, exactly, qualifies as “old school” …)
At any rate, he said, “I like what I know, so I’m not the right person to ask.”
Maybe, maybe not. Sounds a lot like
He said it’s hard to judge the flight of long balls and difficult to hit it properly in general. If you nail the small sweet spot, it’s going to launch, he said. If you don’t put the foot in just the right place, it may be a laugher.
“I think as much as the goalies are frustrated by it, I think the players are, too,” he said. “You’re seeing a lot of missed chances, a lot of crosses that are mis-timed or mis-played that would normally be goals, that are not going in.”
14 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
So along the lines of the crazy ball
I know I’ve read everywhere that in World Cup’s especially, scoring is not common. My question, though, is scoring down or is this pretty normal? Not many goals at all so far. No one has played a second game yet so maybe we’ll see an uptick in scoring then, but this seems pretty crazy so far. Thoughts?
by I need more Esteban on Jun 15, 2010 3:32 PM EDT reply actions
Go here and check previous cups
I’m not shocked by this. The worst one was 1990, with an average of something like 1 goal a game. OK. I’m exaggerating. Slightly.
It's got something to do with the tactical evolution of the game too
think about how Euro 2008 was an attacking tournament (in contrast with WC 2006 and Euro 2004)- we’re on an upswing for dominant attacking sides (really counterattacking, but goals be goals). People adjust, and the World Cups tend to come during periods when defensive teams are adjusting better than offensive teams ( defensive teams tend to be more disciplined, and disciplined teams play better in theWC, another factor in this whole affair). Maybe defensive teams have longer periods of dominance, but they’re often responding to attacking teams who’ve managed to break through the latest defensive innovation (Total Football in response to Cattennaccio, Whatever the Dutch and Spanish do in response to god-awful-ugliness (Greece and Italy)
"Voetbal is pas totaal als je wint"- Coach Adun
"The greatest sin is to spurn the gift"- Coach Alistair
May be serious short-term thinking by FIFA
I assume that FIFA always introduces a new ball to the World Cup in order to get soccer players across the world to buy their own version. I’m sure they make a fair amount of money off that.
But if the ball messes with the flow of play, introduces doubt into the minds of the game’s best players, severely reduces scoring, and generally helps make the games more boring, what have they really gotten? They’ve sold a few more soccer balls in exchange for messing up a fantastic opportunity to build the audience for their sport.
"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s
It's not a FIFA ball
it’s an Adidas ball. I am sure Adidas introduce a new ball for the World Cup because it is great marketing and millions of people will buy the new ball. The fact that they may have gotten it wrong with this new ball has nothing to do with FIFA and everything to do with Adidas. I am sure they will learn from this and make sure that the new ball for the next World Cup is up to a higher standing. In the meantime both teams use the same ball so it really doesn’t make too much difference. If people are watching the World Cup for the goals and are pissed off by the lack of scoring they weren’t, and probably never were going to become, soccer fans anyway.
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Jun 15, 2010 4:32 PM EDT up reply actions
It's FIFA's tournament
and if they refuse to use a new ball, then Adidas can’t throw it on the pitch and make FIFA play with it. If they have a contract giving with Adidas that gives Adidas the right to introduce a new ball in the WC, then it’s stupid of FIFA to sign that contract.
n the meantime both teams use the same ball so it really doesn’t make too much difference. If people are watching the World Cup for the goals and are pissed off by the lack of scoring they weren’t, and probably never were going to become, soccer fans anyway.
Watching great players float passes out of bounds or out of reach, or blasting free kicks 10 feet over the crossbar, is not compelling. It’s not about the final score, it’s about the quality of play.
"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s
Ballack, Lampard, Kaka
some of the best players in the world have no complaints about the ball. And that Brazil match today was compelling. You make it seem as though every free kick would soar into the top corner if not for the ball. The ball and the altitude are playing a role right now but they will adapt and the tournament will become more compelling as we go along.
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Jun 15, 2010 6:40 PM EDT up reply actions
But why fiddle with the ball in the first place?
There are two reasons that I can think of:
1) To introduce new piece of “must-have” equipment that Adidas can sell (just today I got a mailer from Modell’s advertising the new ball)
2) A way to juice scoring (which is what everyone always assumes to be FIFA’s interest, or generally to improve play.
I’m just saying that #2 can backfire especially when this is the first chance for so many of the players to use the ball in real competition, and there’s some evidence that it already has backfired.
"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s
I don't see any reason
why FIFA would consider “increasing scoring” or why that would be in their best interests. It’s the most popular sport in the world and the World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world. Why do they need to increase scoring? Of course Adidas is going to use the World Cup to introduce a new ball and make money. They pay a crap load of money to FIFA to be the official ball of the tournament so they should have that right. To me it’s a non-issue. The tourny will get better, the players will get used to the ball and no one will remember the ball issues in 20 years. The idea of course was to have the very best ball possible for the World Cup. If they didn’t get it right that happens. It’s really not that big of a deal.
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Jun 15, 2010 8:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Uh...
I believe FIFA auctions off the rights to the official ball license each World Cup. Adidas paid for it. Adidas designed the ball and made a billion of them to sell. Looks like they made a pretty crappy ball, focusing more on design than function.
Bullpen Banter
www.bullpenbanter.com
twitter: @alskor
I said in my original comment that FIFA probably makes a fair amount of money off the introduction of the new ball
I’m wondering whether, in the end, the money is worth it.
"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s
The team I played for before college had a relationship with Adidas and we got to mess with the ball before the last world cup
And they are always so different and such a weird feel from the other balls. If this time is anything like last time, I’m not surprised if it affects the play. My question is this: What do they do with our feedback? We kick it around, practice, and play with it and tell the dude in the suit what we think, and he writes it down. A lot of the things he writes down are similar sounding to what comes out later, such as the ball is difficult to shape or strike on the ground (leading one of our strikers to chip it up before half volleying it for shots, that was actually quite effective). Somewhere, between us (and thousands of youth and professional players as well- the Bundesliga played with the ball for TWO MONTHS!) telling him what’s up and the manufacture of the balls, our comments get lost, and the players in the cup are saying the same things we were. This doesn’t happen with boots.
"Voetbal is pas totaal als je wint"- Coach Adun
"The greatest sin is to spurn the gift"- Coach Alistair
Who cares
Having a ball that moves favors American with great athletes but few true skill players anyway.
The new phrase for the ball should be “deal with it”.
Landon was right on.
I found this
Which brings us to the Jabulani: an eight-panel, thermal bonded ball that’s been fit to a mold so the ball shape is completely consistent, from the first ball that’s manufactured to the last. It went through all kinds of research and development testing before it launched last December and was distributed to the various World Cup countries in February.
Adidas even used aerospace software to track the flight of the ball. "We want to make sure the ball flies the most accurately it possibly can—that it’s the most round it can be," Zea says, explaining that thermal bonding reduces the small variation in ball shapes that handstitching could create.
The eight-panel ball also has a striking surface that’s 70 percent larger than previous balls’, and the sweet spot is bigger, too. Adidas’s new Grip’n’Groove technology has been added to the panels to help with wind channeling (to create a more perfect flight), and the ball’s texture makes it play better in different weather conditions.
from vanity fair of all places
it was a good article.
I thought the Brazil vs N Korea game underscored that it’s the players not the ball. I’m hoping the USA can grasp how to do the kind of dribbling and passing that Brazil AND North Korea did in their game. THAT Was good soccer.
