The Ball... [WC]

pwd

Dunphy was suggested it's like a beach ball, and that the large number of bad long balls, especially high balls, is down to its bad design. The panel rubbished that suggestion, and said the players had had enough time to practice and to adjust to playing with it. My own thoughts at the time was that the level of mistakes was more likely to be down to players being distracted by the vuvuzelas.
However, watching a bit more of the games, the ball does seem to be flying up pretty high an awful lot of the time, and I wonder if maybe he has a point. I don't know what players have said about the ball, if anything. I think Dunphy said the only ones who claimed to like it were sponsored by its manufacturer though. Thoughts?

edit:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1286255/England-players-blame-new-World-Cup-ball-Greens-howler.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Well the England players are blaming the ball for Green's fumble I see

edit 2:

"The new ball is not great," [Carrick] told the FA's website. "It is a bit like a beach ball.

"You cannot trust it really. With some of the goals you set the ball going off in one direction and then it moves in another.

"As soon as you put any air into a pass it turns into a lottery."

from: http://worldcup.sportinglife.com/story/0,27111,17308_6199823,00.html

PerrinV2

I've seen a couple of times where a keeper has come out to collect a ball after it bounces and the ball bounces a mile high.I think it happened to lloris the other day

redout

mike65

This world cup could feature a modern low for goal-scoring. No doubt the ball gets tweaked every time for purely commercial reasons but that doen't mean it has to be shiote.

Paparazzo

Yeah, the whole ball thing is purely commercial. We don't need a pigs bladder, but a standard ball weight/material/panels/surface that's used in all tournaments could only improve football.

I posted this yesterday from wiki:

Brazil goalkeeper Júlio César compared it to a "supermarket" ball that favored strikers and worked against goalkeepers.[7] Other similar complaints came from Giampaolo Pazzini,[8] Claudio Bravo[9] and Iker Casillas.[10] Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon said, "it is very sad that a competition so important as the world championship will be played with such a horrible ball."[11] whilst Brazilian striker Luís Fabiano called the ball "supernatural", as it unpredictably changed direction when travelling through the air, adding that none of the players of the Brazilian squad, such as Júlio Baptista, reacted in favour of the ball.[12] Joe Hart of England, after training with the ball for a number of days, said the "balls have been doing anything but staying in my gloves."[13]. He did, however, describe the ball as "good fun" to use, even though it is hard work for goalkeepers to cope with.[14] It was suggested the ball behaved "completely different" at altitude by England coach Fabio Capello.[15] Denmark coach Morten Olsen after their 1-0 friendly defeat at the hands of Australia said: "We played with an impossible ball and we need to get used to it."[16] Brazilian striker Robinho stated, "for sure the guy who designed this ball never played football. But there is nothing we can do, we have to play with it."[17] English goalkeeper David James said that "the ball is dreadful. It's horrible, but it's horrible for everyone."[18] Marcus Hahnemann replied to the ballmaker Adidas saying that "Technology is not everything; scientists came up with the atom bomb, doesn't mean we should have invented it."

Funny, the only player that seems to like it is Clint Dempsey, and that was before yesterdays game

eZe^

Guess Robert Green didn't get the memo about the dimples on the ball making it easier to hold.

mike65

Marcus Hahnemann replied to the ballmaker Adidas saying that "Technology is not everything; scientists came up with the atom bomb, doesn't mean we should have invented it."

Steady on, its not that bad

monkey9

Well, there has certainly been a lot of overhit crosses and passes and free kicks going so high over the bar in this World Cup.

It's all very well saying the players have had plenty of time to get used to the ball, but why should they?? Just put a proper football out there and stop messing about with all this lab sh!t

Columbia

Lowest average goals per game of any World Cup was 2.21, in 1990.

So far we've had 5.75 games, and just 7 goals, an average of 1.22. So we're a goal a game behind the record lowest average.

I do blame the ball, we've seen enough now to know that it's absolutely impossible to get down out of the air.

That_Guy

Columbia wrote: »

Lowest average goals per game of any World Cup was 2.21, in 1990.

So far we've had 5.75 games, and just 7 goals, an average of 1.22. So we're a goal a game behind the record lowest average.

I do blame the ball, we've seen enough now to know that it's absolutely impossible to get down out of the air.

Yep. I know they're professionals but nearly every free kick within scoring distance has gone high and wide.

pickarooney

Columbia wrote: »

Lowest average goals per game of any World Cup was 2.21, in 1990.

So far we've had 5.75 games, and just 7 goals, an average of 1.22. So we're a goal a game behind the record lowest average.

I do blame the ball, we've seen enough now to know that it's absolutely impossible to get down out of the air.

Matches against North Korea should see that total doubled.

ctrl-alt-delete

There have been many giving out about the ball, normally it is just the keepers. Seedorf said on the BBC that he had a kick about with it with Milan and he didn't like it.

To me it is not just free kicks that are suffering, much more crosses than should be are flying over the box to the other side of the pitch.

If the ball was mine and i went playing with it with a group of lads when i was younger, it would be classed as a "blow away" and rejected straight away!

GLaDOS

Much worse then the vuvuzela's for ruining the world cup