They were discussing on the radio that in the German league they had been playing with the ball in question for the last 4 months of the season. One commentator said that other countries were remiss in not using it domestic competitions. Is that true though? Could have other countries have done that?
MLS did in the US.
I think the English Premier League has a contract with a different ball maker, so they didn’t have that option. It’s something FIFA should look at really, as every world cup we get players complaining about the new ball. Even if it’s more a confidence thing than anything, it can’t help the standard of play.
Relative to prior World Cups, I’ve noticed quite a bit more “knuckle ball”-type movements while the ball is in the air. Is this normal for soccer balls. At first, I thought it was just because of everything now being shown in high def. But there seem to be many complaints.
The players, and especially the keepers have been complaining that the ball is hard to control and unpredictable. It seems odd since it was designed at Loughborough University and was refined using CFD and other techniques to make it as consistent and predictable as possible.
Whether that has translated to behaving the way professional footballers expect, however, remains to be seen. Perhaps they have learned the quirks of “ordinary” balls so are upset that these ones don’t behave like that.
Well the ball does seem to have some weird movement on it, it also seems to go faster. Anywhow all kinds of players are complaining about it (many more than get to the media*, latest was Fernando Torres), so I’m getting ever more inclined to believe they are at least different than the other balls.
About the Bundesliga using it and others not. League’s, teams, FA’s all have sponsor contracts, and many of them not with Adidas. So to honour their contracts they can’t allow the use of an Adidas ball. It’s all about the money.
*I’ve heard numerous dutch players say specifically that they don’t want to use the ball as an excuse for poor play, saying they have used it in training and should be used to it. To me this sounds like they are doing their best not to seem whiny about the ball, while they do feel they needed to get used to it.
Interestingly, the stats of the Bundesliga show no abnormalities in the significant areas (successful passing percentage, shots in the goal from afar vs. saves, etc.) once the ball was in play. Some keepers were complaining about it but you heard little from the players. And players who came from other leagues to the Bundesliga during the season seemed to have no trouble at all to adapt to the different ball, so I’m not sure, how serious I should take the current complaints.
Besides, I’ve already mentioned that every team had ample time to get used to it; if you don’t train with it in advance, well, that’s just foolish.
Of course, the ball might behave strangely on the different grass that is used on the South African fields and the altitude at some locations might play a role too. Still …
You’re right, I forgot to mention some people (who should know what they’re on about) say it’s the combination of altitude and the new ball, so it might be that. A couple of days ago I heard this Australian ex-player (no clue who he was) who also worked for Adidas (I believe) talk about how this ball has no seams - it’s being glued together at high temperatures - which takes away the drag the seams used to create. According to him this drag is what gives good player the control over the ball.
I have no clue whether this is a possible explanation, but hey I thought I’d share.
And apparently the 25 Jabulani balls that England was given disappeared mysteriously. So England didn’t have much time to practice with the new ball. That’s one explanation for England’s poor performance, anyway.
See paragraph 5: Rooting for England | The New Yorker