In this video, pay attention to the… something, which you can see from different angles, in the first Goal of the Week.
Look behind the white goalkeeper, to his left, just a foot or so away from the back of the goal. A vaguely round-looking, silvery-whitish whatzit. I can’t seem to figure out what it is. My first thought was audio or video equipment; after all, you can clearly see a microphone and some other techy stuff directly behind the goal. But this round thing I can’t place. Best I can tell, it’s a deflated ball. I’m not really clear on why a deflated ball would be so close to the field of play and not, you know, in the equipment trailer. Is someone in Houston’s clubhouse going to lose their job for not properly storing the equipment?
Never mind, I think I figured it out. I think it’s the goalkeeper’s towel. I’ve been watching more Goal of the Week videos and it looks like a lot of times I can see a goalie’s towel, and sometimes a water bottle, by the goal, presumably so he can dry off and grab a drink when play is stopped.
One can buy goalkeeper towels. It looks as if they are for cleaning dirt off the gloves and to keep them dry. Pitches tend to be watered with a sprinkler before games to increase the speed of the ball across the grass by reducing friction, while a goalkeeper will not want to reduce the friction of his/her gloves.
It’s not actually deflated; it just seems that way because the stadium is colder than the locker room where it was inflated up to proper pressure.
<ducking and running>