If you've been following World Cup tourneys through the noughties, you'll have noticed that criticizing the official tournament ball has turned into something of an unspoken tradition. The latest offender of football purists' stringent standards is the Adidas Jabulani ball, which was introduced especially for
World Cup 2010. That wouldn't be notable in itself, but this time it's apparently gotten bad enough for NASA to pipe up and drop some science on the subject. The aerodynamics experts (at least we hope they're experts) of the American space agency have said that the 440-gram ball becomes unpredictable when propelled at over 44mph, resulting in the unnatural swerves and deviations that have been plaguing footballers this year. So there you have it, England, Italy and France: a rock solid excuse to pin your lackadaisical exhibitions of mediocrity this year -- it was
the ball's fault.
posted July 7th 2010 9:59AM
also, the ball has too many words on it. so it sucks hard.
@skyblaze lol makes it heavier! =P
"resulting in the unnatural swerves and deviations"
Isn't this the whole point? o_O
@loocas - I think, although I'm no soccer (football) expert, it's supposed to go straight when you kick it (well).
@MRCUR
Unless you want it to curl into on of the top corners.
@MRCUR
Its like a knuckle ball in baseball. A pitcher practices and gets good at it, yea it is made to go straight, but it is also made to do other crazy things. You can do the same thing with a soccer ball, this ball apparently is just making it easier.
This ball KILLED the dreams of a few countries already. Do it my style, go for the jugular ;)
@OjSimpson eh, like who?
@SlaterGS unpredictable does not equal, easier, if you're great at putting effects on something you usually want it to do what you design the kick to do. Have you noticed how many (extra) balls flew high this year? I don't think they pros really intended that, yes, it happens, but between the thin air and the ball I think players had loads of trouble adjusting and what happened was we had a less (aiming) skilled game (IMHO) and a bit more of a crapshoot....I say this, no doubt believing that many of the goals scored were extremely good, skilled shots, but we missed out on others that could have been and some balls that went in were not by force of (kicker) design, but by ball design.
@SlaterGS
Until what normally would have been a perfect goal scoring kick instead results in the ball veering off into a teammate's face.
So it was the ball's fault that shots were sailing 20 ft over the goal? No.
@SlaterGS - My point was, I don't think it should be randomly "unpredictable". If you want it to go straight and kick it in a manner that would be straight, it should do that. From the sounds of it, these balls like to randomly not do that.
@yeoldgreat1 Of course you want it to curl into on of the top corners, but you want it to do that in a predictable way. This year too many freaky accidental hits took place.
I'm not complaining, as this helped my country get to the finals, but there is still a slightly butter aftertaste that this was a bit more due to luck than the game usually is.
@skyblaze
Of course they would disapprove, USA SUCK and now they want something to blame it on -- typical Americans. NASA worry about your own shit.
@SlaterGS
The ball is doing it of its own will, rather than that of the footballer.
This confuses goalkeepers as the trajectory of the ball is basically random, rather than the predictable path it usually travels.
Anyway id be interested to know whether NASA did tests on any other ball. All balls become unstable at speed, maybe the jubulani has a lower tolerance??
@wolfticket II
When it's not the ball, it is the referee. When it's not the referee it is the Vuvuzelas. When it's not the Vuvuzelas, it is the thin air. When it's not the thin air, it is the bad green. (...)
http://www.youtube.com/user/davidhenson44#p/u/1/arfUBkPOK3w
@MRCUR
If you saw the Netherland's goal by Bronckhorst, you can see that it is capable of traveling straight. Still, this ball is designed to exaggerate any spin that is put onto the ball by a skilled striker - it is more likely to fool a goalkeeper and provide shot angles that were not possible in the past.
@shotta i'm with you bro !
@pizzaman mmmm.... butter aftertaste....
@skyblaze What the hell does NASA know about Soccer???????
@loocas
No. Its kind of like the physics of throwing a curve ball in baseball. Put a certain amount of a spin and speed on the sphere and it'll deviate off of a straight course. Soccer players, like pitchers figure out how to manipulate the ball in such a way to use those spins. But if the ball behaves completely differently then they can't "bend" the ball like they normally would, and the players suddenly look like fish out of water. And that's just unfortunate when it occurs on the world's largest stage. The goalies are like batters in a way who need to predict what sort of pitch (or in this case "bend") the opposing pitcher (striker) is going to throw at them. But it shouldn't be unpredictable to the pitcher/striker, and it is and that's the whole point behind the controversy.
Adidas clearly screwed up and Nike is probably licking their chops at the thought of the day when Adidas's contracts come up for renewal with FIFA.
@sweet greggo part deux
Players with a proven goal-scoring technique struggled with it, including Lionel Messi, the current best player in the world, no less. These players wouldn't all of a sudden just 'forget' how hard to kick a ball if the ball hadn't changed behaviour.
I'd like to see the scientific paper on this. You'd think that people at Adidas would of designed something stable and put it through aerodynamics tests themselves...
@mboudreau I'm thinking NASA knows a little bit more about Aerodynamics than Adidas. Just a guess, though.
@scots79
I imagine Adidas probably know a little bit more about football aerodynamics then NASA. Just a guess.
@scots79
The same NASA that plowed a multi-million dollar rover into Mars because they couldn't convert feet to meters and still doesn't use the Metric System as a standard? That one?
NASA isn't the be all and end all. What I'm saying however is that I would imagine that Adidas would have someone on the payroll to do this kind of research. Also, it's 'instability' better to reduce drag and make the ball be able to curve more? Isn't that the whole concept behind any modern jet fighter?
Just sayin'
@scots79 I would guess so too...after all, designing and shooting spaceships into the space is supposed to be more difficult than designing and making a soccer ball..
@mboudreau they did have some scientists at loughborough produce the ball in association with addidas , oh and BTW .. thats sounded as luffburra not loogabrooga as one US citizen assumed when he asked me directions once.... anyways here's the link .. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/service/publicity/news-releases/2009/169_adidas-jabulani.html
@mboudreau
The inherent instability designed into modern jet fighters is generally limited to the pitch axis and is intended to make it easier for the pilot to point the nose in a different direction as quickly as possible.
Those fighters also have computers that make millions of tiny control inputs per second, to make sure that the plane doesn't become a very large lawn dart. Soccer balls, generally, lack flight control computers.
@o0timbo0o
Lufbra: sports & science together? that can only result in the abomination that are those in the purple track-suits.
Not that I'm bitter or anything ;-)
@Dwayne Chapman I'd guess that Adidas *might* have known more, but now they probably don't. Either that, or they found this out on their own, but like most companies, the same shame of bringing any similar information public would've brought too much shame and loss of future profits so we would be none the wiser without NASA.
I seriously think, regardless of how much Adidas knew and still knows about aerodynamics, things like this continuously happen when you try to make special designs. The NBA accepted a re-designed a basketball (I think from Spalding), maybe 5 years back, guess what...they tested it, and tested it. You know the problem? They didn't test it in a real game scenario where people put their *blood, sweat & tears* into the game, so the ball wasn't as slick as it would've been in real games. Therefore, they quickly, after much contraversy brought back the old balls, ok, not quickly but I think they did after enough of a protest...
...sheet/mistakes happen in both private & public sectors...
@Dan S Yes, generally, they do not have computers. LMAO
Fifa is held every 4 consecutive years like the Olympics but always 2 years ahead/behind.
The country/ies where it will be held get to Automatically qualify. But they must prepare the country services, stadiums and THE OFFICIAL BALL partnered with Adidas (Official ball provider and partner of Fifa).
For instance, Germany had the Teamgeist which was designed by Germany/German boards collaborated with the Adidas team.
I remember they thoroughly test EACH ball with advanced computers. Sometimes they announce the results of the tests compared to previous balls used. This year they did not, probably cause it didn't score well, but still MET the requirements.
In 2006, Teamgeist had the most perfect score: weight, size, shape and accuracy wise, in the history of Fifa balls. If the 2010 was superior then the self-loathing South Africans would've most likely boasted about it, eh?
@scots79 No they dont, because its literally not rocket science. The balls behaviour is intended to result in crazy goals, as we've seen quite a few. But at the same time produces bad results sometimes but especially for not so skilled players.
@Kangal The host country has nothing to do with the official ball. It just sounds as if they might because the last 4 hosts have given their ball such a glowing review (nothing to do with the fact that the last 4 host nations have been sponsored by Adidas /s).
The World Cup balls are designed by Adidas & the Molten Corporation, and then tested by Loughborourgh University. The only time actual footballers get to test it is long after the production process, hence all of the complaints from the footballers themselves.
@Kaiser Lol if South Africa would've something to do with the ball we'd be kicking hand-carved wooden jabulani's now
@o0timbo0o
Um, plenty of people say loogabrooga including me and plenty of people I know who live there. Even if he did just assume, it's still valid.
Obama: "Nasa, sorry no more funding for space stuff right now."
NASA top brass: "Okay guys, who likes soccer?"
@ilh But they're all joking, right?
Right?
Let the nerd wars begin.
@scots79 I guarantee that Adidas knows a thing or two about aerodynamics. A professor of mine has done a lot of aerodynamics research and design for a certain sports company (not Adidas). I would predict that Adidas has more highly respected Aerodynamics researchers than NASA because they can pay for them.
@mboudreau
Are you saying the imperial system doesn't work? The reason why that messup happened is because they were working with the European Space Agency.
It's no excuse but that's why it happened.
@Gasaraki
He's not saying the imperial system doesn't work, he's saying it fails miserably.
yeah, blame the ball, instead of the pathetic team performances by all of the aforementioned teams.
I heard on NPR that some players were saying the ball was possessed by demons because it did crazy things. This NASA report seems to lend credence to their observations (if not their theory).
1st!
sure this ball moves. But every Ball in every tourney has been different, every ball grabs a diff effect on air. This one just does it more =P
But the players have to get used to it! and stop making excuses!
@Rosco911 aww man :( lol
@Rosco911
Even though you said first, I will give a +1 for the latter part of the comment. It is all a part of the game and they need to get used to it. They are professionals getting paid a lot of money (granted nothing close to many other sports.) If that was my job, I would just have to work at it more.
Blaming it on the ball... just like in golf :D.
Yay! Our tax dollars at work.
Hey Nasa.. don't you have some Space to be exploring or something....?