As per usual, every World Cup tournament brings sees the release of a new football, and as per usual a lot of fuss has been made over the balls charateristics and movement in the air.
Germany 2006 sees the introduction of the Adidas 'Teamgeist', which is German for "Beach Ball".
I think...
Anyway, with the World Cup now in its sixth day, I have noticed a few things possibly related to the ball.
Thing 1 : The amount of good goals.
I cant remember a World Cup that has started with this many great goals. We had two great goals from Germany in the opening game (Lahm and Frings) and that has continued thus far with Rosicky of the Czech Republic to my current favourite, Mohamed of Togo.
Thing 2 : The amount of shots from distance.
With the ball moving as it does, it makes sense to have long range shots.
Thing 3 : The amount of great saves.
The balls unpredictablitly in the air has supposedly made it harder for keepers to judge the flight of the ball - has this resulted in the keepers being at full stretch and at the top of their game to make some of the outstanding saves we have seen so far?
Thing 4 : No penalties award. (Correct at time of going to press)
This is just a theory, but due to the movement of the ball, a lot of teams have been hitting shots from outside the penalty area (see Thing 2, above). Attacking players in the penalty area and therefore the amount of fouls made in the box will be reduced.
They are just my observations and theories and I could, of course, be totally wrong.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
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1 comment:
Interesting point about the lack of penalties. With all those long-range shots, it could be a return to the good old days of the 30-yard screamer (as patented by Hereford's Ronnie Radford against Arsenal in 1971...)
I think the key is to try and keep the ball down when hitting those long shots. When it gets some air under it, BOY does it balloon up skywards!
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