The controversy against World Cup balls has been creating quite a fuss for sometime now. The Adidas Jabulani, which means ‘to celebrate’ in Zulu, is the 11th edition of adidas’s FIFA World Cup balls. The 11 colours that are present on the Jabulani pay tribute to both football and the country in which Africa’s first-ever FIFA World Cup will be held. They represent a colour for each team player, every official South African language and for each of the 11 South African communities that will welcome the world. The design celebrates two of the most important facets of the South African nation – diversity and harmony – as it is these principles that make it such a colourful and welcoming nation.

Jabulani ushers in some major advances in football technology. Running your hands over the ball, the first impression is the grip’n’groove texture, which allows for maximum control, stable flight and perfect grip under all conditions. The grip ’n’ groove’s profile circles twist around round the entire ball in an optimal aerodynamic way and the integrated grooves provide unmatched flight characteristics, making this the most stable and most accurate adidas ball ever.

As opposed to the flat-paneled molding of previous Adidas footballs, Jabulani comprises eight thermally bonded 3D panels that have been, for the first time ever, spherically molded to make this ball a perfectly round football that is more accurate than ever before.
Thomas Van Schaik, the Adidas Head of Global Public Relations said, “According to the rigorous FIFA specification range for footballs, we have created a ball that is small and heavy allowing for maximum accuracy, perfect grip and exceptionally stable flight.”

Tested for use at Loughborough University in England and at the Adidas football laboratory in Germany, the “Jabulani” ball was put into action through adidas’ partnership with the world-class athletes at AC Milan, FC Bayern Munchen, the Orlando Pirates and Ajax Cape Town.

Mr. Gordon Banks accuses the new World Cup ball of “destroying the art of goalkeeping” but these statements are normal. Many World Cup players have expressed shock at the new ball’s tendency to explode off the foot, shift in direction and bounce erratically. Even the likes of players like Messi and Coaches like Dunga have expressed concerns.

The Problem- The altitude level of Stadiums . For example at -In Rustenburg, which is 1150 metres up; Balls invariably travel faster in the thinner air of South Africa’s highveld  giving absolutely no time for the keeper to react.

This is creating so much anger amongst goalkeepers.  If a goalkeeper has never played at altitude, he’s not used to see the ball move at a faster pace than at sea level.  Combine this with the tendency for the newer balls to move drastically in flight, you can only sympathize with the goalkeeper’s fear of conceding more goals than normal. Petr Cech said “You can feel the energy coming towards you, like a shot.” Italy’s star goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon called it a “beachball.” And Brazil ‘keeper Julio Cesar compared it unflatteringly to supermarket stock. After his team’s warm-up win against Saudi Arabia last Sunday, Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas also unfavorably compared it to a beach-ball. Since playing with it in his team’s friendly with Japan at the weekend, England’s David James has become the latest of a number of high-profile goalkeepers — along with Buffon and Brazil’s Julio Cesar voicing their concerns over the ball. “The ball is dreadful,” the 39-year-old told reporters. “There are undoubtedly going to be some goals scored in this tournament which in previous tournaments with different balls wouldn’t have been scored. It’ll allow some people to score extra goals, but leave some goalkeepers looking daft.” Wendell [who is the goalkeeper coach for the Brazilian team] stated that the ball “is highly unpredictable when hit from long distances”.

But unlike past World Cups where strikers and goalkeepers were divided over the merits of the ball, this year those in-goal have been backed up by some on-field players too.

Marcos Tulio Tanaka, who scored a goal for Japan as well as an own-goal for England on Sunday, has described the ball as “difficult for defenders to deal with.” And Italy striker Giampaolo Pazzini agrees. “The new ball is a disaster for strikers,” he said. “It’s fast and it weighs less than a normal ball.” Luis Fabiano [who is a striker for Brazil] commented that the ball is “supernatural” because the person “kicks it and it moves out of the way”. Frank Lampard of the English National Football/Soccer Team has praised the ball saying that it is “a true to hit very strong ball”. Xavi [the midfielder for Spain] have also praised the Jabulani Ball. Xabi Alonso has also stated that people “have to get used to the ball.” Real Madrid’s Brazilian superstar Kaka said, “For me, contact with the ball is all-important. That’s just great with this ball.”

But despite such pre-tournament disapproval, Adidas officials have staunchly defended the Jabulani ball. They insist that it has been designed to aid the players, with the latest advances in football technology in mind.

Let’s hope we see some spectacular goals and very few scoreless draws. We want our best players to score and our favorite team to win. Regardless the ball is good, bad or ugly.

You have to feel at least a little bit sorry for Robert Green. No one, especially him, will ever forget his blunder for England against the United States in the 2010 World Cup when Clint Dempsey’s shot went straight to Green, but the England goalkeeper fumbled the save and the ball found its way into the back of the net.

Watch the above video to see Robert Green’s goalkeeper blunder in slow motion.

The sad thing for Robert Green is that the likelihood of him playing another game for England, let alone in this World Cup, is practically nil.

 

As the first weekend of World Cup action draws to a close, the tournament has proven itself to be thoroughly captivating.  While the South African, USA and Ghana teams may have created the most unforeseen results with the ball at their feet, there have been some tremendously positive surprises apart from the players and teams.  Chief among them are-

A simply fabulous job by ESPN and ABC.  Four years ago there was visible anger among the US soccer community at the way ESPN and ABC produced their World Cup coverage – poor announcers, lousy in-studio talent and a purely amateurish approach to covering the world’s greatest sporting event.  This year’s coverage is a sea-change.  The in-studio talent has been made up of some of the most famous and insightful commentators on the soccer scene.  Among the best have been Ruud Gullit, Jurgen Klinsman, the eminently likable Steve McManaman and the surprisingly insightful Roberto Martinez.  Combined with Alexi Lalas and Bob Ley, they have been outstanding.  Furthermore, the play-by-play teams have been terrifically engaging, and in the US-England game the Martin Tyler and John Harkes partnership went surprisingly well.   The camera angles and graphic analysis has been great, and the entire production has walked that fine line of explaining the game to novices and giving great insights to aficionados.  Any fans expecting more from ABC/ESPN are just looking for reasons to take offense.

The referees have been spot-on.  Soccer is the toughest sport to referee in real time and the easiest to referee in slow motion.  In real time, the pitch is gigantic, the action is end-to-end, and the difference between fair and foul is made up of inches and fractions of a second.  Nevertheless, the referees have gotten everything exactly right so far.  From the disallowed Mexican goal for offside despite the defender on the goal line to the Serbian handball to the two red cards that have been handed out so far, everything has been on the money.  In the US-England game in particular, the Brazilian referee who had a reputation for sending players off waived just enough yellow to not interfere in the flow of the game but to make sure nothing got out of hand.  At some point in this tournament, the law of averages dictates that there will be a horrible, impactful mistake by a referee, but so far there can be no complaints.

FIFA and the South African organizers have done a special job.  When the World Cup was awarded to South Africa, many people raised an alarm.  They thought this was a politically correct decision and that South Africa had neither the stadia nor the resources to put on a tournament of this magnitude.  Now that the games are here, the entire affair has been virtually flawless.  The stadia are beautiful and Johannesburg’s Soccer City is simply a marvel.  The pitches have been perfect (how can you have perfect pitches in South Africa in winter and yet Wembley still looks like a motocross track?), and the fans have been as joyous and positive as you could ever hope.  Even the World Cup concert was great.  The entire scene looks glorious, and credit has to go where it is deserved – the excellent South African organizing committee and the team at FIFA who advised, guided, and effectively cajoled them towards success. 

I am sure that there will be events worthy of complaint at some point during this World Cup.  However, so far the entire operation has been as smooth and enjoyable as one could ever hope.

Back once again for Sunday’s late game which see’s the German side look to have another good World Cup campaign,  but Australia stand in their way and have enough quality to get the win. I do write these live and spell check when I have a chance, but you may have to excuse some of my spelling and punctuation today as I appear to be suffering from a hangover, after a Saturday night I can barely remember. I certainly don’t remember England’s goal, as thanks to ITV half the country missed it. As ever, comments are welcome and you can follow me on twitter @clusks. Have to get that plug in there:

- The media in England today are all focusing on Rob Green, instead of considering that we got a point against our hardest group opponent, disgraceful really but the sad thing is that loads of people in England buy into this. I’ve also seen a lot of people criticize Emile Heskey, despite the fact he was a goal threat unlike the anonymous Rooney and got us an assist. But of course – he’s just a donkey isn’t he? He didn’t score therefore a rubbish performance! I’m hoping that Rob Green isn’t the scapegoat for England if they go out the World Cup.

- ITV have Edgar Davids, Kevin Keegan and Patrick Viera in the studio. Edgar Davids has the world’s biggest glasses on, he looks a bit like Harry Potter, or if anyone has seen The Wire, he looks like that guy that comes along called Brother something (if anyone can tell me his name please do so!). I didn’t know this, but John Travolta has been hanging about with the Australia team – nobody is quite sure why, but he has a terrible touch of the ball. I’d keep it on the hush Australia.

- Just seen Marcel Desailly’s celebration to Ghana’s goal – he just started shouting out about things like chickens and goats, he was loving it though. North Korea are a bizarre team, on the first day ITV showed them training in a local gym with regular people in at the same time, and now we’ve seen them perform some strange training routine where they all stand in a line while one performs a diving header on the floor through everybody’s legs. Then one player got hit in the lower region. I can’t wait to see them play, did you know Kim Jong Il has refused for the tournament to be broadcast in North Korea unless the team win the cup. What a shame, someone might tell them that they’ve won before they’ve seen it.

- Key man: Well ITV have done very little actual analysis of the game, but that won’t stop me as the national anthems are belted out (I love Germany’s!). Klose is a danger man, but I’ve took a shine to Ozil this season and he looks like a great player in this youthful Germany squad. Tim Cahill starts as a centre forward and it will be interesting to see how that works, as he loves to score from deep as opposed to playing up top.

Italy coach Marcello Lippi has dropped the strongest hint yet that the Italian league's best goalscorer will not start tomorrow's FIFA World Cup™ Group F opener with Paraguay. Lippi tonight put his men through their paces in an 11-a-side practice match featuring what seems likely to be his starting XI, before telling the media: "If you don't understand my line-up, you should change your trade."

That team did not feature veteran midfielder Gennaro Gattuso or Udinese forward Antonio Di Natale, far and away the best goalscorer in Serie A last season with 29 goals. Instead, Alberto Gilardino lined up as the central striker with Simone Pepe to his right and Vincenzo Iaquinta out of position on the left. Daniele De Rossi teamed up with Claudio Marchisio in midfield with Riccardo Montolivo in the playmaking role.

When pressed, though, Lippi told journalists: "If you don't understand the kind of line-up I am using, you better change jobs. Come on, what excuse do you have? But I'm not going to tell you, anyway. Let me say once again that I haven't even told the players. If I tell you today, that is not fair. We'll see if you got it right."

Whether the same XI cross the white line at Cape Town's Green Point Stadium tomorrow remains to be seen. Lippi, though, is happy to draw on his experiences of the victorious 2006 campaign to stay calm amid the media "scepticism".

"I can tell you there is a great will to do well in the tournament ," he said. "The scepticism I respect, although I don't agree with it because it comes from just two friendly matches. It's part of a programme we had and that we knew would lead us here. They were not crucial.

"I don't know what the scepticism is due to. I won't deny that injury prevented me doing certain experiments, but I assure you the team are ready to play a great match. There are no doubts about our preparation."

Lippi's only injury problem is Andrea Pirlo, the chief playmaker still recovering from a calf problem suffered before the tournament. "He is not going to be ready for tomorrow," said the veteran coach. "I'll be happy if he is ready for the third match. I think he'll try to be ready for the second match but I would be happy for the third match."

Slovenian pair Rene Krhin and Tim Matavz, Ryad Boudebouz of Algeria and Serbia’s Radosav Petrovic were all spectators on Day 3 of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. Milovan Rajevac and Joachim Low were, between them, responsible for keeping another five Hyundai Best Young Player Awards candidates benched today, while the latter only introduced Marko Marin as an 81st-minute substitute.

The respective coaches of Ghana and Germany did, however, give one contender apiece a long enough an opportunity to excel. That, as FIFA.com reflects upon, they did emphatically.

Andre Ayew: The Ghana left-winger spent last season on loan at Arles Avignon in the French Ligue 2. His marker against Serbia, Branislav Ivanovic, enjoyed an excellent 2009/10 campaign for Chelsea in the English Premier League. That gulf in competition was not, however, evident at Loftus Versfeld Stadium. Ayew, indeed, tricked the right-back on multiple occasions and twice presented team-mates with goalscoring chances. On a day when the Black Stars took the first step towards beating more illustrious rivals to the biggest prize in football, their young star took the first step towards outstripping more celebrated contenders to a prestigious individual prize.

Thomas Muller: The Germany No13 was magnificent throughout against Australia in Durban, creating one, scoring another and proving an incessant source of torment to his opponents in a 4-0 victory. Muller started brightly, teasing the Socceroos from his berth on the right flank, and he set up Lukas Podolski's goal with a crafty, accurate cut-back. The Bayern Munich player then turned scorer in the 68th minute, receiving the ball just inside the area, side-stepping a challenge, and dispatching the ball in off the post. His impressive all-round display also included purposeful off-the-ball movement and defensive clearances. Ultimately, Muller staked an early claim to the Best Young Player throne his team-mate Lukas Podolski seized in 2006.