Blame it on The Footy

It’s not a new phenomenon. World Cup just around the corner, the testing starts and the whispers follow: “There’s a new ball! It’s lighter! It moves more in the air!”

But this year’s disquiet is even louder than usual. We’ve all seen the quotes but the assertions that it is “a disaster” and “an enemy of goalkeepers” sum up the most extreme opinions of the Jabulani (ironically, translating as "to celebrate"). 

The German manufacturers of the offending item, adidas, were quick to divert blame. The testing at altitude was the cause, they said. However, for a tournament that was due to be played, at least partially, well above sea level you would think Adi Dassler’s disciples would have made sure the ball created for this specific event could handle the conditions.

As it turns out, it seems like it can. This World Cup has so far (at time of going to press) been marked with woeful shooting, shoddy goalkeeping and an alarmingly high amount of Nike Superfly II Elite boots on show. The ball shows no obvious signs of not acting like a football should. A coincidence that (caution: I don’t have the stats to back up this next statement) we see more players wearing Nike boots than ever before the same year that adidas comes under the most criticism of a match ball it has ever experienced? Well, on the other side of the coin, some have scoffed that the only teams/players in support of the Jabulani are those with adidas sponsorship deals, most notably France.

As I mentioned, the last World Cup ball was criticised as well. As has every ball of every major international tournament in recent memory. But the last World Cup featured some great long range goals. I don’t remember any perverse movement of the matchball, only the swerve put on the ball by the way it is struck. Joe Cole’s fantastic strike versus Sweden a prime example of a player making the ball move at a pace and trajectory of his own choosing and getting said sphere to finish up exactly where he wanted it to.

I choose now to get these feelings off my chest as later on today we will witness Nike’s writer of the future extraordinaire, Cristiano Ronaldo, in his first action of the tournament. It is likely that by the time you read this, he has already proven me right, wrong or split opinion but I feel that Mr Ronaldo seems to have a lot more fun striking a Nike football in the English or Spanish league than he does with an adidas equivalent. So many of his goals are acclaimed but the movement of the ball after his foot makes contact often seems irregular.

For example, the Portuguese’s love of smashing the valved section of a Nike example for freekicks to produce a shot that looks to be flying yards over the bar and then feasting on the freak fruits of this labour as it suddenly dips to end in the net may not be so simple with a Jabulani. After all, adidas have tried to create the most "perfectly round" ball the world has ever seen. Accordingly, so far this much maligned product has curled right when hit with the right side of a boot, left when hit with the left and the rules of physics have prevailed. Cristiano, your move.