With the start of the 2006 World Cup in Munich, Germany - the teams from around the globe will be playing with what Adidas is hailing as the roundest soccer ball ever produced. The +Teamgeist (“team spirit”) ball was engineered with a “free-flowing” set of 14 pre-shaped panels—fewer than the traditional 32—resulting in a smoother, more consistently round surface that supposedly responds more accurately to the force of a kick. Adidas backs up this claim with its own experimental data, including tests with a robotic kicking machine that diligently shot the +Teamgeist against a wall a few hundred thousand times.
The changes are also being felt on the field. “It’s very goalkeeper unfriendly,” England’s keeper Paul Robinson told the Times. “It’s very light and moves a lot in the air.” Oddly enough, the ball is actually on the high end of FIFA’s maximum weight specifications, meaning this apparent lightness must be attributed to its new aerodynamic profile. And while the goalies don’t love the new ball, spectators will probably be hearing “goooaaaaaaal” a bit more often this year, making the transition for us Yanks, accustomed to watching the Phoenix Suns score 120+ points a game, a bit easier to take.
Check out the article at Popular Science.
Check out the World Cup 2006 Scoreboard. For World Cup 2006 News and Statistics, check out Fox Sports - Soccer.
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