Posted on 06/19/2018 10:41:19 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
Every four years there’s a new ball for the World Cup—and every four years players are unhappy with it. Maybe it’s too light and has too much lift, like the 2002 Fevernova. Or maybe it wobbles unexpectedly in the air, making it harder for goalies to predict its motion, like the 2006 Teamgist. Or maybe the ball suddenly changes speed, dropping out of the air and causing accidental handballs, like the 2010 Jabulani.
At the World Cup level, these tiny changes in a ball’s aerodynamics can legitimately impact a team’s performance, so the intense scrutiny of the World Cup ball is perhaps to be expected. “You could argue that it’s the most important piece of equipment in the most popular sport in the world,” says John Eric Goff, Professor of Physics at University of Lynchburg.
Adidas designs every World Cup ball, and on top of being a big seller for them, engineers at the company are constantly a little closer to the perfect ball, Goff says. The ideal soccer ball is a pimple-covered, perfect sphere, its surface just subtly textured enough to keep the airflow around the ball slightly turbulent. Unintuitive as this might sound, the ridges and pimples on the ball make it more aerodynamic, helping the ball to fly through the air more stably.
The Telstar 18, the design for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, is as close to a perfect sphere as you can get.
(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...
World Cup Group Stage Second Round PING!
Starting shortly with Russia v Egypt.
I stopped reading here on account of witchcraft.
Against bullish Russia, Egypt’s World Cup hopes hang on Salah’s shoulder
http://www.france24.com/en/20180619-world-cup-russia-egypt-salah-injury-shoulder-liverpool
They should just use a standard/official ball and not change it. They just want to sell more balls.
Well, he has the first part down...
That’s dimple-covered, not pimple-covered. silly goose...
They should have put in more effort into training their refs. Senegal/Poland was an officiating disaster.
Nobody’s complained about deflated balls yet.
Balls continue to be unaffected by opposable thumbs.
Well, then just turn the cover inside out!
The 2010 Jabulani was as horrid as the constant mindless din of the vuvuzelas. South Africa should be banned from ever hosting again.
The Jabulani was worse than a beach ball. Its tendency to sail and float robbed the tournament of goals no matter how conservative or wide-open teams played.
I’m sure that’s Germany’s excuse for getting taken to the woodshed by Mexico the other day.
Who gives a crap. It’s soccer.
Seems simple enough...
Are any of the team players kneeling during the playing of their national anthem's?
I watched a Tunisian player today fall on the ground, writhing in pain after some incidental contact with an England player. He stopped, to glance if the referee was watching, then started writhing in pain again.
The fake injury acts should become a competition in their own right.
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