The Oscars should have a categor for best actor at the world cup series.
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 ...
“They should have put in more effort into training their refs. Senegal/Poland was an officiating disaster.”
I was going to post the same thing.
The real disaster was Poland’s midfield. Couldn’t make a decent pass to save their lives.
Open with ten minutes of free kicks, then play this ridiculous “game”.
The Oscars should have a categor for best actor at the world cup series.
SO they are making a giant golf ball.
I watched the championship game. At the end, the announcer declared that South Africa should now be considered a "First World" nation (equal to the US, UK, etc.) because they sucessfully hosted the games. LOL!
First paragraph is litany of excuses only exceeded by “the sun got in my eyes”. Everybody was playing the game with the same ball so there was no advantage for anybody.
They should have put in more effort into training their refs
Yellow Cards, don’t leave home without them and they did.
Then there are the bribes designed to influence the games.
The amount varies every year.
Something is going on with some of the refs. Brazil got screwed on a number of calls and should have had been awarded at least two penalties.
In the England match, the ref made a relatively lame call against England in the penalty box, yet Harry Kane was tackled by an opposing player using both hands and arms.
Can’t convince me those two refs haven’t been bribed. Maybe having the tournament in Russia has something to do with it.
Russia beat Egypt tonight in St. Petersburg and all the goals came in the second half.
After it was over, you could hear the roar in the stadium and President Putin made.a surprise phone call.
Russia only needs to beat Uruguay to make to the Round Of 16.
It beat two weak opponents in Group A so now its final opponent is a storied South American team with two World Cups under its belt.’
Will be fascinating to watch how that turns out.
I swear, I’ve watched too many teams are just playing pause soccer. Standing at midfield, 4 players continuously passing to each other. Not trying to move the ball forward at all.
It doesn’t matter whether they are ahead, behind, or tied. Same passing. Again, Again, and again.
Russia in all likelihood is already in the round of 16. I see no viable way for either Egypt or Saudi Arabia to get to six points and even if they do, Russia has an overwhelming goal differential of seven at this point.
Maybe if the losing team were executed after the game
it would boost the excitement.
Maybe thrown down the stadium steps...
It might be the only thing that would get ME to
watch soccer, come to think of it that might liven
up the game of golf too.
The game’s tempo depends on the quality of the opposing teams. It can get very fast if you have a great team vs a weak one.
Less so if they’re balanced in strength. And it takes superb teamwork to score goals, retain possession and keep one’s opponent from scoring.
Only true aficionados appreciate how football can draw them into the point you identify with the team and its defeats and victories.
No wonder football is the world’s most popular sport.
“Maybe if the losing team were executed after the game...”
Wasn’t that rumored to have happened awhile ago? Maybe Kadaffi? I think some keeper (goalie) was murdered by a fan in England(?) after he lost a game.
Meso-american football, it’s not for sissies.
Agreed.
That said, only four countries are in contention for the final: Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Germany.
At the top of the sport, its truly an elite club and the World Cup has been won since 1930 by either South American or European teams.
It won’t be different in 2018.
Can’t believe Poland lost to Sennie-gal. Thought Robert would score a hat trick against them. But, there have been some surprises in the early round of games. Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Portugal all drew their games. Couple of upsets. Going to be an interesting World Cup that is for sure.
Read Arthur C. Clarke published “A Slight Case of Sunstroke
About a soccer referee that the fans do not like.
The fans use mirrors on the referee.... : )
http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2007/09/arthur-clarkes-slight-case-of-sunstroke.html
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