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Not content with wrecking the last world cup, FIFA and adidas have decided to make a better job of it at the Euros.
After the recent Belgium game, Joe Hart commented 'It's quick. When they hit the post, I couldn't even get a token dive in'.
Here are my guaranteed predictions for the ball behaviour in the next few weeks.
1) Commentators will be passing remarks on players for poor ball control.
2) Goalkeepers will come under fire for making mistakes for not being able to deal with the speed of the ball, and which the commentators in their misunderstanding won't have noticed at all.
3) As usual with this type of ball, you will see plenty of the same mind baffling shots and glaring misses that are way off target and that rise at 45 degree angles high up into the stands. ( The old stitched ball allowed more contact with it before it moved. The new one is on it's way at the slightest touch).
4) Shooting for some players will be a godsend. Goalkeepers will not be able to re-act quickly enough to ball speed. And some may be branded with unpleasant remarks. (Rob Green was hard done by the media in South Africa and I look forward to the day when commentators and journalists apologise to him for theirs and FIFA's failings).
5) Players won't be able to re-act quickly enough to high speed balls across the box.
6) Vertical height bounces of the ball will be outrageous (from goalkeeper drop kicks).
7) Rebound speed will be unbelievable, as when hard shots come back from goalposts, or where a player gets in the way at close range.
8) Full contact headers will go like bullets.
9) The ball will bobble badly on ground passes.
10) Most games will be frustrating to watch, and will be described as verging on boring, due to the fact that difficult ball control will make stringing a succession of fast passes together nigh on impossible. You will see a lot of 'stop start' negative game-flow.
11) You will not see any fast continuous first-time passing that barcelona and arsenal were capable of because the ball doesn't allow it.
Please remember that the majority of leagues and players have never used this type of ball, except in the recent internationals, euro qualifiers, eufa cup matches, and CL games. Their leagues use stitched balls, whereas the jabulani type are completely sealed, a more professional version of the old rubber balls you may have used when you were playing with as a kid.
It's a legitimate excuse but players and managers won't mention it because uninformed people will say that you're making excuses, and the herd instinct follows. You can't play with one type of ball in your own league, get 100% used to it, and then play with another completely different behaviour type ball in mid-week european cup, international friendlies and qualifiers, in between league games.
Watch the ball behaviour in the games, and what the commentators say, as they are not aware of the problem. We don't want this ball ever coming into our leagues.
You may know that the new Euro ball is called the Tango. Several hundred million football supporters certainly have been.
After the recent Belgium game, Joe Hart commented 'It's quick. When they hit the post, I couldn't even get a token dive in'.
Here are my guaranteed predictions for the ball behaviour in the next few weeks.
1) Commentators will be passing remarks on players for poor ball control.
2) Goalkeepers will come under fire for making mistakes for not being able to deal with the speed of the ball, and which the commentators in their misunderstanding won't have noticed at all.
3) As usual with this type of ball, you will see plenty of the same mind baffling shots and glaring misses that are way off target and that rise at 45 degree angles high up into the stands. ( The old stitched ball allowed more contact with it before it moved. The new one is on it's way at the slightest touch).
4) Shooting for some players will be a godsend. Goalkeepers will not be able to re-act quickly enough to ball speed. And some may be branded with unpleasant remarks. (Rob Green was hard done by the media in South Africa and I look forward to the day when commentators and journalists apologise to him for theirs and FIFA's failings).
5) Players won't be able to re-act quickly enough to high speed balls across the box.
6) Vertical height bounces of the ball will be outrageous (from goalkeeper drop kicks).
7) Rebound speed will be unbelievable, as when hard shots come back from goalposts, or where a player gets in the way at close range.
8) Full contact headers will go like bullets.
9) The ball will bobble badly on ground passes.
10) Most games will be frustrating to watch, and will be described as verging on boring, due to the fact that difficult ball control will make stringing a succession of fast passes together nigh on impossible. You will see a lot of 'stop start' negative game-flow.
11) You will not see any fast continuous first-time passing that barcelona and arsenal were capable of because the ball doesn't allow it.
Please remember that the majority of leagues and players have never used this type of ball, except in the recent internationals, euro qualifiers, eufa cup matches, and CL games. Their leagues use stitched balls, whereas the jabulani type are completely sealed, a more professional version of the old rubber balls you may have used when you were playing with as a kid.
It's a legitimate excuse but players and managers won't mention it because uninformed people will say that you're making excuses, and the herd instinct follows. You can't play with one type of ball in your own league, get 100% used to it, and then play with another completely different behaviour type ball in mid-week european cup, international friendlies and qualifiers, in between league games.
Watch the ball behaviour in the games, and what the commentators say, as they are not aware of the problem. We don't want this ball ever coming into our leagues.
You may know that the new Euro ball is called the Tango. Several hundred million football supporters certainly have been.
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