After day one I couldn't help but wonder who on our team is going to hit these long range shots. I know it's been mentioned on here before, but our team doesn't have anyone who stands out as an all out shooter. Obviously this is only one possible way to score, but it seems to be very effective so far. I hope someone can step up and hit some rockets.
I don't know if they'd be the hardest shots, but JOB and Convey can both make the keeper work from far out. I hope LD steps up big time.
Exactly what I thought the second I heard people talking about how much swerve there is on this ball ... You have to think that on balance this ball helps the Czechs and Italians against us ... Lewis must be smacking his lips though ...
It is the same ball as the mls ball. It doesn't change the fact that we don't have any cannons on the team
Yes, and its very awful making horrid bounces just not the same game as we know it. I could see maybe Convey taking the long efforts.
I thought Marcelo went a little crazy turning that last German goal into a tirade about the ball, instead of praising the brilliant strike made on the ball. It's a soccer ball. To me it didn't look all that different from any other soccer ball. I'm certain I wouldn't have noticed anything at all strange if Celo hadn't brought it up, and Tommy Smyth "wit a Y" hadn't continued on the theme for the first 15 minutes of the next match. "I can't believe we're still talking about the ball." -Tommy Smyth Me neither, Tommy Smyth, me neither.
Aren't a lot of the horrid bounces in MLS more because of the turf fields? Or maybe I have a skewed perspective because I mostly watch the (sigh) Red Bulls.
When does someone bring him up? You know, that guy of ours who was good at this a long, long time ago, in a Dorito Bag not fay away? Yup, I heard he was the best. Run, shoot, pass, leap over tall buidings. He could do it all. He was the best. Nah, no one will bring him up. That's not him I'm throwing out there.
for the first few minutes i thought that by "that's why a goalkeeper hates this ball" he meant "that's why a goalkeeper hates a pass across the middle that finds a guy with enough open space to get a running start and blast the thing into the side netting." as in: "good ball." because, of course, it would be absurd to spend so much time talking about the actual, physical ball.
I hear you. As far as Frings's goal, it was already rolling when and he managed to really get ahold of it with the outside of his right foot. Of course it's going to swerve. That would have happened with any World Cup ball from the last 20 years. And the main gripe I've been hearing from the keepers so far is that it gets too slippery in wet conditions.
Haha, I was wondering how a "swervy" and unpredictable ball was gonna help Koller run onto the end of it and head it into our goal on a set play... Or why this "cwasy cwasy ball" was gonna make big teams that want to score against us from free kicks by putting bodies on our smaller field players was going to favor them when smaller players can wind up and deliver hard shots from the edge of the box just as well as the big 'uns can... but then all this was, in fact, useless because Xstill.illX hit it on the head... The chances of us losing a game because of a "swervy" ball are low to nil...
I'm pretty sure that the difference between this ball and others is that on this one there i no seams. It's basically just on big smooth ball of leather. It's harder for keepers to catch it, becasue of the lack of seams.
They tested the WC ball in a wind tunnle on SKY news, and it bounced around a lot more than the Mitre ball, and a little more than the nike arrow.
They have been playing with this ball in camp and during the sendoff series. (excluding the final nikefest) I'm sure everyone on the team is aware of it's tendencies.
No one said that we were going to lose because of the ball. But if it does swerve more than a normal ball, it will help teams that shoot the ball a lot (and well) from long range. Everyone shoots the ball from distance more than the US, so it will help them relative to us.
Amazing... Yes it must be a conspiracy against the USA... They have engineered an anti-USA ball... Why don't you keep hoping that this is the case... OMG folks we don't just have to worry about the fact that everyone also wants to win this WC, now we also have to worry that if we don't win it's because the ball was "engineered" to discriminate against us... One question... if this ball "swerves" so much, wouldn't it make it harder to aim it? If that was the case, wouldn't you think that this causes just as much trouble to those "good" long-range shooters as us dumb Americans? Sorry to cause so much trouble... If FIFA wanted to make a "troublesome" ball, they did so with the intent of every team scoring more, not just non-American teams... Maybe you can wish for some other reason that the USA will do poorly... me, personally, I think we can come up with just as many reasons to fail as you can... and we'll probably do it too... But the "humanistic" question is whether you will celebrate our failure... will you? What does that say about you...?
What the hell? I point out that a ball that makes long distance shooting easier (as many experts have said this one does) favors teams that shoot the ball from long distance, and suddenly I'm "celebrating our failure"? Get a grip. I don't think it will have much impact, but its more likely that any impact it has will be negative for the US. No one said that FIFA was trying to screw us. They changed the ball and it happened to favor teams that like to shoot long distance. Stop making up arguments and saying that people who disagree with you are conspiracy theorists and anti-USA.
If you are saying that other teams shoot more from longer range than the USA. PLEASE PROVE THIS TO ALL OF US... You are somehow linking the design of the WC ball to something that is a detriment to USA... Unfortunately for you.. I never put the following in quotations... "celebrating our failure" I'd like to know where the hell you think I EVER SAID THIS!!!! You pockmarked son-of -abiadch I never, EVER said this... My guess is that you are putting those words in "quotations" so that you think that others will believe that "I said them" I never said them, and you therefore have no right to claim that I did, or MORE IMPORTANTLY that I EVER meant to say them... What is wrong with you???
I watched Der Bomber's highlights (all 14 of them) on FIFA's site and in the 1970s Cup, several GKs didn't even wear gloves. Nowadays, they're so padded, no wonder they can't grip a ball. BTW, tomorrow watch Riquelme. If Argentina gets a free kick within 25 yards - and they will - this guy hits the meanest hardest knockleball I've seen. Instead of talking about the ball, 'Celo should be talking about being able to hit certain shots. WRT long distance shooting, the EPL has long been the champ with the Bundesliga not far behind. Italy and Spain are less so.
Listen, I have never said, nor will ever say that there is some "conspiracy" against the USA in the WC.... Perhaps your idiotic posts are a misreading of my own.... If they are... I'm sorry, READ THEM AGAIN... if not... man, I have a really hard time believing that you can't understand english...
I watched St. Etienne-Lyon when they first used the ball in France, and the score was 0-0, and the keepers were catching it perfectly well in zero degree weather. Marcelo Balboa needs to shut up. The second Costa Rican goal was barely offsides - nowhere near the extreme he made it out to be.