Seamless Soccer?

Editor's Weekly Ramblings 143

June 15th 2006

Seamless Soccer?

The new official World Cup ball hasn't managed to please everyone. Even before the first match, the Adidas Teamgeist was praised by midfielders and shunned by goalkeepers. Red Bulls' midfielder Youri Djorkaeff described it as 'almost perfect' and England's David Beckham was already impressed by it during training. But goalkeepers hate it: Tony Meola claims the technology behind the ball hasn't favoured goalkeepers and England's Paul Robinson has criticised it for being too light and behaving unpredictably.

The main difference between the Adidas Teamgeist ball and more traditional balls is the number of seams and panels. The Teamgeist only has 14 panels compared to the regular 32, resulting in a lot less seams and a much rounder and more uniform surface. It also uses a patented thermal bonding technology to seal the panels together, making this ball waterproof and giving it practically the same performance in both wet and dry weather.

The Adidas Teamgeist is the official ball of the World Cup and is made up of 14 panels instead of the usual 32.

But what does science have to say about the ball? I decided to ask sports engineer Dr David James from Sheffield Hallam University for his opinion on the matter.

He says that the smoothness of the new ball affects it aerodynamically and will allow it to bob around more in the air. Players often try to get the ball to spin when they kick it, since this can throw off the opposing team as to where it will land - and this ball will make it easier to achieve that. Since the Teamgeist is a smoother sphere, there will be less air resistance if it is kicked with some spin. The flow of air around the ball will be disturbed more and its trajectory will be more chaotic as it can easily spin both sideways and up and down.