During World of Football, Fred de Jong shared his usual pearls of "wisdom". One point he made was that he felt the match ball, the Nike Mercurial Veloci, was a major contributing factor to the reasons why not many goals have been scored in the A-League so far. I have had a kick around with this ball and yes, it is rather light. On the other hand, these players are training fulltime and should get used to the new ball and its physics. Your thoughts?
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This argumnt often seem to pop up during tournament football (I
definitely remember it during last year's world cup). My view
is that the ball really can't be that different to last years ball
can it, or other footballs. It's not liek you're going from a
lump of leather to a beach ball. But we shall see, the
mariners seemed ok with it when they knocked in thse goals against
us!
Normo's coming home
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I hate the way it reflects light as it flys through the air
on telly looks like its flat!
Maybe i just need a new telly!!
Maybe i just need a new telly!!
The answer to life's problems are rarely found at the bottom of a beer glass - but it's always worth a look.
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I think you need a new telly. I've never noticed that, then again,
my TV is very old.
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You would think that the clubs train with that ball so would be use
to it.
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Mariners don't seem to be struggling
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it was an interesting comment by de Jong and I know there was quite
a lot of publicity during the world cup about the ball being
're-engineered' so it would swerve more and therefore create 'more
exciting' football.
but if the ball is bouncing higher than anticipated (due to the lightness of the ball / pitch prepared for rugby?), then I can see why shots are going high, wide and handsome.
but if the ball is bouncing higher than anticipated (due to the lightness of the ball / pitch prepared for rugby?), then I can see why shots are going high, wide and handsome.
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Bring back the laces. 
A dog with a bone :)
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The Euro 2004 ball was quite good. We played with it at school
alot. It moved different to the normal ball and was great at
twisting and stuff.
Perhaps this current ball is the next evolution of that one?
Perhaps this current ball is the next evolution of that one?
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The top level balls like the Addidas teamgeist, Nike Total 90
Aerow II and Nike Mercurial Veloci are very light, but they
also have incredible feel. My experience with them is
that they basically reward good technique (good players can
land the ball on a dime over long distances and shoot
powerfully with great accurately) and punish bad technique (get it
wrong and it goes very wrong). So I'm thinking the high and
wide shooting has a lot more to do with the players than the
ball.
I'm happy the A-league uses Nike as while the Adidas
teamgeist is a nice ball it's by far the the worst in terms of
random movement. When a player shoots powerfully with
the laces it tends to make sharp random changes in
direction. The Nike balls on the other hand fly a lot
truer.
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I think lighter balls should help, if anything, to get some goals.
Yeah, long range shots are more likely to go out of target, but
what about all the little chips and shots in the box? They are more
likely to get in..so I think it's the same.
Just give me any ball, light or heavy, pumped up or flat, and
i'll bury it!
G.
VUW AFC - Victoria University Football for life
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The Euro 2004 ball was quite good. We played with it at school
alot. It moved different to the normal ball and was great at
twisting and stuff.
Perhaps this current ball is the next evolution of that one?
Perhaps this current ball is the next evolution of that one?
i agree yomcat. I also remember (euro 04) Beckam on the
TV raving about the new ball and how the lads had to get use to it.
He did say that it was good for free kicks as it would curve into
the goal easier
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You would think that the clubs train with that ball so would be use
to it.
Sadly the Phoenix are still
training with the T90 aerow that was used in V2but thats no excuse
You know we belong together...
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