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Chapter 1: What issues are goalkeepers facing with the World Cup ball?
There is growing concern that the World Cup ball is behaving unpredictably at high speeds, with one academic paper claiming the Trionda ball is experiencing a drag crisis that's making shot-stopping a nightmare for goalkeepers. Former England goalie Joe Hart has been calling out this unpredictable ball.
I honestly feel like this ball is coming onto the goalkeepers a lot faster than they feel it is off the foot. And what you notice with this is Jordan Pickford flies at this ball and he just doesn't, you'll ask why has he gone with his thumb rather than his hand? It just feels like it's on him. Now I noticed this with Mbappe against Edouard Mendy earlier in the tournament.
As it leaves his foot, it's a decent strike, of course it is. But Edouard Mendy's a Champions League winner. And he just doesn't time. He just doesn't get his hands up. He doesn't time it. And I'm noticing it more and more with the higher balls. The goalkeepers, these are world-class goalkeepers at World Cup level.
And I think as the tournament goes on and the guys get more used to the atmosphere and the speed of the ball, and these specific World Cup footballs, we're going to see those shots saved.
Chapter 2: How does the drag crisis affect ball performance in the World Cup?
That is former England keeper Joe Hart there. For more on this, I'm joined by Martin Ziegler, Chief Sports Reporter for The Times and The Sunday Times. Morning, Martin. How's it going, David? I was expecting drama, but I didn't have a drag crisis for the football on my World Cup bingo card. Is this a real thing?
Well, I think it is a World Cup bingo. I remember in South Africa in 2010, the Jabulani, that was a similar thing. Yeah, I mean, I think Joe Hart, he's been talking about it a lot, but actually other goalkeepers have as well. Hugo Lloris, for example, he's mentioned it. There's actually an academic paper produced by South Korean and Japanese academics, which has looked at this.
It does say that there is this nature of the ball that bizarrely, at a certain speed, it can actually speed up. It's something to do with the drag and the turbulence. And maybe that's what's catching goalkeepers out, that they're expecting it to come. And then it suddenly zips a little bit faster towards them, which obviously would be quite alarming if you're a goalkeeper.
Absolutely. I see the paper is called Orientation Dependent Drag Crisis and Flight Response of the FIFA World Cup Match Ball Trianda, which sounds like a riveting read, but it is causing problems. I mean, we've seen more than 10 goals scored from outside the penalty area, which would tell you something, I would think.
Yeah. It's probably not the worst thing in the world for football as a sort of spectator sport, is it? Seeing these sort of stunning girls from outside the area. And maybe, you know, players might be more tempted to have a strike from distance instead of a sort of more concerted build-up. But from the goalkeeper's point of view, nobody would like it at all.
No.
I think it's interesting... Sorry.
No, go ahead.
I was... No, it's interesting that actually there's been a complete redesign of the ball in terms of the number of panels. There's only four panels on this ball. And if you think back to Qatar four years ago, there were 20 panels on that ball. So it's not surprising that there's going to be a fairly significant change in the flight of the ball or perhaps the speed of the ball.
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Chapter 3: What insights does Martin Ziegler provide about the ball's design?
You can say that to your head coach. Why didn't you say the ball? Because the ball was unpredictable, moved in a way I didn't like it. Instead of, oh, I made a mistake.
OK, well, maybe Joe Hart is right and they'll get the measure up before as the tournament goes on. Martin Ziegler, Chief Sports Reporter for The Times and Sunday Times. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.