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Thursday, July 8, 2010
One of the biggest controversies outside of refereeing in this World Cup has been the Adidas Jabulani ball. Before the World Cup even started players were complaining about the ball and saying it felt cheap. Well, NASA has gotten involved, and it looks like the players might have a legit beef…
NASA's aerodynamics people at the Ames Investigation Centre managed to get some MLS players to kick a very dusty Jabulani around to what sounds like a soundtrack from a 1970s instructional video. The tests confirm what everyone has been saying: Jabulani's scanty 440-gram weight, coupled with the high-altitude conditions in South Africa, means when at speeds of 44 mph or more the ball becomes susceptible to something called the "knuckle effect." That's aerodynamic shorthand for "it swerves all around like crazy at high speeds because of the air flow on the seams and stuff,"
I don’t know how much of a factor this really is, but for anyone who has watched a lot of the World Cup, you can tell that some players aren’t comfortable with the ball. There have been a lot of shots and free kicks that have sailed 10-15 feet over the goal.
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