The official match ball for Euro 2008 will cause goalkeepers more problems than usual because of its erratic flight, Italy’s reserve keeper Marco Amelia said on Tuesday.
The build-up to big tournaments is often dominated by goalkeepers worrying about new balls, which are brought out especially for the events.
The official Euro 2008 ball, EUROPASS, is made by Adidas and has a new surface structure which the makers say creates greater swerve.
“It changes direction. To not make a mess trying to stop it, it’s better to beat it away,” Amelia told Italy’s La Repubblica Web site.
The world champions have been using the new balls at their training base near Florence since Sunday. They face Belgium in their final friendly on Friday before heading to Austria and Switzerland for June’s tournament.
Amelia is unlikely to feature at Euro 2008 unless Gianluigi Buffon, widely regarded as one of the world’s best keepers, is injured or suspended.
i can see what he means but if he wont be playing he has nothing to worry about
i have played with one of these balls and they swerve all over the place
just think what will happen when the pros hit it
i hate to say this but i can see alot of thumbles by keepers this euros
I know it's very unlike Jens to complain about anything but ....
German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has admitted he is struggling to adjust to the new ball that will be used at Euro 2008.The 38-year-old's performance in Tuesday's friendly with Belarus was criticised as Germany let slip a two-goal lead to draw 2-2.
Lehmann, who has scarcely featured for his club this season, conceded twice in the last 30 minutes to Vitali Bulyga to again raise questions over his suitability for the number one spot in Austria and Switzerland.
And Lehmann revealed he was finding the movement of the new ball difficult to cope with.
He told Kicker magazine: "The ball is very difficult for me. I only trained with it for the first time a week ago. It is once again different to the ones before it.
"I had a situation in the first half (against Belarus) where I wanted to hold on to the ball - and then it started to move around.
"I hope in the coming days, when also my freshness will come back, that I then have a bit of time for a lot of shot training in order to get more familiar with the ball."
Low admitted Lehmann is still short of match practice, but claimed he had no intention of dropping him.
He told the German FA's official website, www.dfb.de: "You can sense that he needs games. He will definitely play in goal against Serbia on Saturday. We still trust him."
The Germany coach has included Hannover's Robert Enke and uncapped Bayer Leverkusen youngster Rene Adler as the other two goalkeepers in his squad.
I watched bits and pieces of the Germany v. Belarus game, and saw that exact moment Lehmann mention in the article. He was planning on holding on to the ball, but you could see that the ball was starting to "go everywhere" as it was approaching Lehman's hands. Year after year, the new balls always forces goalkeepers to cry "foul." Why don't they stick to making normal balls, and cut the "innovation/new tech" crap?
The best matchball for keepers is the Mitre Ultimax, true flight, keeps its shape and lasts for ages.
You cant beat Mitre footballs.......................wish my league would drop there Errea sponsorship so we can play with them again. The Errea matchballs move all over the shop.
UEFA 'B' Licence Goalkeeper Coach
Agree Mac, the Mitres are brilliant, but I also really like the Puma ball we use on Sundays.
I think it works both ways though. Remember before the last world cup the keepers were saying the balls are lively. But also noticed that a lot of players were struggling to keep their shots from going all over the shop and we saw so many shots from distance going no where near the goal.
BonafideZulu: Why don't they stick to making normal balls, and cut the "innovation/new tech" crap?
Why don't they stick to making normal balls, and cut the "innovation/new tech" crap?
Because the powers that be want more goals to be scored. More goals means a more exciting game, more fans in seats, more money etc.
I remember they were considering widening the goals at one point a few years ago, because FIFA wanted more scoring and less games being decided by penalties.
So the goalkeepers of the world will just have to get better at judging the balls flight and react accordingly.
Why is it every bloody tournatment they have to change the ball.
I mean,it means striker and defenders have to ajust to it as well.
Yes the keeper is more important,but I sick to the back teeth of this.
I'm blaming FIFA.
a friends clothing site
shotblocker: Because the powers that be want more goals to be scored. More goals means a more exciting game, more fans in seats, more money etc.
Its a crying shame but Football is more of a business rather than a sport. You have all these foreign owners who buy clubs just to make money, not because they have a passion for the club. Look at man city's owner, he got rid of sven because hes power crazy and he wants to make the club really big so he can flog it in Thailand. Makes me sick.
D
Dida still needs a team! lol
Why be negative when you can be Positive? Beats me!
Keepers are criticised and praised, its the keepers choice to decide what to listen to.
Dida01:Football is more of a business rather than a sport
Nah, still think its a sport D
Keepers have griped about the new balls every major tournament for the past 10 years. Get used to it!
This from ESPN.com Page2 during the 2006 World Cup:
My, your balls are slimy.The balls that will be used during competition at the World Cup have been widely panned by goalkeepers. They say the balls are prone to knuckling in the air and become very slick in the rain. They also think the balls should be 10 times larger, covered in a thick, sticky tar and magnetized so all shots they can't get to bang off the posts or crossbar and fly harmlessly away.
Czech Republic stopper Petr Cech has become the latest goalkeeper to criticise the new Euro 2008 ball.
The 26-year-old feels the ball deviates so much in flight it is almost impossible for goalkeepers to judge where it will go.
The Chelsea keeper told Rotweiss, the online magazine of the Swiss Football Association: "The new ball is really unpredictable. We will see lots of goals from 30 metres out."
He added: "And the TV commentators will again say 'What was the goalkeeper doing there? He surely got his hand to it'.
"But the balls are so quick, they have scarcely any wind resistance and they can change direction any second, also in the last five metres. It therefore won't help at all to see the ball coming from a distance."
Germany's Jens Lehmann had previously voiced concerns over the ball.
High-tech goal producer or goalkeepers' nightmare?The ball developed for the Euro 2008 divides opinions of players and goalkeepers as the tournament in Austria and Switzerland was due to kick off on Saturday.
While players hope for the light high-tech ball will prove a goal bonanza, goalkeepers from several of the 16 participating teams find exactly those properties of the silver-grey Adidas ball extremely worrying.
"Basically no-one is 100 per cent satisfied with this ball," Andreas Koepke, Germany's goalkeeper-coach told reporters at the German base camp in Tenero, Switzerland, on Saturday.
Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann had repeatedly complained that it was difficult to catch and had a tendency to swirl.
Co-host Austria's goalkeeper Alexander Manninger, as well as Czech Petr Cech also expressed their dissatisfaction with the fast ball which is likely tomake a goalkeepers' life very difficult during the three-week tournament.
"This ball is not the keeper's friend," Manninger said.
Players however may see things a little different.
"For players, the ball is great," Germany midfielder Thorsten Frings said. "There will be many more goals from a greater distance. If you it it right, it really goes off."
Yes, for keepers the ball presented a difficulty, Frings admitted, but "we'll get this sorted," he said optimistically.
One thing field players and goalkeepers seem to agree on: the Europass may change the way the game is played at this tournament.
"You have to be more awake with this ball," Koepke said.
The defence, for one, had to be more on the ball - so to speak.
As keepers were more likely to avoid the risk of catching this ball and will rather block it, defenders will have to be fully alert in those potentially risky situations and try to get the ball before the other team's forwards, he explained.
At the same time, the forwards would of course try and get in their second chance.
Using the Europass brought some changes for training Germany's goalkeepers, Koepke said. Field players were included in goalkeeper training routines to help the keepers adjust to the ball's properties.
"It is pointless to lament this," Kopeke said, adding that his team had tried to make the best of it.
"(But) I don't think we will get more goals because the ball swirls," Koepke said. After three weeks of training with the tricky customer, Germany was ready to face all odds.
Adidas, which worked two years for the development of the ball, did not see such problems.
"The ball's new surface structure allows players to control and direct it perfectly in all weather conditions," the company said at the ball's presentation.
Its new surfact texture on the outer skik guaranteed "optimum grip between ball and boot," as well as better grip between glove and ball for goalkeepers.
http://www.earthtimes.org/
For all the complaining, we have seen no goals as a direct result of the ball design. Also, there have been some great goalkeeping performances.
Liviu Bird
Agreed. Not to mention, the keepers haven't actually "complained." That's just the headline writers up to their usual tricks. If you read the quotes, they just point out the new ball moves a lot and they may be better off parrying it. They aren't saying it's a bad thing, just difficult.