Debate: Plenty of GOAL in EPL but is it because of the ball or the player?
Goalkeepers must be having nightmares. No sooner does Cristiano Ronaldo move to Spain than a new ball arrives with added dip and swerve.
It’s called the Nike Total90 Ascente ball, and it has to be one of the reasons behind the flood of goals this season.
I’ve had a try-out and it explodes off your foot, fluctuates in the air and changes course en route to goal.
Steven Gerrard’s curling, dipping, right-footed inswinger from the left for Liverpool against Hull is a good example.
As a manager, you might not be too impressed with your keeper, but what was he to do with that? The ball came arrowing through the air. With the right execution and
delivery, this ball can develop incredible pace.
Don’t underestimate, too, how much players like Ryan Giggs and Gerrard will practise
and work with a new ball to find out its capabilities and limitations.
The training ground is always full of eager anticipation when the new balls are delivered before the start of a season. Then the season gets under way and you can see the results already this time. Goals, goals, goals.
They haven’t always got the ball technology right. In past years, it shifted too much, it felt too light. Now it seems devastating as players work more on power than placement.
Tottenham’s Jermain Defoe, for instance, spends extra time on the training pitch concentrating on getting his foot through the ball and working on beating the keeper with force. Look at his goal at West Ham recently when he just leathered a shot past Robert Green.
For shots and free-kicks, goalkeepers will set themselves with confidence and expect to gather, parry or punch but then have to readjust mid-air as the ball takes on a life of its own.
It’s not the only reason why there have been so many goals — there has been some shocking defending too — but the ball is certainly a striker’s weapon. Even when I was still playing four years ago, the ball was heavier.
Nothing like the old leather balls that felt like medicine balls when the water soaked in, but still less likely to cause havoc and chaos than this latest offering.
It won’t just be Nike, though. Adidas are sure to be working on a new World Cup ball for next summer that will create more danger for keepers.
When I was playing, it was all about natural flight but now it’s about extracting movement.
I haven’t heard too many grumbles — unless you’re in ear-shot of the man with the
gloves. No wonder they say you have to be mad to be a goalkeeper.
You say we might not make them like Shilton and Banks any more, but they had it easy by comparison.
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Memang syok kalo tengok banyak gol .. hoho
Thanks for sharing, say, do you have a twitter to follow?