Why the fuss about the ball?
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Comment: George Dearnley
There’s an old saying that goes ‘a bad worker always blames his tools’… or something like that. But I think the translation got lost a long time ago and the modern World Cup-related saying goes something like “a bad performing player always blames the ball!”
Some of the media reports are also poor.
They always quote the goalkeeper who has just conceded a few goals in a match – “what do you think of the ball?”
“I think it’s terrible, it swerves all over the place and makes us keepers look like idiots!”
Robert Green of England certainly would have used that excuse if he had been asked after the US match!
They also always ask the attacking midfielder who has had a poor performance in front of goal, wasting numerous chances and blasting various free-kicks high into the stands, “what do you think of the ball?”
“I think it’s terrible, it’s too light and it’s hard to keep it down and on target!”
I’d like to see some balanced reporting.
What about asking the keeper who has just played a blinder and kept a clean sheet what he thinks of the ball!
What about asking the Portuguese team what they thought of the ball after everything they hit at the Koreans went in!
There have been some fine goals this tournament, Simphiwe Tshabalala’s among the best – a 30 yard rocket into the far top corner to open the scoring of the 2010 World Cup – “What do you think of the ball?”
“I think it’s unbelievable!”
Jermaine Defoe scoring off his shin against Slovenia, or Landon Donovan scoring in the 92nd minute against Algeria to send the US through, or Diego Forlan after his 35 yarder against Bafana – I’m sure they all have great things to say about the ball.
So get over it.
It’s a little lighter than other balls, it’s more round and it moves a little more, but it’s still a ball, and it’s the same ball for all the other players.
Next one to come out and blame the ball for his pathetic long range shots or for his naff free-kicks should be made to bend over on the goal line and be used for shooting practice!
Although I’m not sure too many of these players will hit him…
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