Re: Sometimes a Ball is Just a Ball
If the word ‘vuvuzela’ has entered your vocabulary, you are probably one of the millions of people watching the World Cup. The world’s most famous football tournament, the Cup is about the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, national pride and…the ball. This year, the Jabulani ball is the troublemaker.
Made by Adidas, the Jabulani, “to rejoice” in Zulu, is important enough to have its own website. Here, you will learn that the ball has “an amazing 8 panels” as opposed to the 2006 World Cup ball which had 14 panels. It has 11 colors in honor of both the number of tribes in host nation South Africa and the number of players on a team. Apparently, “goalies will also be happy with the ‘grip and groove’ texturing.”
The problem is they’re not. Goalkeepers from Spain, Italy and Brazil have all publicly complained about the ball’s design. They have been joined by both forwards and strikers who are also blaming the ball for embarrassing mistakes. Nigeria’s Vincent Enyeama claimed the ball had a life of its own during his team’s match against Greece: “It was the ball, not me. It moved at the last minute.” (Note to Vincent: The ball is not actually magical). Brazilian player Felipe Melo chose more colorful imagery to describe his feelings for Jabulani: “The other ball is like a nagging woman: you kick her and she’s still there. This one is like a spoiled little rich kid, who doesn’t want to be kicked in any way.”
One of the only teams not complaining about Jabulani is Germany whose players have been using the ball in their highest professional league, the Bundesliga, for the past year. This is seen as unfair by other players including England defender Jamie Carragher who told the press that the Germans’ familiarity with the ball gives them an obvious advantage.
Carragher’s complaints almost seemed fair when Germany defeated Australia 4-0 in the tournament’s opening round. But then Germany lost to Serbia. Now Carragher and everyone else who is complaining about the Jabulani ball sound like the sporting world’s version of the schoolkid whose dog ate his homework.
Carragher and the England team’s discontent (coach Fabio Capello also made his displeasure known) are particularly interesting since their activities all season long suggest that they didn’t make the best use of their time. As it turns out, they had access to the new ball months before the World Cup. According to an article published on June 13 in The Sunday Times, “the ball was offered directly to the FA in February.” While “opportunities to officially use it with the team were limited,” the ball was still available.
Think of it this way, England team: If you had time during your season to drink, socialize with celebrities at Nobu and sleep with women who are not your wives (or your teammates’ wives), you had time to get to know Jabulani better. You are paid professionals. It’s not the ball. It’s you. How hard could it be to learn to kick it? If your skills during the World Cup suddenly look like your grandmother could beat you to the post, you simply need to work harder rather than make nonsense complaints. Why not grab a Jabulani and kick it around in your spare time? Better yet, you should have implemented this cunning plan before you flew to South Africa for the most important tournament of your career.
All of this bickering about a ball makes the players sound like whiny children. Worse than that, they’re rich whiny children because they get paid a lot of money to kick a ball for a living and then have the nerve to complain about not having enough time to kick a ball. This behavior is ridiculous and disrespectful to the millions of fans who wait for four years to live and die with every game. Players owe their fans and their countries more than excuses no matter what sport they play but this responsibility is particularly important during the World Cup. Perhaps more than any other sporting contest, the Cup gives marginal countries a chance to step out of the shadows of their more powerful and influential neighbors and for a brief moment, shine a light on their achievements. Anyone who watched Slovakia beat defending champions Italy knows that World Cup teams symbolize possibility. Petty complaints about the ball only make the players seem ordinary when they deserve a moment to be extraordinary.
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Thanks!