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Every World Cup since 1970 has featured a new soccer ball designed by Adidas. The different models have drawn reactions from disdain to admiration. From member station KNKX in Seattle, which is one of this year's host cities, Freddy Monares reports on how the changes affected the games and what's different this year.
FREDDY MONARES, BYLINE: Sports physicist John Goff is at the University of Puget Sound's soccer field in Tacoma, a city just south of Seattle. He's a visiting professor there. And he's rummaging through a trash bag filled with FIFA World Cup soccer balls.
JOHN GOFF: Let's see. We've got Al Rihla. That was in Qatar from 2022. And this is the current one, the Trionda.
MONARES: Goff has studied how soccer balls move when they're kicked since the 2010 World Cup. He says that ball's surface was too smooth, making its movement unpredictable and hard for goalkeepers to track, like with this point scored against Denmark by Japan.
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UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER: What a strike from Keisuke Honda. That's probably the best free kick we've seen in the Fifa World Cup of 2010.
MONARES: Goff says there wasn't that much spin or rotation on that kick. That, combined with the ball's smoothness, caused it to lose speed more than you'd expect.
GOFF: And it dropped a little bit on the goalkeeper and who missed it.
MONARES: During those games, players openly criticized the ball's design, including U.S. men's backup keeper Marcus Hahnemann.
MARCUS HAHNEMANN: That one was maybe one of the worst balls that I ever played with.
MONARES: Players can kick a soccer ball in a particular way that makes it curve left or right in mid-flight. And when they tried to do that?
HAHNEMANN: Sometimes it would go the opposite direction. It just defies physics.
MONARES: The 2010 World Cup ball is perhaps the most universally panned. But there have been others people didn't love, such as the one used during the 2002 games that players said was too light. All this begs the question, why change the ball each World Cup? Why not just stick to one that works? Mike Woitalla is the executive editor at Soccer America, an online publication that covers all things soccer. And he has a theory.
MIKE WOITALLA: I think they basically want to ramp up conversation about the ball because they're trying to sell it.
MONARES: This year's official World Cup match ball goes for $170 on Adidas' website. That being said, Woitalla can think of at least one big positive improvement to the World Cup ball that changed the game. That was during the 1986 matches. Adidas switched from leather to a synthetic material that didn't get heavy from absorbing water.
WOITALLA: I think that was the kind of technology that did make a difference, and of course made it safer, since this is a sport where people, you know, head the ball.
MONARES: Hahnemann, the retired keeper, says he does think Adidas is trying to make the game better.
HAHNEMANN: I don't know if they do. But that's their idea, right? And, you know, they're trying to keep advancing the game.
MONARES: Officials with Adidas say they change the ball in part because as soccer evolves, they think the equipment should, too. But also, it's an important symbol of each tournament.
SOLENE STORMANN: Every World Cup is so unique in itself.
MONARES: Solene Stormann helped design the ball for Adidas.
STORMANN: And for us, it's also important that every World Cup gets also seen in that way and that every one carries an own individual story and an own individual signature to it.
MONARES: For example, this year's ball features graphics for the three host countries, a blue star for the U.S., a red maple leaf for Canada and a green eagle for Mexico. Physics professor John Goff doesn't think it's going to be the fiasco the 2010 ball was. He says its surface is rougher than its predecessors, which could cause some minor drag.
GOFF: My colleagues and I are very interested to see if this ball travels a little less far than the balls have in the past.
MONARES: But generally, he says, it's a good, stable ball.
For NPR News, I'm Freddy Monares in Seattle.
(SOUNDBITE OF BAD BUNNY SONG, "NO ME QUIERO CASAR") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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