The Ball is Too Round.

It has been 5 days into the World Cup and yet the star of the show so far has undoubtedly been... the ball. That's right. The official ball for World Cup 2010, the Adidas Jabulani.

I've scoured the net for the players' opinion on the ball. And here's what I got.

“The ball is dreadful. It’s horrible, but it’s horrible for everyone.” – David James (England, goalkeeper)

“The ball is a problem. You can’t anticipate which direction it is going to go in. It is difficult for defenders to deal with and you can’t take your eye off the ball until the very last second.” – Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Japan, defender)

“The new ball is not decent, not just for goalkeepers but for everyone. Its trajectory is unpredictable.” – Gigi Buffon (Italy, goalkeeper)

“It’s very weird. All of a sudden it changes trajectory on you. It’s like it doesn’t want to be kicked. It’s incredible, it’s like someone is guiding it. You are going to kick it and it moves out of the way. I think it’s supernatural, it’s very bad.” – Luis Fabiano (Brazil, forward)

“It’s like a beach ball.” – Claudio Bravo (Chile, goalkeeper)

“It’s terrible… like a ball you’d buy in a supermarket.” – Julio Cesar (Brazil, goalkeeper)

“Maybe they should stop trying to keep developing the ball and just change the look of it. The ball goes all over the place.” – Seigo Narazaki (Japan, goalkeeper)

“It’s a little sad that in a competition as big as the World Cup to have such a poor ball. It’s not just the goalkeepers complaining, but the outfield players as well.” – Iker Casillas (Spain, goalkeeper)

“It’s a catastrophe. I played with many different balls, some of which wiggled or changed directions, but this one is the worst of them all.” – Vladimir Stojkovic (Serbia, goalkeeper)

“It’s a disaster… It moves so much and makes it difficult to control. You jump up to head a cross and suddenly the ball will move and you miss it!” – Giampaolo Pazzini (Italy, forward)

“Technology is not everything; scientists came up with the atom bomb, doesn’t mean we should have invented it!” - Marcus Hahnemann (USA, goalkeeper)

“For sure the guy who designed this ball never played football.” - Robinho (Brazil, Forward)

"But every cross I have seen has been overhit. It goes over the back post. I haven't seen anyone get a free-kick over the wall yet" - Jamie Carragher ( England, Defender)

Apparently, Germany has been using the ball for a good 6 months before the World Cup because the Bundesliga was free to use any ball of their choice thus choosing the Jabulani once it was launched. In the BPL however, Nike is the official ball supplier and the England team was still playing with an Umbro ball in its pre-World cup friendlies because of its arrangement with Umbro. This could possible explain the disparity in performance between Germany and the rest of the countries so far. But to what extent is the ball to be blamed for the team's performances on the pitch?

Altitude can also be a factor, given that the matches in South Africa are played way above sea level. Having seen the matches, there seems to be a noticeable difference in the trajectory of the ball. Somehow, and this is especially evident in the replays, the ball has the ability to sway and even pick up pace in the middle of its trajectory. The fact that the ball has drawn severe criticism from numerous players now seems to suggest that there is a credible argument behind the complaints of the players. Maybe Adidas should just go back to basics. Instead of incorporating new technology and testing it out in their labs with their robots, they should just keep the technology simple and gather feedback from the players before anything else.

Let's just hope that teams like Spain and Brazil will prove all the critics wrong. That a ball is a ball after all and that football can be played beautifully, regardless.