The main talking point after England and the United States played out a 1-1 draw on Saturday night was not the fine performance by Bob Bradley's side, England's increasing injury problems or even the incessant din of the vuvuzela horn that is annoying just about everyone at the tournament
Robert Green's first-half blunder, in which he let an innocuous Clint Dempsey shot slip through his fingers, handed the US an equaliser and made the unfortunate goalkeeper the centre of attention. Errors from the men between the posts, by their nature, often lead to goals and the England stopper took responsibility after the match, admitting: "It was my mistake." But, after the pre-tournament build-up was dominated by complaints about the World Cup ball, the "Jabulani" made by Adidas, Green's blunder raised questions. Was the ball at fault?
The answer is a resounding yes, according to Marcus Hahnemann, the US's back-up goalkeeper. "Green's a buddy of mine and I don't want to see that happen to anybody," Hahnemann said. "But it's these balls, they move all over the place. "I've been telling the guys all week as they work on shooting, 'look, don't be too perfect with stuff, just get everything on target'. You never know what is going to happen with the ball, it's all over the place."
Consequences of the ball's unpredictability, Hahnemann added, are not restricted to goalkeepers. "You're not going to see the big 70-yard balls going on to someone's chest because outfield players can't read those either," added Hahnemann, who plays in England with Wolverhampton Wanderers. "It makes our life difficult, but even with cross-field balls guys can't read them and they're completely missing stuff, easy stuff. You try to bend it and sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Other times it goes the other way, it's all over the place."
Hahnemann's point was proved yesterday, when a goalkeeping blunder also decided the Algeria-Slovenia match. On 79 minutes, Robert Koren, the Slovenia midfielder, hit a tame shot that bounced off an embarrassed Faouzi Chaouchi and into the Algerian goal. Rabah Sadaane, the Algeria coach, put the goal down to the ball, a view echoed by his Slovenia counterpart Matjaz Kek. "I think that the ball and the turf caused problems for both teams, it was very difficult to control," Sadaane said in his post-match press conference, referring also to the semi-artificial pitch at the Peter Mokabe stadium in Polokwane.
"All the players, including the goalkeeper said after training yesterday that the ball seems to go very quickly in the air and when it hits the ground," Saadane said. "Everyone saw what happened yesterday with England's goalkeeper," Koren also had harsh words for the official World Cup ball. "It is difficult to control the ball when making long passes and the goalkeepers are having problems,"he said.
Green also hinted that the ball had caused him problems against the US. "It may well have moved. I don't often miss the ball by that much. But it's not an excuse." Adidas has a seven-year contract, for which the firm paid around US$300 million (Dh1.1bn), to be official ball suppliers to Fifa between 2007 and 2014. The ball was used at the 2010 African Cup of Nations and in leagues in South Africa, Argentina and the USA, but the complaints really began in the month leading up to the tournament, especially from some of the world's top goalkeepers.
"The football is horrible. It seems like one of those you buy in the supermarket." Julio Cesar, the Brazil No 1, told reporters last month "It feels a bit like a beach ball," added Iker Casillas, who plays for Spain and Real Madrid. "The trajectory is really unpredictable," added Gianluigi Buffon, Italy's first-choice No 1 and a 2006 World Cup winner. Outfield players have also had their say. Giampaolo Pazzini, the Italian striker, has called the ball a "catastrophe."
Luis Fabiano, the Brazil striker, added: "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" Yesterday, Bert van Marwijk, the Dutch coach, voiced his concerns about how the ball might affect his team's campaign. "The ball is doing the funniest things, especially when it goes through the air," he told the press, before adding, "along the ground you can play it, and that's our style."
Adidas have been fighting off criticism for weeks and yesterday spoke out again. Thomas Schaikvan, the head of public relations, told PA: "We are happy with the ball's performance and we don't think it had anything to do with the goal England conceded. On the contrary, if you look at the games so far, some goalkeepers have been the stars of the tournament. "The Nigeria goalkeeper [Vincent Enyeama] and [US goalkeeper] Tim Howard won the man of the match award in their games, and South Africa goalkeeper [Itumeleng Khune] was also excellent against Mexico. There have been some fantastic saves and the ball is allowing goalkeepers to perform at their best.
"We are confident and pleased at the ball's behaviour, and the players are getting more confident with it." Referring to criticism that the ball is too small and too light, Schaikvan added: "I would invite anyone to test the circumference and weight of this ball. We have produced balls since 1963, nobody does it better than we do and this is the best ball we have ever produced." The Jabulani ball has been through four years of tests, with the aim of minimising unpredictable movement while it is in the air.
Traditional stitching was replaced by glued or "thermally bonded" seams and 32 panels reduced to eight. The ball started out smooth, but this was found to make it unstable so 16 "aerogrooves" were added. However, just three days into the tournament, it is obvious that players and managers are not happy with the end result. Asked whether the ball could ruin the tournament, Hahnemann was ambivalent: "It could make it better because there's going to be a million different goals. There haven't been a lot of goals in the first few games though, so I don't know - it's tough to say."
Asked whether the World Cup deserved a better ball, Hahnemann was unequivocal: "Yeah." It may take Green and Chaouchi time to get over their errors, but they may not be the only players who suffer with Jabulani-induced nightmares this summer. * Additional reporting from Euan Megson
