The new World Cup ball has been given the traditional vote of no confidence by goalies.
U.S. backup goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann had the following discouraging things to say about it.
"It's horse[crap]," he said. "It's the worst soccer ball I've ever played with because it's plastic and feels like [crap] when it comes off your foot. It moves like crazy. Like a cross. You go up and jump to catch it and then it drops like three feet. You're not going to see any headed goals, probably. Forwards are going to get deceived as well. It's just ridiculous. There has to be a standard of what the ball should be like. Imagine baseball all of sudden you came out, 'Oh, we're playing at this place now and a new ball.' The pitches would look totally different. You can't do it. There's no standard."
When asked how to cope with the new ball, he replied, "Just train as much as you can. Everyone has to deal with it. It's not making the game any better. It's making the game worse.These things, you try to bend them, they don't bend, they go straight. It's like those little kids' plastic balls you play with at the beach. You go to bend them and they go the wrong way. They bend exactly opposite. That's exactly what these things do. You can't tell what it's going to do."
French keeper Hugo Lloris added the following despairing comments..
"This ball is a disaster. We played with it in the Coupe de France this winter. We must get used to it.All goalkeepers will be well under pressure. We will each share of madness. In fact, I don't ask myself this question. I just know that with this kind of ball they can score from anywhere.What is strange is that these balls, when they are in the air, may very well never come down, or they could descend very quickly.Goalkeepers must be constantly alert, constantly analyzing. This position requires it, but we will have to be even more concentrated.Prior to the late 1990s, the balls were very heavy and goalkeepers could block them. Now, we can only be as effective as possible, be in opposition, because they are too fast and are constantly changing direction."
And finally the opinions of Oguchi Onyewu, Jozy Altidore, Stuart Holden, and Tim Howard on the new World Cup ball.
I have played with this ball as well , it has got to be the worst football I have ever played with. You hit the ball in one direction and it goes flying away in the other ! , I am a goalkeeper and playing in goals with it is a travesty , one minute a shot is going in the corner then at the last second it goes weird and swerves down the middle , that is unnatural!! , also with crosses it either hangs up or takes weird dips. You don't even get a true strike with it , as you hit it and what would usually be a high kick , ends up going like a cross or shot , but simply worst ball ever in history 0/10 , adidas are falling apart , they should leave making footballs to the best companies like nike or mitre. To be honest it will make outfielders worse I think as they will be relying on the jabulani to do all the work , instead of the traditional hard work of a player to get curve and swerve.
I have played with jabulani. I am an outfield player and trust me, this football sucks. I can identify with the comment about it being plastic and not behaving like a leather ball