everyone knows what a typical soccer
ball looks like right it's as simple as
black and white but that's not exactly
what world cup balls have always looked
like so what's the deal first things
first you want a soccer ball to be as
spherical as possible in the old days we
had balls that had the buckyball shape
the Epcot Center shape you had the 20
hexagons the 12 Pentagon's and that was
a very good approximation to a sphere
it's starting in 2006 in Germany with
the team guys ball there were more
creative ways to make an approximation
to a sphere new technology enables
adidas to start designing the balls with
fewer panels which actually created a
serious problem because fewer panels
means less seams and more importantly a
smoother surface the ball gets to smooth
the air resistance for certain speeds
goes up it's like picking up each ball
and that's exactly what happened with
the 2006 teamgeist ball players
complained that the ball didn't go where
they expected it to so in 2010 adidas
compensated by adding some texture to
roughen up the surface problem solved
right jabulani was a spectacular failure
because it was not rough enough when the
ball would be kicked at certain speeds
you notice it would look like it would
slow down dramatically in the middle of
its flight and the panel's kept
disappearing the 2014 ball had the
fewest panels yet six but this time
adidas compensated despite having to
fewer panels from Giovanni the total
seam length around the ball was actually
68 percent longer than it was for the
gelati so at least this time the ball
had the right amount of roughness and
flew further than the 2010 ball as for
2018 total seam length on this ball it's
actually 30 percent longer than the
brazuca so now you run the risk of the
ball being a little too
and again adidas compensated for this by
also making the seams shallower and
studies show the Telstar a team performs
similarly to the brazuca but it still
has a bit more drag and might not travel
as far on high-speed kicks regardless
all this begs the question if the goal
is to produce a ball that's similar to
what athletes practice with for years
why does the World Cup ball keep
changing turns out it's not about the
players or the game at all I'm sure you
can guess what it's all about there's a
new ball released for every World Cup
but I think the primary reason is money
the 2018 World Cup ball costs more than
$100 and these balls fly off the shelves
it's a pretty big investment considering
you can get a simple replica for 20
bucks though they're not exactly the
same the technologies involved in these
balls are much much greater than the
balls we used as kids the panels on
these balls are thermally bonded it
helps keep the water out of the inside
of the ball keep the water for you know
making the ball a little waterlogged and
heavier but isn't worth it well let you
figure that one out
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