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World Cup ball has a mind of its own Posted: Monday May 27, 2002 10:12 AMUpdated: Tuesday May 28, 2002 2:51 PM
SEOUL -- For all the controversy over the years about whether baseballs are juiced -- Major League Baseball has never admitted to doing so -- the funny thing about the World Cup is that soccer officials trumpet the fact that their ball comes equipped with an extra kick. Witness the new super-high-tech adidas Fevernova, the official ball of World Cup 2002, which U.S. forward Brian McBride says has "the biggest difference in a ball that I've ever seen." FIFA's objective is simple: It wants more goals. And so it requested a ball that flies faster, swerves more angrily and (according to U.S. coach Bruce Arena) causes more rebounds off flummoxed goalkeepers than any orb in the history of the sport. While the U.S. (a Nike team) used the adidas ball on occasion during its recent training camp in Cary, N.C., the Yanks are getting their first serious taste of the Fevernova this week. Naturally, attackers love it. "When you get a foot on it, it'll fly," says midfielder DaMarcus Beasley, who watched a pass from Tony Sanneh sail 70 yards (and over Beasley's head) in training on Sunday. "The MLS ball [made by Kappa] needs some work -- you can't kick it that well -- but I like the adidas ball. It's lighter than the Nike ball, and the touch, shooting, passing, it all feels good."
Other Fevernova quirks: It has dead spots and a definite sweet spot, and it knuckles like a bad boy. "It's just different," says McBride. "If you don't strike it on center, it doesn't go, and unless you mean to put spin on it, there's no spin on the ball. Whereas with other balls, you'll hit it and it'll move a little bit." Assistant coach Dave Sarachan calls the ball "a nightmare for goalkeepers," who are a bit less enthused about the changes. "I think it's a terrible ball," says U.S. netminder Kasey Keller. "It's dead and it doesn't fly straight, so you can't get a good read." Fellow keeper Brad Friedel claims the ball's panels are weighted differently, causing a noticeable imbalance. "Even with a brand new ball, you can spin it in the air and it has a lopsided effect to it," he says. "On hard shots the bottom just drops out." But wait, there's more. "It's very, very difficult to hold onto," Friedel says. "And it will be interesting to see what it's like at night because it's gray. The ball's not made for goalkeepers. They want more goals and more excitement around the goal, but it's not anything you can't get used to. You just have to deal with it." Not that there's anything wrong with that ...Discussion Topic A among U.S. players on Monday was the team's fashion photo layout in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, which was seen by some as a little sexually ambiguous in some cases. The shots, which featured McBride, Pablo Mastroeni, Landon Donovan, Cobi Jones, Clint Mathis, Beasley and Keller, contained lots of tight clothes and a few, uh, suggestive poses. "We joked about it," said a laughing Beasley, whose photograph was tamer than most. "Landon's and McBride's are very seductive pictures. That's all I'll say." Said a smiling McBride, whose shot called to mind the logo for his MLS team, the Columbus Crew, "You should have heard it today. It's been pretty bad. I think it's unfortunate that it probably doesn't show what the team is as a whole, but that's part of fashion. If you can't laugh at yourself, then you've got serious problems." Added McBride, "When we went into the shoot, we heard about all the designers and we thought, 'Sweet.' Then we got there and not all the clothes were perfect-fitting, but you make do. If you didn't want to do it, you didn't have to do it." Keller, for example, took one look at the size of the clothes and opted to wear training gear instead. Though some players weren't in joking moods about the fashion feature, Keller had this take: "We're aiming to get a whole new fan base in our next games in New York and San Francisco." And so, a week after WUSA came under fire for promoting cheesecake photographs of its players to titillate the male audience, the U.S. men's team fires back ... with cheesecake photographs of its players, titillating the male audience. My advice, guys: Laugh and move on. We could get into a long discussion about why soccer is viewed as hypermasculine in every country but one (that would be the good ol' USA), but we'll save that for another day. Considering the Mike Piazza nonsense last week, there's way too much homophobia in sports as it is. Odds and endsGuess who Friedel includes among his potential World Cup winners? "My personal favorite at the moment is Spain," he says, ignoring the Spaniards' history of failure in the Cup. "The two best leagues in the world right now are the Spanish Liga and the English Premiership, and I think it would be good if the World Cup paid respect to the two teams from those countries. Spain might be prone to giving up a goal here and there, but going forward they'll be fantastic to watch." ... U.S. fans should be very, very scared of South Korea, which attacked with abandon against world champ France on Sunday, building a 2-1 lead at halftime before succumbing 3-2. Trust me: The Koreans are finishing their chances light years better than they did during the Gold Cup earlier this year. "They were very fit," said Friedel. "It was strange because France is one of the bigger teams in the tournament, and Korea scored off a set piece against them. But two of the goals France scored were mistakes by the Korean defense, both [missed] headers. That's very good for us because we're quite good on set pieces." ... Since MetroStars GM Nick Sakiewicz refuses to give the soon-to-retire Tab Ramos a testimonial match (a custom that is "passé," Big Nick says), I've decided to provide my own Ramos testimonial by forever immortalizing his name on the left side of my laptop keyboard. Over and out from Seoul. ... Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl covers soccer for the magazine
and will contribute frequently to CNNSI.com throughout the World Cup
tournament.
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