Teamgeist

The +Teamgeist ball is the official football for the FIFA World Cup 2006. The plus sign in its name was introduced in order to trademark the whole expression, which would not have been possible with the regular German language word teamgeist, meaning "team spirit".

The ball is made by Adidas, which has provided the balls used in all World Cup matches since the 1970 World Cup when the famous Telstar was introduced, which has defined the look of a typical football ever since with its 12 black pentagons and 20 white hexagons in the form of a truncated icosahedron or bucky ball.

The Teamgeist ball differs from previous designs in having just 14 curved panels (making the ball topologically equivalent to a truncated octahedron), rather than the 32 that have been standard since 1970. In another first, the panels are bonded together rather than stitched. It is claimed to be rounder and to perform more uniformly regardless of where it is hit, and being almost waterproof it does not change performance as much when wet.

Each of the 32 qualified federations received 40 match balls for training purposes.

Match balls

Match balls for the 2006 FIFA World Cup were personalized with the name of the stadium, the teams, the match date and the kick-off time of each individual game, under a protective coating.

A special match ball was used for the final game - the "Teamgeist Berlin". The design is the same as the other match balls, but executed in gold with black and white details. Both qualified federations received 20 of these versions for training purposes.

Criticism

While Johann Vogel and David Beckham and others were reported to be happy with the new ball, it was criticized by many top players before the World Cup. These include Brazil's Roberto Carloshttp://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/02/Sports/Champs__New_ball_fall.shtml and Paul Robinson of Englandhttp://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/story/0,,1791838,00.html. They claimed the ball was too light and had a vastly different performance when wet. The ball has fewer seams, reducing air resistance.

Technical specifications

Although it had been planned to include an electronic tracking system in the ball, this was abandoned after a trial at the 2005 World Under-17 Championship in Peru.

	FIFA Approved standardTeamgeist at Soccerballworld	Teamgeist measurementsTeamgeist at Soccerballworld
Circumference	68.5 – 69.5 cm	69.0 – 69.25 cm
Diameter	≤ 1.5% difference	≤ 1.0% difference
Water absorption	≤ 10% weight increase	≤ 0.1 % weight increase
Weight	420 - 445 g	441 - 444 g
Shape and size retention	2000 cycles at 50 km·h⁻¹	3500 cycles at 50 km·h⁻¹
Rebound test	≤ 10 cm	≤ 2 cm
Loss of pressure	≤ 20%	≤ 11%

Development

The introduction of a 14-panel construction method means that the number of three-panel touch points is reduced by 60 percent (60 to 24) and the total length of the panel lines falls by over 15 percent (400.5 cm to 339.3 cm). Building on the introduction of thermal bonding technology in 2004, the Teamgeist ball is the first time Adidas have used this in a World Cup. Loughborough University conducted extensive comparative testing on the ball, along with the Adidas football laboratory in Scheinfeld, Germany.http://www.lboro.ac.uk/service/publicity/news-releases/2005/116_adidas.html

Other versions

A version of Teamgeist, the Teamgeist MLS, is used in the USA in Major League Soccer as of 2006. It is similar to Teamgeist, but the details are in the MLS' official colours of blue and green. Another version, the Teamgeist Copa del Rey, is used in the 2006 Copa del Rey Final; it is red and yellow. The Teamgeist League is red and black with white trim and is used in various leagues.

"Official replicas" of the Teamgeist have its 14-panel pattern superimposed on a cheaper 26-panel ball.

References

External Links

Football (soccer) equipment | 2006 FIFA World Cup | adidas brands | German loanwords | Loughborough University