2006年7月10日
Martin Rose/Bongarts via Getty Images
Italy's players after receiving their winner's medals Sunday. The victory over France gave Italy its fourth World Cup championship. Only Brazil, with five titles, has won more. More Photos > Published: July 10, 2006
BERLIN, July 9 — What could have been a glorious coronation of the soccer career of the French captain Zinédine Zidane became a shameful departure Sunday when he was ejected from the World Cup final for committing an astonishing act of unsportsmanlike behavior.
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Jasper Juinen/Associated Press
The Italian team celebrates after defeating France, 5-3, in a penalty-kick shootout to win the World Cup title. More Photos »
Italy won its fourth World Cup title, by 5-3 in a penalty-kick shootout, after the score remained 1-1 through overtime. But the match is certain to be remembered for Zidane's head-butting the Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the chest after the two exchanged words in the 109th minute.
With that moment of recklessness during the final game of a career that made him, in the eyes of many, the greatest soccer player of the past 20 years, Zidane, 34, might have cost his team its second World Cup title in eight years. He might have also undermined his reputation for cleverness and flair and decency.
Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants, is known for his discretion and shyness in France as well as for his soccer brilliance. His two goals in the victorious final of the 1998 World Cup against Brazil struck a blow for multiculturalism and became a rebuke of anti-immigration sentiment in France. But he has had his irresponsible moments on the field.
"Zidane being sent off was the key element of the game," said France's coach, Raymond Domenech. "Especially in extra time — the Italian team was obviously waiting for a penalty shootout." Domenech said he had not seen the play from the bench.
"But if Zidane did what they are saying, then the players regret it and I'm sure Zidane himself regrets it," he said. "The man of the match is Materazzi, because he scored and he sent off Zidane. I think this is sad, very sad, for him to end his career like this. I would have preferred to have taken him out five minutes earlier so that the crowd could have applauded him."
In the seventh minute, Zidane put France ahead, 1-0, on a penalty kick, becoming only the fourth player to score in two World Cup finals. But he apparently grew frustrated after narrowly missing a goal on a header in overtime and at being roughed up by Italy's rugged defense. He frequently complained to the referee but was told to play on.
In the 109th minute, Materazzi and Zidane seemed to tangle inconsequentially for position, with Materazzi having his arm on Zidane or grabbing him slightly. As the two walked upfield, the players spoke to each other. Then Zidane turned around, approached Materazzi and head-butted him in the sternum.
The two had been at the center of two of the game's critical plays. It was Materazzi's clipping of midfielder Florent Malouda in the penalty area that led to Zidane's penalty kick in the opening minutes. And it was Materazzi, known primarily as a defensive enforcer, who tied the score, 1-1, in the 19th minute with a header off a corner kick.
In overtime, the two became involved again, this time with Zidane suddenly angry and boiling out of control.
Zidane's head butt left Materazzi collapsed on the field. Italy protested vehemently, and a delay and some confusion followed. Marcello Lippi, the Italian coach, said that officials off the field watched a television replay before a decision was rendered. Unlike the National Football League, soccer does not use replay to adjudicate disputed plays. Observers believed this was the first time a video review had been used.
The match referee, Horacio Elizondo of Argentina, showed a red card to Zidane, ejecting him in the 110th minute. This left France to play the final 10 minutes of overtime with 10 men. Zidane's absence also meant that France had to face the shootout without its most reliable player. Not only had Zidane scored on a penalty kick earlier in Sunday's match, but he had also delivered a penalty kick in a 1-0 semifinal victory over Portugal.
This was not the first time Zidane had issues with discipline. He was suspended for France's final group match in this World Cup after receiving yellow-card warnings for fouls in each of France's first two matches. During group play of the 1998 World Cup, he received a two-game suspension for stamping on the back of a Saudi Arabian player. In 2000, he was barred for five matches after head-butting an opponent while playing for Juventus of Turin in the Champions League, Europe's most prestigious club tournament.
With Sunday's ejection, Zidane left the field, head bowed, and did not return for the postmatch medal ceremony. Perhaps anticipating the outcry against his star's behavior, Domenech later suggested that perhaps Zidane had felt provoked by the way the Italians nipped at him all game — impeding him, knocking him down, injuring his shoulder — with a resolute and unapologetic defense.
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Ben Radford/Getty Images
Fabio Grosso's teammates had to chase him halfway across the pitch to celebrate after his shootout goal clinched the championship. More Photos >
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Oliver Berg/European Pressphoto Agency
Italy's Luca Toni, left, and France's Patrick Vieira vying for the ball during Sunday's World Cup final. More Photos >
Jerry Lampen/Reuters
France's Fabien Barthez looking back at a goal by Italy's Marco Materazzi that tied the game at 1-1 in the 19th minute. More Photos >
"There are moments, when you take blows for 80 minutes," Domenech said. "I'm not saying I'm excusing it, but I can understand."
Defender William Gallas also suggested that Zidane had been provoked. "France was the better team; fate decided otherwise," he said.
Italy did have its ugly moments in this World Cup. Two players, including Materazzi, were sent off during matches after drawing red cards for fouls. But Italy's defense also played with great determination and cohesiveness and impenetrability.
Seldom did anyone stray out of position. Midfielder Gennaro Gattuso was relentless in clogging Zidane and others before him in midfield. Fabio Cannavaro, Italy's captain, was unyielding in central defense. All during the tournament, Italy's defenders crowded around attackers like iron filings around a magnet.
The only two goals it allowed were a shot it kicked into its own net against the United States, and Zidane's penalty kick early in Sunday's match.
Still, Sunday's game became disjointed and was frequently interrupted by injury on both sides after a promising start. A flurry of action in the first 20 minutes was followed by long stretches in which both teams lacked energy and momentum. In that sense, the final represented the uneven play in this entire low-scoring World Cup.
But that did not stop Italy from celebrating and finally moving beyond the fear of penalty kicks, which had eliminated the Azzurri in three of the previous four World Cups, including the final in 1994.
A number of Italian commentators — and even some players — spoke of the dread of penalty kicks before this tournament. But during Sunday's shootout, Andrea Pirlo, Materazzi, Daniele De Rossi, Alessandro Del Piero and Fabio Grosso each took kicks with great assurance and accuracy.
Meanwhile, David Trezeguet, facing a Juventus teammate in goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, knocked his penalty kick errantly into the crossbar on France's second attempt, the ball ricocheting straight down and missing the goal line by inches. (Trezeguet scored the winning goal in overtime to beat Italy in the final of the 2000 European Championships.)
When Grosso put Italy's final kick into the upper right corner, France was mathematically eliminated and a relieved Italy began to celebrate.
"We had fear of the penalties," Gattuso said. "Our history was not so great, so that was the fear."
Many thought this World Cup title would remain elusive for another reason — a match-fixing scandal that has clouded the results of the top Italian league, known as Serie A. Yet Italy seemed galvanized, not distracted, and added a fourth World Cup trophy to ones previously won in 1934, 1938 and 1982. Only Brazil, with five, has won more.
Lippi, the Italian coach, perhaps recalling the turmoil of Italy's match-fixing scandal, called Sunday's victory "the most satisfying moment of my life."
Early on, Buffon, Italy's superb goal keeper, said a World Cup victory might give those involved in Italy's billowing scandal a kind of amnesty. The scandal involves Italy's top club, Juventus, and three other clubs. Club officials could face sentencing as early as Tuesday. Sunday night, Gattuso seemed to echo Buffon's sentiment, saying, "Maybe this helps the judges know what to do."
Gattuso added: "If the scandal hadn't happened, I think we wouldn't have won the World Cup. It has given us more strength. The squad showed great heart. Maybe it wasn't pretty, but we were hard to beat."
Forward Luca Toni dedicated the victory to all Italians "from Sicily to Lombardy, who are celebrating in all the little towns; we came here with lots of problems and you can see what a great group we are."
And now it is France that is leaving with lots of problems, its captain disgraced by a staggering loss of composure.
"It's awful to see him leave that way," Domenech said of Zidane, "because I sincerely believed he would lift that trophy."
posted @ 2006-07-10 14:30 飘舞影 阅读(324) | 评论 (0) | 编辑 收藏
2006年7月6日
France 1, Portugal 0
Zidane Leads the Old Men of Europe Into the Final
Nicolas Asfouri/AFP--Getty Images
A penalty kick by France's Zinedine Zidane eluding Portuguese goalkeeper Ricardo for the lone goal in Wednesday's semifinal. More Photos >
Published: July 6, 2006
MUNICH, July 5 — History uncannily repeated itself Wednesday, as France defeated Portugal, 1-0, on a penalty kick by Zinédine Zidane to reach the World Cup final for the second time in less than a decade.
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Nicolas Asfouri/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images
Zinédine Zidane got his head to the ball Wednesday. His goal sent France to the final Sunday against Italy. More Photos »
Six years ago, France beat Portugal in the semifinals of the European Championships, also on a penalty kick by Zidane. The memory of that call still rankles Portugal and served to fire up the squad that took the field here.
Not enough, though. Despite an energetic effort by wings Luís Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese could not penetrate France's swarming defense. France preserved its lead, and at the end, Zidane and Figo — two lions of the game, ending their international careers with brilliance and style — hugged on the field and exchanged jerseys.
For Zidane, the 34-year-old captain and undisputed master of the French team, the fairy tale has one more chapter, in Berlin on Sunday. France will meet Italy, which earned its place Tuesday by defeating host Germany, 2-0, in the last minutes of overtime.
"Now that we are here, after all the effort we have made, we will try and bring it home," said Zidane, who came out of retirement from international competition to lead France. "It won't be easy, it will be hard, but we have the weapons to do it and we have the will to do it."
France, derided before the tournament as an over-the-hill gang with no prospects, has emerged as the surprise of this World Cup. Zidane's mesmerizing play, with support from his fellow veterans Thierry Henry and Lilian Thuram, humbled Brazil, the odds-on favorite, in a 1-0 quarterfinal victory, conjuring memories of France's World Cup championship outside Paris in 1998.
Now, the old pros known as Les Bleus have a chance to claim that title again, in another European capital.
"Our team is a true team," France Coach Raymond Domenech said. "It's not individuals. Everybody does it together, and everybody is able to sacrifice themselves."
Domenech said Wednesday's game was tougher than the match against Brazil, partly because of the heightened pressure of playing in a semifinal. The game was perhaps less incandescent than that one, with the wear and tear of a monthlong tournament showing on each team.
Portugal's coach, the Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari, was left to lament: "We had a penalty against us. We're not going to forget that."
Scolari did not dispute the call, though he said the referee, Jorge Larrionda of Uruguay, missed a later penalty against Ronaldo.
France and Portugal were evenly matched, he said, with a lot of action in the middle of the field.
Indeed, the first half seesawed, with each team moving the ball but neither dominating. Figo, 33, and Ronaldo, his 21-year-old junior partner, led impressive drives toward the French goal. They also embellished their reputation for on-field theatrics.
In the 17th minute, Figo aimed a shot that was easily stopped by goalkeeper Fabien Barthez. After colliding with Patrick Vieira of France, Figo curled up on the grass, grimacing. A stretcher was summoned, and he was carried off the field, apparently injured. Seconds later, he bounded back into action.
In the 30th minute, Ronaldo tumbled spectacularly after running past the French defender Eric Abidal. Domenech was incredulous on the sideline, gesturing wildly that Ronaldo had taken a dive. The referee did not blow the whistle.
About three minutes later, Henry tumbled in Portugal's penalty area as he tried to elude defender Ricardo Carvalho. Carvalho's left foot made contact with Henry's right ankle, and as Carvalho fell, he waved his finger plaintively at the referee, hoping to avoid a whistle.
A penalty kick was called, and Zidane faced Portugal's compact goalkeeper, Ricardo. Zidane kicked the ball low and to the left. Ricardo guessed correctly, but the ball slipped past his fingertips into the net.
Portugal had several chances in the second half, none greater than in the 77th minute, when Ronaldo was tripped outside the penalty area in front of the French goal and was awarded a free kick. Barthez stopped the shot, but his flailing arms could not control the ball, which floated in front of the goal. Figo, however, headed the rebound over the crossbar.
Portugal, which has 13 losses and a tie against France in 19 meetings, had not advanced this far in a World Cup since 1966.
France has put it all together at the right time, having limped into the World Cup after a weak qualifying round and reports of dissension. It seemed to be muddling toward an early exit by struggling against soft competition in its group, earning two ties and one victory.
As the stakes rose, though, so did France's game.
Its revival has been a tonic for a country that needs it. Exhausted by civil unrest in its cities and its suburbs, and politically paralyzed, France is rallying around a team that echoes a more glorious time.
The south section of the stadium Wednesday was a sea of blue jerseys. A few French fans wore garish masks of Jacques Chirac, their departing president, while others brandished large plastic baguettes. Huge banners reading "Allez les Bleus" fluttered from the stands.
Zidane, who wore the maroon jersey of Figo around the field after the game, is poised to give his fans one last campaign.
Nathaniel Vinton contributed reporting for this article.
posted @ 2006-07-06 17:36 飘舞影 阅读(478) | 评论 (0) | 编辑 收藏
2006年7月5日
Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Italy scored two late goals and stunned the host country's team with a 2-0 victory over Germany in the semifinals of the World Cup today. Published: July 4, 2006
DORTMUND, Germany, July 4 — After playing rugged and unyielding defense through regulation time and late into overtime, Italy maintained the confidence and poise to score two late goals and stun the host country's team with a 2-0 victory over Germany in the semifinals of the World Cup today.
Jeff Z. Klein, Robert Mackey and other staff members of The Times and International Herald Tribune are tracking the world's most popular sporting event, including live match coverage.
Five times these teams have met in World Cup competition, and Italy has never lost to Germany, claiming three victories and a pair of ties. Today's match came perilously close to being decided by penalty kicks, which led to Italy's exit from three of the last four World Cup tournaments. Germany has never lost in four matches decided by shootouts.
But the penalty kicks were not needed. In the 119th minute, an Italian corner kick was headed to the top of the penalty area, where midfielder Andre Pirlo played the ball to defender Fabio Grosso. Grosso one-timed the left-footed shot and curled it just inside the left post.
Then, two minutes later, Italy got a breakaway on a counterattack and a substitute forward, Alberto Gilardino, fed another replacement, Alessandro Del Piero, who chipped the ball into the goal from six yards.
"We came up against a very strong opponent," said Del Piero afterward. "But we showed that we had the willpower to beat them."
Though many of its supporters were skeptical when the World Cup began, Germany reached deep into the tournament, only to be eliminated in stunning fashion today. A number of the German players fell on their backs in disbelief, while fans, hands to their faces, broke into tears.
The German national team had never lost in this industrial city in the Ruhr region before today, with 13 victories and a tie in matches here since 1935.
Italy will now meet either France or Portugal in the final on Sunday in Berlin, in pursuit of its fourth World Cup title and its first since 1982. Italy is now undefeated in its last 24 matches, and has scored 11 goals in this tournament while allowing only one — a ball an Italian player kicked into the team's own net in a match against the United States.
"It is a dream, we have achieved something huge here," said Marcello Lippi, the Italian team's coach. "If either side deserved to win it, then it was us. It's a really special moment, fantastic. I was so impressed with the enthusiasm and the effort from my team and I am so proud of the boys."
Today's victory coincided with new trial developments in the Italian League match-fixing scandal in Rome. The prosecutor in the case said that Juventus, a leading Italian club, should be relegated to the third division and stripped of the titles it won the past two seasons for trying to manipulate referee appointments.
The prosecutor also requested that three other top clubs — A.C. Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio — be sent down to the second division. Thirteen of the 23 players on the national team are from these four clubs, and their futures have now grown uncertain. Lippi formerly coached Juventus.
Germany played without its fierce defensive midfielder Torsten Frings, who had smothered the Argentine playmaker Juan Riquelme in the quarterfinals and had been counted on to shadow Italy's playmaker, Francesco Totti, in today's contest. But Frings was disqualified from the match after throwing a punch at the Argentine forward Julio Cruz following the quarterfinal victory.
In Frings' absence, German coach Juergen Klinsmann made a double switch, perhaps looking for toughness against the hard-edged Italians. Midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger went to the bench, while Tim Borowski, an offensive-minded midfielder who set up a goal against Argentina in the quarterfinals, and Sebastian Kehl, a holding midfielder, moved into the lineup.
Italy appeared to be the more assured team from the start, remaining relaxed, patient, and measured, forever organized and relentless on defense, while Germany appeared to be rushed and uncertain.
Time after time, Italy worked the ball through midfield with short passes, then tried to spring the 6-foot-4 inch forward Luca Toni down the middle. But it was midfielder Simone Perrotta who gave the Italians their best scoring chance of the first half, streaking into the penalty area in the 16th minute and forcing goalkeeper Jens Lehmann to rush six yards out of goal to deflect the shot and smother the rebound.
Germany finally produced a threatening chance on a counterattack in the 34th minute, as the ball was played across the penalty area from forward Miroslav Klose to sprinting midfielder Bernd Schneider. From 17 yards, Schneider unleashed a blast. Gianluigi Buffon, Italy's goalkeeper, reached up and missed, but the ball rocketed just over the crossbar.
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Otherwise, Italy appeared to be the more forceful team. Gennaro Gattuso was ruthless in midfield with his tackling and hustle. The defense was again impenetrable in the opening half, as Germany did not record a shot on goal. In the 26th minute, Klose charged at central defender Fabio Cannavaro and lost the ball as if he had run into a wall.
In the 40th minute, Germany's left back, Philipp Lahm won a ball at midfield with his head but was bounced into a turnover by the immovable Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo.
On the other hand, the German captain Michael Ballack never appeared as imposing as his 6-feet-2 inches might suggest. Several of his passes were curiously aimless, and he seemed to end up on the ground too often for a man his size against Italy's dynamic midfield.
Five minutes into the second half, Klose stormed at the goal but Gattuso shouldered him off the ball until he slid down and could kick nothing but air. Still, as it had after falling behind against Argentina in the quarterfinals, Germany began attacking more confidently and decisively as Ballack began to assert himself.
In the 63rd minute, Schneider chipped a pass into the penalty area and forward Lukas Podolski wheeled and fired a shot, but Gianluigi Buffon had positioned himself perfectly in goal for Italy. Defender Arne Friedrich ran onto the rebound for Germany, but he skied his shot over the crossbar, leaving Klinsmann to toss a water bottle in frustration.
In the 73rd minute, Klinsmann replaced Borowski, who often played clumsily and drew a yellow card in the first half, with Schweinsteiger, he of the Mowhawk haircut. A minute later, Italy made its first substitution, replacing Toni at striker with Alberto Gilardino.
Italy appeared to begin wearing down in the heat. Gattuso suffered a muscle cramp. And the Italian defenders began to show their fatigue, bending over to catch their breath when the ball was not in play.
In the 81st minute, Cannavaro jumped over Podolski's back at the edge of the penalty area and Germany was awarded a free kick from 20 yards. But Ballack's effort had too much muscle and not enough accuracy and the shot sliced to the right.
In the 83rd minute, midfielder David Odonkor replaced Schneider in the German lineup, bringing his speed, energy and powerful crosses into the game.
Five minutes before the end of regulation, a chip pass sprung Perrotta behind the German defense, but Lehmann rushed from his goal line to punch the ball away and send the Italian midfielder tumbling with a hard collision.
To start overtime, Italy substituted forward Vincenzo Iaquinta for midfielder Mauro Camoranesi. And if Italy had shown signs of wilting late in regulation, it quickly revived in the extra period. Forty-six seconds into overtime, Gilardino cut sharply back against Ballack inside the penalty area and shot quickly with his left foot, only to watch as the ball bounced off the right post.
A minute later, defender Gianluca Zambrotta launched a rocket off the crossbar from 18 yards. In the 104th minute, Italy made its final substitution, putting another forward into the game, Alessandro Del Piero, and removing the midfielder Perrotta.
Having absorbed this early rush by Italy, Germany got another chance to score the game's first goal late in the first overtime period. Odonkor made yet another brilliant cross, this one to a charging Podolski in the penalty area, but his header flew wide right.
In the 111th minute, Germany made its third and final substitution, with Oliver Neuville replacing Klose, the tournament's leading scorer with five goals, at forward. Immediately, Germany got another chance to score. Kehl played the ball to Podolski for a 15-yard blast, but Buffon reached up and pushed the shot over the crossbar.
Now the game grew frantic in its back-and-forth pace, Italy appearing desperate to avoid penalty kicks. But it could not score. Del Piero squibbed a shot wide from atop the penalty area. And an Andrea Pirlo clothesline in the 119th minute was pushed away by Lehmann. Two more chances came in the concluding minutes and this time Italy didn't miss.
posted @ 2006-07-05 09:02 飘舞影 阅读(413) | 评论 (0) | 编辑 收藏
2006年7月2日
France 1, Brazil 0
France Beats Brazil at Its Own Game
Stuart Franklin/Bongarts, via Getty Images
Members of the French team celebrated their 1-0 win over Brazil, the defending champion and tournament favorite, in the quarterfinals. More Photos > Published: July 2, 2006
FRANKFURT, July 1 — At age 34, Zinédine Zidane has prematurely lost much of his hair but little of his magnificent soccer skill, which was on stirring display Saturday night as France ousted the five-time champion Brazil from the World Cup.
It was Zidane's looping free kick in the 57th minute that forward Thierry Henry volleyed into the net for a 1-0 victory, setting up a semifinal against Portugal on Wednesday.
While Brazil appeared lethargic, almost uninterested — until it was forced into a frantic attempt to level the score — France beat the defending champion Brazilians at their own beautiful game: crisp short passes on the ground, ornamental footwork and an effervescent spirit.
Brazil, which had appeared in the previous three World Cup finals, winning twice, never achieved its usual joyful brand of samba soccer in this tournament. And now it exits having been thoroughly beaten twice by Zidane and France in the past eight years in soccer's global championship tournament.
In 1998, Zidane, widely considered one of soccer's greats, scored two goals in a 3-0 victory over Brazil in the final of the World Cup outside Paris, setting off the largest celebration on the Champs-Élysées since the end of World War II.
He is scheduled to retire after this World Cup, but his going-away party has been postponed for at least one more match. He seems free, unburdened by pressure or expectation, exulting in a fabulous deferment of the end of his career.
On Saturday, Zidane spryly juggled the ball on his thigh. He fired wraparound passes. He dashed vigorously and creatively from one flank to another. And he dribbled intricately around and through the Brazilian midfielders as if they were cones on a practice field.
"Precisely because he's going to retire, he's fully invested in this game," Raymond Domenech, France's coach, said of Zidane. "He doesn't have to calculate anything. Every moment is perhaps his last one."
Meanwhile, Brazil was left exhausted, lacking in urgency and curiously indolent until the final half hour of play. Ronaldinho, considered the world's best player, was pushed from midfield up to forward, but he failed again to become sufficiently involved.
Instead, Ronaldinho disappeared into a smothering French defense that used as many as nine men to silence Brazil, and he was thoroughly outperformed by Zidane as a playmaker.
Ronaldo, overweight and sedentary at forward, did not threaten until near the end, when he began to run with great determination at the French defense. Often, he just stood around. Once, he fell clumsily in the penalty area.
Brazil's outside backs, Cafu and Roberto Carlos, launched one purposeless pass after another. And, in the closing minutes, Roberto Carlos could only manage to walk upfield as his team desperately needed a goal to force overtime.
Afterward, Ronaldo walked disgustedly off the field, not bothering to shake hands with Zidane, until now his teammate at Real Madrid. Midfielder Zé Roberto fell onto his back, his hands covering his face. He seemed shocked in defeat and was no doubt tired from having chased Zidane all game.
The exit of Brazil, considered by many a heavy favorite to win the tournament, allowed France to join Portugal, Italy and Germany in the first all-European semifinals since 1982.
"I wasn't prepared for defeat," said Brazil's coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira. "It never crossed my mind we wouldn't come to the final. It's a very hard moment."
Parreira, who led Brazil to the 1994 World Cup title, said in a bristling way that losing was always the coach's fault. He would not say whether he would continue as coach. He wondered aloud whether Brazil had adequately melded its individual brilliance into a team.
Meanwhile, the victory continued an extraordinary resurgence for France. It had departed in embarrassment in the first round of the 2002 World Cup, without having scored a goal. Many believed the team had aged indelicately after winning the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European championship.
Before this tournament, Les Bleus, as the French team is known, received harsh criticism from the French news media and fans. Some players even said they no longer wanted to play in Paris.
And when France struggled early in group play, Domenech, 57, was jeered during introductions before a victory over Togo. The lingering tension was apparent Saturday when Zidane refused to speak with reporters at a news conference after the match.
France has also received criticism from the far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, head of the anti-immigrant National Front. Le Pen, as he has done many times, has accused the team of using too many black players. And he has said the squad was not sufficiently respectful in singing the national anthem.
The World Cup victory in 1998, achieved with a diverse team with backgrounds in the former French colonies, was considered a victory for multiculturalism and a repudiation of Le Pen's position.
That team was widely hailed while winning in its own country. And this one is already being embraced. The victory brought tens of thousands of people and fireworks to the Champs-Élysées.
"The public supports the team," defender Lilian Thuram said earlier in the World Cup. "They don't ask what color the players are."
In the second round, a somnolent French team awakened with an impressive victory over Spain, ignoring the racist monkey chants made by some Spanish fans and the whistling at "La Marseillaise," France's national anthem.
On Saturday night, there were no political or racial tensions, only a soccer match between two of the world's best teams. France struggled early, attempting to play long ball. Then it undertook a Brazilian style of possession, building up confidently through the middle and along the wings.
In the 45th minute, Zidane cut so sharply near midfield that he left a pair of Brazilians, defender Lúcio and midfielder Gilberto Silva, sprawled on the ground.
In the 57th minute, Zidane waltzed around a flat-footed Ronaldo near midfield, flicking the ball over his head and heading it to a teammate. Eventually, France won a free kick and Zidane set up on the left flank, about 30 yards from goal.
His kick kept floating like a hot-air balloon toward the far post, where Henry was left startlingly unmarked. He volleyed the ball without obstruction and France had the only goal it needed.
"They had more patience than our players," Parreira said. "They were not playing hastily."
Of Zidane, he added: "He moved all the time. He made it hard for our players. This was decisive."
Asked to explain the play of his star midfielder, Domenech said: "He is Zidane. You seem surprised. I'm not surprised at all. I know exactly what he's capable of doing."
And so does Brazil.
posted @ 2006-07-02 15:45 飘舞影 阅读(333) | 评论 (0) | 编辑 收藏
Portugal 3, England 1
Portugal Sends England Home With Nothing
By NATHANIEL VINTON
Published: July 2, 2006
GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany, July 1 — No two players in Saturday's quarterfinal match between England and Portugal presented a more compelling study in contrasts than the youngest starter on each team. Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, each born in 1985, each played protagonist roles in Portugal's victory against England.
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Michael Sohn/Associated Press
England's Wayne Rooney (9) looking at the red card he was shown by Referee Horácio Elizondo Saturday.
All boy-band looks and finesse on the ball, Ronaldo delivered the winning goal in the penalty-kick shootout after two hours of scoreless soccer. The squat and pugnacious Rooney, however, was ejected in the 62nd minute, leaving his teammates to struggle valiantly while short-handed.
Portugal won the shootout, 3-1, as goalkeeper Ricardo saved three of England's attempts, and advanced to the semifinals Wednesday. The Portuguese will face France, which was a 1-0 winner against Brazil on Saturday. England has not reached the final since 1966, when it won the World Cup.
"To get over this result will take a long time," said Sven-Goran Eriksson, who announced months ago that he would be leaving as the English national team coach after the World Cup. "I was sure that these players could get to the final. The fans were fantastic out there, and I'm very sorry we couldn't give them a final."
But the team's world-class players were outnumbered. In 1970, England took along a bulldog named Winston as its mascot. The team came to Germany 36 years later with Rooney, famous for sticking his head in the path of a swift-moving foot if he thinks he can beat it to the ball.
He sat out the first match of this tournament with a broken foot, but he came on in the second with a 20-year-old's sense of invulnerability. On Saturday, he was holding off two Portuguese players — holding them back with both arms — when he was ejected, for stepping on one of his downed adversaries, or for shoving Ronaldo during the confrontation after the play.
After the ejection, Eriksson shuffled the lineup to place Peter Crouch in the striker position, but Crouch could not capitalize on several beautiful scoring opportunities that came England's way.
As the extra time wore on, England wore down. The crowd was on its side, shaking the stadium with renditions of "God Save the Queen," and hissing any time Portugal winger Luís Figo had the ball.
Before the match, the crowd cheered David Beckham as he gave a short speech disavowing racism, even though the microphone was turned off for the first part of his message. But when Figo delivered the same speech in Portuguese, the crowd unleashed a cascade of boos and hisses.
In part, it was because of Figo's central role in Portugal's previous game against the Netherlands a week earlier. In that match, the referee issued a record-setting number of reprimands for blatant fouls and dirty play.
As a result, Portugal's star midfielder, Deco, was benched for Saturday's match, and 5 of the 11 players who took the field were on probation, meaning one more yellow card, and they would miss the next game.
The English midfielder Owen Hargreaves said: "We worked hard to get here, and we'll be going home tomorrow, and I don't think anyone expected that. Penalties can go either way. It's not about talent. It's a shame really that it was decided on penalties."
posted @ 2006-07-02 15:43 飘舞影 阅读(308) | 评论 (0) | 编辑 收藏By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 1, 2006
Filed at 12:46 p.m. ET
GELSENKIRCHEN, Germany (AP) -- The World Cup could be over for England's David Beckham and Wayne Rooney.
Beckham, the England captain, was taken off in the 52nd minute of the quarterfinal against Portugal after his right ankle was stepped on by defender Nuno Valente.
Beckham sat on the bench and appeared in tears, clutching his right thigh. He later sat on the ground stretching out his leg with towels covering the injury.
He looked on in disbelief when Rooney was sent off in the 62nd minute for a straight red card for stomping on the groin of Portugal's Ricardo Carvalho.
Aaron Lennon replaced Beckham, while striker Peter Crouch was sent on for winger Joe Cole.
posted @ 2006-07-02 15:41 飘舞影 阅读(341) | 评论 (0) | 编辑 收藏
2006年6月27日
Germany 2, Sweden 0
By ROGER COHEN
Published: June 24, 2006
MUNICH - Germany, its team growing in stature by the day, powered into the quarter-finals of the World Cup with a 2-0 win over Sweden in a lopsided contest that was over almost before it began.
Sweden played with 10 men for much of the match after the sending off of Teddy Lucic for two yellow cards, and missed a penalty early in the second half. The team never recovered from a devastating German start.
Lukas Podolski, a 21-year-old striker, grabbed the two German goals within 12 minutes, producing a deafening roar in the cauldron-like Munich stadium. But it was his fellow striker, Miroslav Klose, who twice sliced through the Swedish defense to present the goals to him on a plate.
First, in the 4th minute, Klose, the top scorer in the competition with four goals, broke through a static Swedish back line, provoking a desperate lunge by the Swedish goalkeeper, Andreas Isaksson.
The ball rolled out to Podolski, standing near the penalty spot, and he powered it right-footed into the empty net. Jurgen Klinsmann, the German coach who has gone from ridiculed figure to national idol in a matter of weeks, exploded into something resembling an early victory dance in the dugout.
Eight minutes later, Klinsmann had further cause for joy as Klose again ripped the Swedish defense to shreds.
With the rapid acceleration that makes him such a dangerous striker, Klose moved leftward along the Swedish defensive line and then laid the ball back into the center in Podolski's path, where it was met with an unstoppable low, left-footed drive into the net.
Klose, who scored five goals with his head at the 2002 World Cup and has four with his feet here, is clearly also a playmaker. The growing partnership between him and Podolski looks very menacing.
Of the 17 World Cups played, six have been won by the hosts, including West Germany in 1974. Before the tournament, Germany was given little chance of turning the host's significant advantage into victory, but that view is beginning to shift.
Klinsmann has produced some chemistry in the German team; it has become more than the sum of its parts. The engine room is the midfield partnership of Michael Ballack, the captain, and Torsten Frings, who never stops moving. From the outset today, they dictated the pace of the game and left the Swedes looking ragged.
"The team gets better every game," Jurgen Klinsmann, the German coach said after the match. "It gets closer as a unit."
Clearly stunned, the Swedes struggled to get into the game, but with their striker, Zlatan Ibahimovic, looking less than fully fit, they were unable to make much impression. Only a good save by Isaksson from Klose, low at the left post, stopped Germany going three goals up in the 32nd minute.
Three minutes later, the Swedes' chances took a further blow with a sending-off. Lucic, a defender, who had already been given a yellow card for a foul, stupidly held Klose back by his jersey on the right flank. The referee, Carlos Simon of Brazil, had little choice but to wave his red card and point to the dressing room.
"Ten men against a team like Germany, it's very difficult," the Swedish coach, Lars Lagerback, said after the game. That rates as one of the understatements of this World Cup.
Ivanisevic did produce a sharp save from Jens Lehmann, the German goalkeeper, and Mattias Jonson almost latched onto a Fredrik Ljungberg cross in the 43rd minute, but for most of the first half Lehmann was an idle spectator.
Any chance Sweden had of coming back into the game disappeared early in the second half. Christoph Metzelder, the big German central defender, nudged Henrik Larsson in the back, and the referee awarded Sweden a penalty.
Larsson himself, who first scored in World Cup competitions in 1994, got up to take the kick. But presented, rather generously, with the opportunity to bring Sweden back into the game, he blazed the ball high over the bar.
That was the end of matters as far any real contest was concerned. The Swedish goal turned into a shooting gallery, with Ballack and Bernd Schneider both hitting the post, and Isaksson making several fine saves.
When the final whistle went, Isaksson dropped to his knees. Only his efforts had prevented a complete rout.
Klinsmann said his team was "carrying us on a cloud right now" and had the ability to "keep going to the final," although he acknowledged that the quarter-final game - against much favored Argentina or Mexico - would be "a big, big hurdle."
posted @ 2006-06-27 08:35 飘舞影 阅读(434) | 评论 (0) | 编辑 收藏
Argentina 2, Mexico 1
Published: June 25, 2006
LEIPZIG, Germany, June 24 — Argentina took an early punch from Mexico on Saturday at the World Cup and staggered unexpectedly. Then it counterpunched with what might have been an own goal before collecting itself until the cobwebs cleared.
Composed again, Argentina played through overtime with remarkable patience, enforced by the playmaker Juan Riquelme. The Argentines almost seemed to stalk their opponents as the game slowed, unhurriedly waiting for another chance to strike, never showing panic or fear.
And finally in the 98th minute, the languid pace was interrupted with a surgical volley by midfielder Maxi Rodríguez, whose shot looped into the net from just beyond the penalty area to give Argentina a 2-1 victory.
Argentina, a tournament favorite, will play another one, host Germany, in the quarterfinals Friday in Berlin. Germany defeated Sweden, 2-0, on Saturday to set up what could be an epic match.
"We had a very strong rival in front of us," Argentina Coach José Pekerman said after the exhausting match, which included 30 minutes of overtime. "For a long time, we didn't have possession of the ball. But we managed to recover possession. We remained aware of our potential."
Pekerman added, "We could make it all the way through."
But after scoring eight goals and allowing one in group play, Argentina was rocked early Saturday. Mexico, unafraid of its opponent's reputation, attacked from the beginning, building quickly out of the back, racing down the wings and pumping balls to its threatening forwards.
In the second minute, forward Jared Borgetti headed a corner kick that deflected just over the crossbar. Four minutes later, defender Mario Méndez artfully flicked a free kick behind him, toward the far post, where Mexico's captain, Rafael Márquez, skidded into the ball and punched it into the net for a startling 1-0 lead.
Argentina leveled the score in the 10th minute on a corner kick. The goal was given to Argentine forward Hernán Crespo, who apparently was credited with getting his leg up and placing the ball in the small space between Borgetti's arm and body.
Replays however, appeared to show that Borgetti inadvertently deflected the ball into his own net with his head or shoulder.
Shaky goalkeeping at the other end by Roberto Abbondanzieri kept Argentina on edge through the rest of the half. But Argentina seemed to collect itself at intermission, returning to the field serenely but adamantly.
"You have to bear in mind that football has many facets — emotional stability, a winning attitude and a capacity players must have in key moments of the game," Pekerman said. He noted that Mexico was a great rival, but also that "Argentina tends to win."
Only the superb reflexes of Oswaldo Sánchez, Mexico's goalkeeper, kept the game tied through regulation. He batted away a rocket from the midfielder Rodríguez, then parried a charge by forward Javier Saviola.
As regulation reached the 76th minute, Argentina, still tranquil, began to prepare for a quick final strike or the endurance of overtime. Calling on fresh legs, Pekerman sent in his brilliant young forwards, first Carlos Tevez, 22, and, a few minutes later Lionel Messi, on his 19th birthday.
Mexico did not have the same endurance. It had been forced in the first half to make a substitution because of a hamstring injury to midfielder Pável Pardo. Eventually this left Borgetti to play all 120 minutes after he had missed two games with a strained hamstring.
With the subtlety of a bulldozer, Tevez muscled ahead for Argentina. But he could not score. First, he was stripped of the ball in the penalty area by defender Ricardo Osorio. Then, in the 92nd minute, Tevez found Messi for a tap-in, but Argentina was ruled offsides. The match went into overtime.
For this tournament, FIFA, soccer's world governing body, replaced sudden-death overtime, which is known as the golden goal. It had been in place since the 1998 World Cup, with two 15-minute extra periods played in their entirety. If needed, a penalty-kick shootout follows.
Again, Argentina played unhurriedly, waiting for a moment to put the game away. The winning goal came quickly and with precision.
In the 98th minute, midfielder Juan Pablo Sorín, Argentina's captain, sent a cross to Rodríguez just beyond the penalty area. With great composure, Rodríguez chested the ball and volleyed it on a lethal arc, leaving Sánchez helpless in the Mexican goal as Argentina went up, 2-1.
"It could have gone into the stands as easy as it went into the net," Rodríguez said. "It happened to go into the net."
Márquez, the Mexican captain, said: "A great goal is what eliminated us. We were perhaps the better team; maybe we didn't deserve this, but football is like that. The team that scores the goals wins."
posted @ 2006-06-27 08:34 飘舞影 阅读(462) | 评论 (0) | 编辑 收藏Published: June 25, 2006
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 24 — How does Brazil do it? Year after year, World Cup after World Cup, soccer stars seem to roll out of here like cars off a factory assembly line.
First came the generation of Pelé, Garrincha, Tostão and Rivelino, followed by Zico, Falcão and Socrates. Since the mid-1990's, Romário, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and now Kaká, Adriano and Robinho have further burnished Brazil's reputation for unmatched excellence. To the average fan around the world, Brazilian soccer appears to be a powerful, well-oiled machine.
But those who know it best are aware that the reality is far more complicated, that the country's record five World Cup championships are more a result of popular passion for the beautiful game, as it is often called here, than of any organized apparatus that methodically finds and develops players.
"There is no system in Brazil," said Carlos Roberto de Oliveira, who, playing as Roberto Dinamite, was a member of the Brazilian national team in the 1970's and early 1980's. "Everything happens on a random, haphazard basis."
To hear Brazilians tell it, organized professional soccer here is chaotic, corrupt and in perpetual disarray. But the game itself is so deeply ingrained in daily life — and in Brazilian identity and self-esteem — that its strength at the grass roots more than compensates for those deficiencies at the top.
Familiarity with soccer begins early, producing a bottomless pool of talent. By age 3, a boy has probably learned how to dribble the ball, and by 7 he is playing the informal sandlot version of the game with his pals in any open space they can find — a clearing in the jungle, an empty lot in a large city, a pasture or on the beach — and maybe sleeping with the ball, if he is fortunate enough to afford one.
Despite the considerable economic advances it has made over the last generation, Brazil is still a country with millions of poor among its 185 million people. And it is the poor who have traditionally seen success in soccer as their fastest ticket to prosperity and prestige.
Of the 23 players on the national squad competing in Germany this month, only three come from a background that would be considered middle class here. Most of the players, whether they were born in cities or in the countryside, come from families that are humble, the preferred term for poverty here.
Their success breeds only more success, especially now that the globalization of soccer has made Brazilian players increasingly in demand for teams all over the world. When a poor boy sees that a player like Ronaldinho, considered the best in the world going into the World Cup, can earn 28 million euros (about $35 million) a year, it encourages him to aim high and devote himself to the game.
"There are now so many role models, and no glass ceiling," said Alex Bellos, the author of "Futebol: Soccer, the Brazilian Way." "Go into any shantytown or urban center, and you're sure to find someone who had a mate at school who played with Ronaldo or knows someone else who is a pro footballer. The idea is more than a dream, it's a reality."
That hunger for success, however, does not explain the extraordinary inventiveness and fluidity with which Brazilians play the game. Some of the country's most knowledgeable analysts see that skill as a response to the confusion and unpredictability of daily life here, which has made Brazilians adept at what is called dribbling around rules and barriers.
"We Brazilians are accustomed to having to improvise, to being creative when we are in a tight spot," said Tostão, now a popular commentator whose real name is Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade. "It's the foundation of our music and art, too, and that intuitive ability to sidestep the rules and improvise on the spot is what distinguishes the great player from the excellent."
As Brazil urbanizes and as it becomes harder to find open spaces, the game is also moving indoors, to gymnasiums in a form known as futsal. Ronaldinho and Robinho came out of that setting — the soccer equivalent of arena football in the United States.
"Futsal teaches players a capacity to create in a small space," said Juca Kfouri, one of Brazil's most influential and outspoken soccer commentators. "Then, when they get to play on the grass, on that larger stage, they can glory in really having room to create."
Traditionally, the path of a Brazilian player was clearly defined from the moment he was spotted playing sandlot ball, usually by an amateur scout who was often a fan of a local team. He was signed by that team as a teenager, passed on to a larger regional club if he showed promise, sold to one of the 20 or so teams with large national followings, and finally, if he was very lucky, ended his playing days in Europe.
Throughout his career, however long it lasted, a player was little more than a piece of merchandise. If he offended management or wanted too much money, he could easily be replaced because he had few contractual rights and there was always more talent waiting in the pipeline.
But when Pelé, the country's greatest player, became sports minister in the mid-1990's, he made an effort to change the system. Using his prestige, he managed to push legislation through the Brazilian legislature that was meant to reduce the power of clubs and give players more control of their careers.
The so-called Pelé Law has weakened the clubs, commentators agree, but it has also ended up benefiting agents more than the players. The agents, or impresarios, as they are known, have increasingly assumed responsibility for finding promising players, who are signed to personal management contracts and parked at clubs willing to showcase them until their value increases and they can be sold to a European club, sometimes while still teenagers.
"In the last decade, this has become an industry," Tostão said. "The clubs don't have as many scouts out there as they once did, people who will call out of love for a club and tell them they have to see a kid. Today, it's all the impresarios and their personal networks of scouts, which I think is a bad thing because they grab the kids and put them under their personal control."
In hopes of getting an early look at future stars, teams in Italy, England, Spain and Belgium have either bought pieces of Brazilian clubs or signed development deals with them. They are also bypassing the clubs and the player agents by sending their own scouts to scour the backlands and the urban slums for exportable talent, as Major League Baseball teams do in places like the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
Brazilian law and international rules forbid teams to sign players who have barely entered their teens. But to get around that restriction, European teams are now offering jobs as drivers or cooks to the parents of promising young players, who are then taken to Europe and enrolled on their junior squads.
Private soccer schools are also growing in importance as sources of players. These operate independently of clubs and for the most part do not receive support from the Ministry of Sports or the Brazilian national confederation. The confederation has a $165 million contract with Nike, but is widely criticized for contributing little to development programs for Brazilian youth.
Roberto Dinamite is one of several former players who operate such academies. Born and reared in Duque de Caxias, a working-class suburb of Rio, he has established the headquarters of his Roberto Dinamite Institute across the street from the rutted field where he was first spotted at age 10 by a scout for the Vasco da Gama club.
His school in his old neighborhood has functioned for little more than a decade. But it has produced one player who is on the Brazilian national junior team, another who plays for PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands and two who are signed to teams in Rio.
More than 150 boys, ages 7 through 16, participate in the program. On a cool and windy afternoon the day before Brazil's debut in the Cup, a group of 13-year-olds was going through a drill that required them to run a zigzag among a row of traffic cones, then take a pass with the right foot, dribble and finally kick the ball with the left foot.
"All of these kids know how to play, and every one of them wants to be the next Ronaldinho," Roberto Dinamite said. "But if there is even half a Ronaldinho here, or at some other school like this, then Brazil is going to remain atop the heap."
posted @ 2006-06-27 08:32 飘舞影 阅读(408) | 评论 (0) | 编辑 收藏By ALICE RAWSTHORN
Published: June 26, 2006
LONDON Things did not bode well. The German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann complained it was "unpredictable." His counterpart from England's team, Paul Robinson, dismissed it as "goalkeeper unfriendly." Brazil's strikers found it so tricky that they scheduled extra training sessions. Even before the World Cup had started, players were voicing concerns about the official ball, Adidas's multimillion dollar +Teamgeist.
Burdened by a pompous name (the German word for team spirit) with a silly + as a prefix and Adidas's lofty claims that it was the smoothest, roundest and most accurate soccer ball ever, the +Teamgeist seemed set to become the joke of the 2006 World Cup. Its prospects were not helped by the fact that many of the correspondents flocking to Germany remembered that Adidas made startlingly similar statements four years ago when it unveiled the Fevernova ball for the 2002 tournament.
How has the +Teamgeist performed since the World Cup started? Is it living up to Adidas's claims? Or fulfilling the players' fears? Goalies are still grumbling, but to the surprise of cynics, the new ball does seem to be livening up the game.
"It's always tempting to dismiss innovations in ball design as marketing hype, but this one is creating more excitement," said Jack Huckel, director of museum and archives at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, New York. "It can be shot from longer distances with greater impact and bent at greater speed. You see it exploding off the players' feet. I've tried it out and you feel the difference. Though, as a former goalkeeper, I understand why they don't like it."
The commercial importance of the World Cup ball to Adidas is obvious. How many other products are launched as part of one of the world's most popular events to a global television audience of hundreds of millions of enthralled fans? Adidas pays millions of dollars to be the official ball supplier to the World Cup in the hope of creating a bestseller. Having sold a record six million of the Fevernova ball of 2002, it has even higher expectations of the +Teamgeist.
It is harder to understand why designing a soccer ball should be so daunting. After all, it is a ball. How hard can it be to design a round object of a specific size and weight? The challenge the sports industry's designers, engineers and scientists have struggled with for decades is to produce a ball in so robust a form that it enhances, rather than inhibits, the quality of play by behaving in exactly the same way wherever and whenever it is kicked.
From the late 1800s to 1970, soccer balls consisted of 18 hand-stitched brown leather panels. During the 1966 World Cup, viewers complained they could not follow the ball on their black-and-white television screens, and FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, commissioned Adidas to design a television-friendly alternative. The result was the Telstar with 32 leather panels - 12 black pentagons and 20 white hexagons. Launched at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, it has been the default design for soccer balls ever since.
Adidas has since developed a new ball for every World Cup with varying degrees of success. A notable flop was the Tango España of 1982 with rubber inlaid over the seams. The rubber rubbed off when the ball was kicked, and each ball had to be replaced during the match. More successful was the Questra of 1994, whose polyurethane foam coating made it faster in flight. All of these balls adopted the 32-panel format, as did the Fevernova.
"After so many years of 32 panels, we decided to try something completely different for 2006, and chose a 14-panel structure," said Hans-Peter Nürnberg, who led the +Teamgeist design team for Adidas as senior development engineer. "By reducing the number of panels and the length of seams, we made it rounder, better balanced and therefore more accurate."
The new ball has two layers, inner and outer, with a new thermal bonding technology used to create a seamless surface. Adidas's rationale is that this makes the ball more consistent because the impact of the player's foot will be the same wherever it strikes the surface. As there are no seams, the ball does not absorb moisture during the game and thereby stays the same weight. The +Teamgeist is slightly heavier than an unused Fevernova but weighs less than a Fevernova that has been used for a whole match, as it has not retained water. This too ensures that it behaves in the same way throughout the game.
Adidas subjected the +Teamgeist to intensive laboratory and field tests before putting the ball into production last July. Nürnberg said it exceeded expectations in the tests, which included repeated kicking by a robotic leg to replicate the 2,000 kicks it would endure in a typical World Cup match and rotating the ball 250 times under water. Even so, the toughest test for a soccer ball is its performance in a match.
After the first stage of the World Cup, observers are convinced that the +Teamgeist can be kicked more powerfully from longer distances. Torsten Frings's goal for Germany against Costa Rica was an example, as was Tomas Rosicky's first goal for the Czech Republic against the United States. Similarly, the swerve of the ball is accentuated as it bends to the left or right. "The bend is more dramatic," affirmed David James of Sheffield Hallam University's sports engineering department. "This ball is great for players like David Beckham, at least it should be." Another factor, analyzed by his colleagues at the University of Sheffield, is the +Teamgeist's tendency to swerve from side to side before hitting the back of the net when it is kicked straight without spin.
All of this makes life tougher for goalkeepers, as they face stronger shots and unexpected swerves. As matches progress, these problems are aggravated by the +Teamgeist's lightness, which makes it harder to catch. "It's so light that it slips out of your hands," Huckel noted. "That's why we see more goalkeepers thumping the ball away rather than trying to catch it."
The +Teamgeist also has a tendency to confuse goalies by wavering as it hurtles towards them. James attributes this to the aerodynamic complexity of its shape. "We're at the cutting edge of science here because we understand more about the aerodynamics of airplanes and Formula One cars than of spheres," he said. "A perfect sphere moves through the air with considerable difficulty, which is why sports balls tend to have rough surfaces. The felt on tennis balls and dimples on golf balls improves their aerodynamics and helps them to move faster." The seams on the old 32-panel soccer balls had the same effect, whereas the seamless +Teamgeist bobs about disconcertingly, like a milder version of a knuckleball in baseball.
Despite the goalies' grumbles, the +Teamgeist has proved even more popular than Adidas expected, setting a new sales record of 15 million balls so far. Nürnberg's design team is already working on its successor. "We need to erase the imperfections in its structure," he said. "Although we can't expect to produce something as revolutionary as the +Teamgeist for every World Cup."
posted @ 2006-06-27 08:30 飘舞影 阅读(495) | 评论 (0) | 编辑 收藏
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