The World Cup matches are gripping everyone's attention nowadays. Some results in the early stages of the competition have been somewhat surprising. Switzerland defeated Spain, Serbia beat Germany, and France lost to Mexico. New Zealand achieved a draw with Italy while Uruguay did the same with France.
Obviously, some people have made quite a bit of money given these results. But the spotlight for some of the unexpected performance had fallen on the object that 22 men jostle over during a 90-minute game: the ball.
The Jabulani (meaning "to celebrate" or "to rejoice" in the Zulu language) ball is the official match ball for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. However, not everyone is rejoicing. The ball's performance has met with pre-tournament criticism and the complaints have continued ever since the World Cup started. Some players have blamed the characteristics and performance of the ball for their poor showing. On 16 June 2010, The Guardian newspaper even suggested that the Jabulani ball could have been responsible for the goal drought in the first few days of the competition (though Portugal's 7-0 victory over North Korea earlier today should have settled that).
I don't agree.
However one looks at the issue, the point is that both teams are playing with the same ball. If it penalises one side, it penalises both. In life, we just have to deal with the circumstances that we are in. There is no point blaming a thousand other things for why things go wrong. Just like there is little point blaming the ball, the pitch, the altitude or the annoying sounds of the vuvuzelas. The teams will just have to deal with it.
Like everything else in life, anything is possible on the pitch. The game is what the players make of it. Why? Because at the end of the day, the ball is still round.
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