Brummie Cabbie previously wrote:
Germany . . . . nobody mentioned them before the tournament started & it's early days yet, but after tonight's performance they are streets ahead of any of the 16 teams that have played so far.
Clinical, direct & at a mild, mild canter!
No f*cking wonder, the cheating bar stewards!!!
Don't forget that Adidas is a German company.
Germany men have used controversial Jabulani ball SIX months before World Cup
11:38 PM on 14th June 2010
If Germany appeared at ease with the controversial Jabulani ball in beating Australia 4-0 it was with good reason.
While most nations may have been caught out by adidas’ unpredictable creation, it has emerged the majority of the Germans used it at club level over the past six months.
Nike remain the official ball suppliers to the Barclays Premier League, but Bundesliga clubs were at liberty to use any ball of their choice last season, thus enabling them to take immediate delivery of the Jabulani when it was launched.
Germany striker Mario Gomez, of adidas-backed Bayern Munich, scored the first goal with the ball in a 2-1 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach on December 4, and admitted Joachim Low’s squad are better prepared.
‘Once you have learned to make proper contact with the ball, you can make it travel very fast,’ he said.
‘It’s a case of catching it right. You learn how to do that with practice. We are confident about scoring with this ball.’
Schalke’s Manuel Neuer coped comfortably with everything Australia threw at him, but one of his predecessors as Germany’s No 1, Timo Hildebrand, expects more goalkeeping mishaps to rival Robert Green’s.
‘You cannot predict which direction it might go. You can only hope and pray you get a hand in the way.’
Germany centre back Per Mertesacker described it as ‘like a small cannonball’, while his team-mate Marcell Jansen added: ‘It seems to have been made more with strikers in mind than defenders or keepers, because it is so crazy and unpredictable.
'But at least most of us have had first-hand experience of it with our clubs.’
Source; dailymail.co.uk
Brummie Cabbie also writes;
Within the above article as a side note was the following;
BALLPOINT 51 percent of players at this World Cup have had regular access to the Jabulani match ball, but not one of them is in England’s 23-man squad — 377 players out of the 736 at the World Cup had used the ball before the pre-tournament training camps convened.
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