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Cameroon’s defeat to Denmark – great loss and misery for the Africans but a really great game with two brilliant Danish goals -which saw the  ‘Indomitable’ Lions become the first team out of the tournament. Will we miss them?

Yesterday evening Brazil sent the Ivory Coast out of the tournement – will we miss them? DidierDrogba we will definitely miss !

The French Football ‘bobos’ the ones with the ties and nice suits and are along for the ride – have withdrawn from South Africa – one might even say good riddence to bad rubbish!

The much maligned coach Dominque has actually stayed with the team – so this is something positive one can say about him.

It seems the  French Football Federation have created thier own problems and now want to blame the players for their own incompetence, arrogance and utter uselessness over the last couple of years.

Because they have all the lawyers , the media and a dissapointed public in France they will try to spin this whole issue away from themselves and onto the backs of the French national team players – hopefully this will not work and they themselves are forced to admit their own culpability.

Other main talking point these days is the ‘Ball” .

The match ball for the South Africa WC 2010 is named the Jabulani, which in ZULU means ‘bring joy to all’ – but how much joy is it bringing to the players?

‘ Did he get Jabulani-ed?’ ……….is a new verb being used to describe the drop or fumble of the World Cup Ball by goalies.

The ball is uses a new design, consisting of 8 thermally bonded, 3 -dimensional panels. They are spherically moulded from various polyurethanes and the surface is textured with grooves,  that is intended to improve the ball’s aerodynamics.

Some players, and especially goalkeepers have complained about it saying  that its movements are very difficult to figure out and not uniform.

The design received considerable ‘academic input’ – which could easily explain why it seems to not function properly – being developed in partnership with researchers from a University in the UK.

On the positive side -there is no ‘dead-animal’ content or leather used in the ‘Jabulani’ .

The ‘Jabulani’ Balls are made in China, and  use latex bladder from India, ‘thermoplastic polyurethane-elastomer’ from Taiwan, and ‘ethylene vinyl acetate’, ‘ isotropic polyester’/cotton fabric, glue and ink from China.

Whatever one may think about the ball, it is equally good or bad or neutral for all the players and all the teams.

Plus all the federations have had the option to use the ball for the last 6 months – Germany took advantage of this in the Bundesliga, but not many other federations did, anchored as they were with rival ball manufactorers product.  So not really on for these people to cry foul after the fact.

For more info on this particular ball pls see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup

Regarding the ‘Vuvzela’ please read our previous article on this irritating noise maker at; http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/berlin/2010/06/13/yes-ban-the-vuvuzela-%e2%80%98ota-berlin-constituency-blog%e2%80%99-commentary/=====================================================

 ‘OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog’ is part of OTA-Berlin – the economical   ‘Apartment-Alternative to Hotels’  in Berlin. 

The Blog provides OTA-Berlin guests  a quick overview of the cultural, sports, social and other related activities taking place in Berlin during their stay. 

With daily commentary entries, descriptions of events, and other material such as photographs or video, the blog has become popular amongst a growing number of OTA-Berlin guests - a way of keeping in touch with the city until their next visit. 

‘OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog’ has existed since May 2008 and its entries are displayed in reverse-chronological order. 

The blog also feeds short overviews of relevant information about German & European financial, political, and social news as this relates to Berlin – and it provides commentary on this news to enlighten and generate further interest in them. 

Tags: french football federation bobos, Jabulani, Vuvuzela

This entry was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 15:49 and is filed under Berlin, Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.