England’s Jamie Carragher believes Germany gained a huge World Cup advantage by ensuring their players had four months to get used to the ball they banged into the net four times against Australia.
The controversial Jabulani balls were introduced by Bundesliga clubs sponsored by their German-based manufacturer Adidas in February and Carragher believes that has given Germany an edge that was apparent in their impressive 4-0 win over the Socceroos on Sunday.
“That is exactly what we were saying as we were watching,” Carragher said. “It gives them an advantage anyway. Certainly, that is true. It is obvious. The ball is very different. Every training session we do, we always start with a ball between two, passing 30 or 40 yards to each other just for that reason alone. I am sure it has helped them.”
FIFA and Adidas insist that any difficulty players have encountered with the balls is down to the effect of altitude.
That stance has been disputed by numerous players and Carragher believes designers will always try to tweak the specifications of balls to generate more goals.
“When you are making a ball for the World Cup the idea is to create more goals I think, and get it to do strange things to make it a more exciting tournament,” he said. “But every cross I have seen has been overhit. It goes over the back post. I haven’t seen anyone get a free-kick over the wall yet. It just seems to sail straight over the bar. Looking at the start, maybe it is not doing what people expected.”
Despite his criticism of the ball, Carragher said nothing should be taken away from an impressive performance by Germany.
“They played so well. I am not looking for an excuse. You are trying not to hype them up too much because of how well they played. It is something to cling to, that they might have been playing with the ball [for longer]. I have had two or three texts about it,” he said.
Germany’s Thomas Mueller, who scored the third goal in the rout of Australia, said any extra practice the Germans had with the Jabulani has made only minimal difference.
“Any game starts with 0-0 and many teams were given lots of chances to practice with the Jabulani at other Adidas clubs,” he said.
“If you get a few months practice with the ball, I think it gives only a minimal advantage, if any,” he said. “I think teams complaining about the ball, shouldn’t be.”
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