The soccer ball V2.0

UPDATED IMAGES AND TECHNICAL INFO The World Cup of soccer is fast approaching and one of the features of the world's most watched sporting tournament is the latest soccer ball from adidas – the +Teamgeist. And well might you wonder how a soccer ball can be improved, given that technology has been working on the issue for well over 100 years. The devil is in the detail as you’d expect, but suffice to say that the new 14-panel design has resulted in a ball with the most consistent performance characteristics ever, enabling the players to show their true skills. There are fewer seams, so the ball is rounder and performs more uniformly, regardless of where it is hit. The more perfect the sphere is, the more balanced it will be, offering greater accuracy due to the predictability of its flight. The new panel shape harmonizes the energy displacement and minimizes the amount of corners, while the larger panels allow for a cleaner kicking area. Perhaps the biggest difference the players will find with the new balls will be how they play in the wet. Normally, a wet and heavy ball behaves quite differently from a dry one. It flies slower through the air, has a lower bounce and is more difficult to curl. A patented Thermal Bonding technology makes the new ball virtually waterproof with identical performance characteristsics wet or dry. The FIFA Approved Standard for water absorption stipulates no more than a 10% weight increase – the +Teamgeist’s blitzes this with less than 0.1 % weight increase. Similarly, it has significantly improved on all standards for uniformity of rebound and pressure retention and shape and size retention. Clever design and technologies has enabled adidas to reduce manufacturing tolerances to a new level .

The adidas +Teamgeist combines tradition and innovation. The match ball is designed in white, black and gold, the colors of German football and the FIFA World Cup .

The very first player ever to lift the FIFA World Cup Trophy as we know it today was current Organizing Committee Chairman Franz Beckenbauer. In 1974 when the new 18 carat golden trophy was first introduced, the tournament was also played in Germany, with a black and white match ball, and Franz Beckenbauer was the German team captain.

As a tribute to host Germany’s greatest football moments and its traditional uniforms, the adidas design team returned to traditional black and white as the dominating colors for the FIFA World Cup Match Ball. The fine gold accents along the rounded propellers are inspired by the golden FIFA World Cup Trophy. The revolutionary new panel shape is designed to minimize corners and to create a more homogenous system in terms of performance and look. The radiant lines of the graphics surrounding the propeller shape symbolize movement and energy. Thanks to adidas innovation team designer Scott Tomlinson from England and German category designer Anatol Just, +Teamgeist combines everything needed to become a state-of-the-art product.

The name “Teamgeist” is based on the single most decisive characteristic every team needs to have to lift the golden trophy: team spirit! At the world’s biggest sporting event, where global football stars are born and individual strength, skill and power are celebrated on the world’s biggest stage, it still comes down to what the individual is willing to give to the team and what the team is able to do for its individual stars.

Testing & Development of the adidas +Teamgeist

adidas has been producing high-performance match balls since 1963 and is the world’s leading football producer. Still, it took adidas well over three years of extensive research and development to present the adidas +Teamgeist, its best performing ball ever. Thanks to a revolutionary 14-panel ball configuration, players can now show their true skills, as the quality and performance characteristics are exactly identical every time they kick the ball.

The adidas Innovation Team (a.i.t) has rigorously tested the new Match Ball for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, first under the toughest laboratory conditions possible, later also with professional players and clubs on the field of play. Scientific tests were conducted together with the Sports Technology Research Group of the University of Loughborough, one of the leading institutions of its kind worldwide. These tests confirmed that the adidas +Teamgeist is more round, precise and consistent than any top competitor match ball.

FIFA designed a quality concept to guarantee the highest standard of balls for the best players in the world. Only after a series of stringent tests is a ball awarded the “FIFA Approved” hallmark. Tests executed in the adidas football laboratory in Scheinfeld and at the Testing Centre of the University of Loughborough prove the adidas +Teamgeist does not only meet these “FIFA Approved” standards, it exceeds practically each of them.

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