By Linda Hales
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 1, 2006

The latest look in World Cup soccer is g-o-o-o-o-o-o-l-d.

That's the color of the radical new ball, the Adidas + Teamgeist Berlin, designed for the championship match July 9 in the German capital.

The gold ball will match the trophy and add sparkle to the collectibles aftermarket. Gold is also a metaphor for the profits that Adidas, longtime official World Cup supplier, stands to make from worldwide sales of its state-of-the-art sphere. The German sporting-goods giant was banking that World Cup fever would sell 10 million logo-laden balls, from $15 miniatures to $130 match replicas; Adidas announced Wednesday that sales had passed the 15 million mark.

Adidas, which spent three years developing the ball, introduced it in black and white at the start of the World Cup, and Teamgeist ( geist is German for "spirit") sparked controversy from the first practice. German goalie Jens Lehmann was among the first to complain; the ball's surface is coated with polyurethane, making it "slippery" for goalkeepers. But English team captain (and paid Adidas spokesplayer) David Beckham has said he likes the ball, which offers a bigger sweet spot for kickers.

The ball also was quietly introduced into Major League Soccer at the beginning of the year. DC United goalkeeper Troy Perkins concurred with Lehmann that Teamgeist Berlin is "a nightmare, an absolute nightmare."

The most noticeable difference to viewers is the switch from the traditional 32-panel, black-and-white, hand-stitched geometric pattern in use on soccer balls since 1970. The new ball has curved panels, shaped like airplane propellers, that swirl into a vortex when the ball is in motion.

The biggest innovation is in the construction. Fourteen pieces are fused rather than sewn, making the orb infinitesimally rounder, lighter, faster, virtually waterproof and, Adidas says, 30 percent more accurate.

Jack Huckel, director of museum and archives at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y., recently kicked around a World Cup Teamgeist ball. The former soccer coach for Skidmore College judged the ball "very light and way easier to hit well."

On the other hand, he says: "If you strike it dead center, it doesn't spin; it floats. That makes it way more challenging for the goalkeeper to hold. You put your hands out to catch the ball, and it's not where you thought it would be."

Physicists have noted that the aerodynamics of drag are altered so that the ball can look as if it's speeding up when it's actually slowing down. Huckel believes that's why World Cup goalies have been fisting the ball instead of catching it.

Adidas is the world champion in soccer sales with 38 percent of the global market, according to NPD Sports Tracking. But it's not the only company to play with soccer ball technology. Puma, Germany's other major soccer brand, added golf-style dimples to the v1.06, which debuted in January. Like the Adidas Teamgeist, it has fewer panels (24), making it closer to being perfectly round. The dimples are supposed to create an air pocket of "positive turbulence" for a longer, more accurate flight path.

Archrival Nike has 31 percent of the soccer market and Brazilian soccer superstar Ronaldinho in its endorsement stable. The Beaverton, Ore., company is going toe-to-toe with Adidas on soccer boots and is counting on a bounce from the Total 90 Aerow II ball, which will debut this month with a grooved surface and patented "geo-balanced" interior. Nike's Web site calls it "a high- performance, high-velocity missile aiming straight for the ego of goalkeepers anywhere."

Companies guard the specifics of innovations like state secrets. Nike declined to talk about its soccer balls.

John Stevenson, Puma's North American vice president and general manager for performance sports, says competitors buy each other's products and take them apart. "Do we want to know what our competitors are doing? Absolutely," he says. "Ball technology and evolution is not dissimilar to the car industry."

As with sports cars, soccer has inspired artists and graphic designers, many of whose works are compiled in a new book, "Play Loud!" (Die Gestalten). The Japanese Web site Pingmag.jp extols the virtues of soccer culture, from ball-themed chocolates to runway fashions, including Dirk Bikkemberg's ball-inspired handbag. Sporting-goods companies have been known to roll with aesthetics, too. Puma's "camo" ball is overprinted with grass, just for fun.

Before technology entered the game, soccer balls were little more than bulky leather blobs. Cowhide withstood the punishment of up to 2,000 kicks a game but did not stay round and gained weight in the rain.

Television came to the rescue in the late 1960s. The Federation Internationale de Football Association realized that viewers wouldn't be able to see a plain ball on a black-and-white screen. For the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, Adidas created Telstar in the style of Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome. Ball makers have applied different decals, improved the bladder and switched synthetics. But the classic design survived. Adidas launched a truly high-tech ball at the 2002 World Cup. Fevernova had gas-filled cells embedded in foam to impart bigger bounce. For the 2004 European championship, designers dreamed up a seamless, heat-bonded ball. Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon declared it "worse" than the Fevernova.

Fans bought 6 million Fevernovas. With double that for the Teamgeist, Adidas is entitled to laugh all the way to the bank.

One innovation did not make the cut. This year, Adidas hoped to embed a wireless microchip in the ball to relay data to a watch worn by referees. A plan to wire the players' shin guards also was set aside, leaving in the speculative zone such minutiae as how hard superstar Beckham kicks.

So how much do exotic balls and shoes contribute to the outcome of the game? Huckel is unequivocal.

"Neither is more important than the player," he says. "It's a poor workman that blames his tools."