Adidas = Football, Part 2

It will be an all-Euro affair in the final four of the FIFA World Cup. I was especially expecting Brazil to breeze past the "oldies" of France but Les Blues had other plans. I will miss the samba football of Ronaldo and company. Oh well, what's another four years. I hope number 9 will still be around on 2010 in South Africa.

With the quality of the games, we can't exactly predict who's gonna come out with the Copa Mondial. Germany has a very solid chance of making it but my personal favorite would be Portugal for the simple reason that among the four teams, Porto has never won the coveted Cup. Go Figo! Go Deco!

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Since 1963, Adidas had been developing footballs, when during those times, most balls were brown, heavy and not foot-friendly.

In a bid to supply FIFA the official match ball for the 1966 England World Cup, Adidas submitted a new model but an English ball was favored for the tournament. At the 1970 Mexico World Cup, the "Telstar" became the first Adidas official match ball that was completely made of leather which featured 32 hand-stitched panels, making it the roundest ball at that time. It was the first white football with black pentagons which, up to this day remains the original blueprint for all modern footballs.

Since 1970, Adidas has supplied the official match ball for every FIFA World Cup, with designs changing every tournament as new materials were developed, becoming more sophisticated with each edition of the tournament. From the pure leather ball of 1970, it has now morphed into a fully synthetic model that is lighter, precise and of much better quality.

With a new configuration of 14 panels, the match ball of this year's tournament has a smooth, completely round external coating that provides enhanced precision and ball control. In the traditional black and white colors of the German national team, the ball has gold trims inspired by the color of the FIFA World Cup trophy. The Adidas "Teamgeist", which has to date, sold 15 million balls, is the German word for team spirit, focusing on that very important aspect needed for victory - unity and teamwork.

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The FIFA World Cup, in their own version of awarding tournament MVPs, presents the Adidas Golden Ball trophy to the most outstanding player of the games, which is voted by the media, and the Adidas Golden Shoe trophy to the best striker, one who made the most goals in the tournament.

At the Korea/Japan World Cup in 2002, Germany's Oliver Kahn became the first goalkeeper to win the Adidas Golden Ball trophy receiving 25% from polled media votes. Brazil's Ronaldo came in second with 21%, Korea Republic's Hong Myung Bo was third with 18%.

Past Golden Ball winners aside from Kahn were Ronaldo in 1998 at France, Brazil's Romario in 1994 at USA, Italy's Salvatore Schillaci at Italy in 1990 and Diego Maradona of Argentina in 1986 at Mexico.

I think Germany's Miroslav Klose, teammate Lukas Pudolski, Zidane and teammates Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira of France have equal chances of getting the golden ball but let's not count out Hernan Crespo of Argentina and yes, Ronaldo.

Every top striker on planet football covets the Golden Shoe award but only the top scorer at the FIFA World Cup is given the trophy. After breaking Germany's Gerd Muller's record of 14 FIFA World Cup goals by scoring his 15th goal, Ronaldo is now out of contention following Brazil's elimination, but he was the winner of the previous Golden Shoe award at the Korea/Japan edition of the tournament with 8 goals, scoring in every game for his country. Teammate Rivaldo and German striker Miroslav Klose shared second place with five goals each.

Klose, at the moment with five goals, is almost sure of getting the trophy unless Thierry Henry of France who has 3 goals, decides to spoil the fun. But the most goals scored in a FIFA World Cup was 13 made by Just Fontaine of France in 1958 at Sweden, followed by the 11 goals of Sandor Kocsis of Hungary in 1954 at Switzerland.

E-mail: bobbytoohotty@lycos.com