Match Ball
The official match ball was presented during the final draw ceremony on 30 November 2003 in Lisbon. It was produced by Adidas and named Adidas Roteiro, after the logbook (Portuguese: roteiro) used by the Portuguese maritime explorers, such as Vasco da Gama. Roteiro was the first official tournament football to employ the new thermal-bonding technique in its production, which resulted in a seamless surface and a more homogenous design. Portuguese Football Federation president Gilberto Madaíl praised the ball, stating: "Adidas has delivered a stunning, modern and state-of the-art Portuguese football. This is very much how we envisage the UEFA Euro 2004 event to be". Roteiro was also used at the 2004 AFC Asian Cup, and during the mid-season of the 2004–05 German Bundesliga.
The new ball received mixed reactions from players and technical staffs. England midfielder David Beckham, who was asked by Adidas to test it, was pleased with Roteiro's performance, particularly in free-kicks. France midfielder Zinedine Zidane believed the ball would "improve the game". Several Spanish players, however, regarded it as "horrible, difficult to control and to pass", with Real Madrid footballer Iván Helguera describing it as a "beach ball". Heavy critics were also addressed by notable players of the Italy national team, such as Francesco Totti, Andrea Pirlo and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
Read more about this topic: UEFA Euro 2004
Famous quotes containing the words match and/or ball:
““There’s not a man or woman
Born under the skies
Dare match in learning with us two,
And all day long we have found
There’s not a thing but love can make
The world a narrow pound.””
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“I don’t like comparisons with football. Baseball is an entirely different game. You can watch a tight, well-played football game, but it isn’t exciting if half the stadium is empty. The violence on the field must bounce off a lot of people. But you can go to a ball park on a quiet Tuesday afternoon with only a few thousand people in the place and thoroughly enjoy a one-sided game. Baseball has an aesthetic, intellectual appeal found in no other team sport.”
—Bowie Kuhn (b. 1926)