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[natty]

A look at the videos from past world cups (from worldcup.com) shows a steady evolution in speed, fitness, and skills over the decades.  Add quality of surfaces and the ball itself.  Goalkeepers these days make amazing saves (many of them are very tall and mobile) and free kicks are also sometimes magical.  This, I suppose is partly due to the technology in the ball.

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The soccer ball may have even played a part in the outcome of the first world cup in 1930.  Argentina and Uruguay could  not agree on which ball to use.  So they decided to use an Argentinean ball the first half and a ball supplied by Uruguay in the second half.  As it turned out, Argentina was ahead at halftime 2-1 using their soccer ball.  However; Uruguay came back to win the match in the second half 4-2 using their ball
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http://www.soccerballworld.com/History.htm

[Blwe_torch]

Thanks Natty...Applause!