the jabulani by xavi

At last I get to the much discussed Jabulani. Here's Xavi, giving it an almost final kick in an interview with Luis Martín of El País.

Luis Martín: The sense is that the ball isn't helping.
Xavi: It doesn't move well, it does weird things, doesn't take the spin, it has no flesh. The whole World Cup I've been saying to myself: "That was a good pass." But phiuuu! It takes off. And you think, "What's going on?" It's harder to weave anything with it. Every time you get it, it goes up. The other day, it went straight to the goal, but I wanted to control it and then pass. I couldn't. It went up and I kicked it... you want to spin it, it goes phiuuu! and it takes off. It's a disaster. But I guess I'm not the only one having this problem. Many have it, so I have to adapt...

You can read the entire interview (in Spanish) here.

And since I've brought up the maestro, I'll put in writing what I've been saying all month long: that Ronaldo may be flamboyant and Messi may be genius and Robben may be electric, but Xavi makes time stop.