The England footballer Jamie Carragher believes Germany gained a huge World Cup advantage by ensuring their players had four months to get used to the ball they banged into the net four times against Australia.
The controversial Jabulani balls were introduced by Bundesliga clubs sponsored by their German-based manufacturer adidas in February and Carragher believes that has given England's biggest rivals an edge that was apparent in their impressive 4-nil win over the Socceroos in their opening match yesterday.
FIFA and adidas insist that any difficulty players have encountered with the balls here is down to the effect of altitude, not anything to do with the design.
That stance has been disputed by numerous players and Carragher believes designers will always try to tweak the specifications of balls to generate more goals.
