Three colored waves to come better and symbolize the emotion and waves that will overwhelm the stages of North America next June, and a dose of technology to anchor in modernity. Trona, the Official World Cup 2026 balloon, appeared on Thursday in New York. “The most advanced has designed,” said its manufacturer Adidas who, with the impulse of his first attempt in 2022 in Qatar, has given a dose of technology within the sphere that will occupy all the attention.
“But that does not change the feeling or capabilities,” says Hannes Schaefke, director of Sports Concepts and Innovation Soccer in Adidas. It is one of the men behind this connected globe that will roll and bounce in American, Canadian and Mexican Céspedes during the competition. Three organizing countries represented in this phanda that pays tribute to them, with a reason as an advantage: the star and the blue for the United States, red and the arce leaf for Canada, green and eagles for Mexico.
An invisible sensor for players
And under this original design, no more hexagonal surfaces to make roundness, welcome to triple arm formats that are crossed to better wrap the ball, there are a multitude of sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer, orientation, impact, etc.) within a module called IU (inertial unit).
This is placed in front of the valve, in the ball. They will record each of its movements (position, acceleration, rotation speed, etc.) and transmit the data in real time to the video assistance system for arbitration (VAR). Because this sensor is mostly designed to help referees and improve the game experience.
Therefore, Tronda is not there to help him know how many kilometers he has traveled Ousmana Dembélé during the game, how many balls Lamine Yamal played or if Gianluigi Donnarumma has achieved as many parades as in the previous game. It will detect individual contacts, especially those that are difficult to perceive as a hand, which is not that of a goalkeeper, when the ball has left the foot of a player in a strike or a pass. This will help a lot in the out of the offside. It is the chip contained in the ball that will be pointed to an arbitrator who could not have seen it. As well as you can find better in space and notify a goal line crossing.
In Adidas, we see this as a crucial advance for the party to maintain its rhythm and fluidity. “During the 2022 World Cup (with the first connected globe, the editor’s note), the technology reduced by 70% the necessary time for the VAR rule compared to a situation without a connected globe,” he recalls.
Time savings and much hope
To achieve this result and make you forget the integrated sensor, the German team provider had to perform advanced tests. Welcome to this small 16 grams sensor does not make the ball heavier than the others. It should be said that, to compensate, the counterweights have integrated into the other panels to balance everything in the air.
“The players, the guardians as attackers, cannot distinguish it from the same model without a sensor,” said Hannes Schaefke, after having taken blind tests with “the best clubs and the best players in the world.” “We were treated with madness when we talked about inserting a sensor, but we managed to make it completely undetectable,” says Hannes Schaefke. For everything to work correctly, it is necessary to install anchor points in the stadium to which the sensor will send signals. Therefore, it can detect better changes and interventions.
Who says that the technological ball necessarily says that it requires recharging it. And obviously it will be a wireless recharge, thanks to an integrated battery, and small supports placed on the edge of the World Cup land. But that does not make Triona more fragile than others. In addition to having to work on ergonomics, trajectory, balance or aerodynamics, Adidas has also focused much on another resistance of the ball: that with different climatic conditions that will range during the competition.
Among the dry lands of Mexico or, sometimes, more humid of Canada, the games at altitude or by the sea, the ball will suffer substantial environmental variations, but the experience it provides must remain constant. A lot of work for teams that face a complex challenge when you have three organizing countries.
As in 2022, the World Cup ball will also bet on technology to facilitate the progress of the matches and support the arbitration in a certain way. Adidas does not want to crumble under the data or too much to store them. But that does not prevent the brand from seeing more and measures “the enormous possibilities” beyond help with arbitration. “The balloon tracking was the last edge of performance monitoring. With this technology, you can imagine analyzing the frequency of the keys, the speed of a drip or the impact of a shot, but using data in a specific and useful way,” says Hannes Schaefke. A ball to reinvent performance monitoring, to make football even more intoxicating. A ball that will make the public vibrate, a World Cup ball …
Source: BFM TV
