Two weeks ago I bought a new soccer ball. It is a Nike Tiempo Classic. I like it. It is inexpensive and it does what I want. Inexpensive soccer balls have come a long way since I was a lad. It is hand-stitched synthetic polymer, polyurethane, outer and a “carbon-latex” bladder.

It is black and white like a classic soccer ball except that instead of the pentagons being black eight of the hexagonal panels are black. The Geo brand ball, i think, has slightly modified panel shapes to make the ball have a better shape. The niketown website says: “Exclusive Geo Balanced Technology for true flight.”

It is “Geo” which was introduced about five years ago with a commercial where footballers were in the Nike Geo Force and broke into a lair of robot ninjas to break out the special Geo ball because “it’s rounder.” The juggled the ball around and deked these robot ninjas and escaped by helicopter.