Joe Hart says there’s ’something up’ with the World Cup ball after seeing the same goals
Joe Hart believes the World Cup matchball could be making it harder for goalkeepers to stop some shots.
The North American tournament has been somewhat of a goalfest during the group stages, with the likes of Ousmane Dembele and Lionel Messi netting hat-tricks, while Harry Kane, Cristiano Ronaldo, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé all added to their respective tallies by scoring at least one brace.
However, former Three Lions goalkeeper Hart believes the Trionda ball may be making it difficult for goalies.
Sharing his thoughts with BBC Sport, the 39-year-old said that he'd noticed incidents where established keepers, such as Jordan Pickford and Senegal's Edouard Mendy, had been able to get a hand to the ball but fail to prevent it from going into the goal.
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"I'm noticing in this tournament that goalkeepers are getting touches on it above their shoulder height and just not able to keep it out," he said.
Using the example of Mbappé's goal against Iraq, Hart explained: "I'm seeing this goal too many times for a World Cup for there not to be something up with that football.
"It's that kind of shoulder height," he continued. "As soon as [players] are not using the curling technique, as soon as that ball is not spinning, the goalkeepers are struggling."
Slowing down the footage of the goal, Hart notes that Iraqi goalkeeper Ahmed Basil is able to watch the trajectory of the ball as it's coming towards him with enough time to make a save, but isn't able to get into position, managing a brief touch before it flies into the net.
"How many times do you see the goalkeeper touch [the ball] and it go into the goal? Very rarely," Hart added. "Because they're good enough [that] if they do get contact, they get it wide."
Hart isn't the only former goalkeeper to place blame on the ball's construction either, as former Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel said the Trionda moves a split second faster than other balls.
"There's no stitching in it - it's all bonded together," Schmeichel explained on an episode of BBC Football Daily podcast.
"When you mix that in with the different weathers, the air density, there's less drag on the ball, which means it doesn't spin as much, but it also means I find it a split second faster."
Like Hart, Schmeichel also believed this influenced keepers such as Pickford, Mendy and Zidane failing to stop certain goals.
"The thing about this ball is that we want to see goals," he added. "So they build balls to score goals."
Brenna Cooper