Soccer Ball

The soccer ball has evolved over the years, but the most famous model is the Adidas Telstar. It is made of leather and consists of 32 hand-stitched panels - 12 black pentagons and 20 white hexagons. These shapes are used to create the “roundest sphere of all time.” The use of white and black made the ball more visible on television. The first was used in 1970 for the FIFA (International Federation of Football Association) World Cup.

Different leagues began to use different colored balls to create “trademark” looks. The red, white, and blue ball shown here was used in the NASL’s (North American Soccer League) first championship game. The “Soccer Bowl,” as NASL commissioner Phil Woosnam christened it, was played on August 24, 1975, in San Jose, California, between the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the Portland Timbers, two expansion teams that joined the league that year. Tampa Bay beat the all-British Timbers, 2-0, and became the third consecutive expansion team to take the NASL crown.

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