Balls! It's the lowest scoring World Cup in history

England goalkeeper Robert Green misjudges the ball and lets in a goal during a game against USA. Photo / Getty Images

One week in and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa is looking set to pass Germany 2006 as the lowest-scoring on record.

After seven days and 20 games, only 38 goals have been scored, compared to 46 at the same point in the previous World Cup in Germany.

The 2006 tournament was the lowest-scoring ever, with an average of 2.3 goals scored per game. The average in South Africa so far is 1.9.

So why has this World Cup been so short on goals? With so many goalkeeper mistakes, shouldn't it be the other way round?

Could the much-maligned Jabulani ball be to blame?

Commentators think not. Soccer writer Peter Lomuscio, writing on American sports site bleacherreport.com, thinks it's because teams are defensive-minded early on in the competition as they're desperate to prevent the dreaded first-game loss.

"In the initial match of group play, it is not rare to see squads draw, to feel each other out and prevent the dreaded defeat that can cost a nation a chance to advance past the group stage," says Mr Lomuscio.

"An early loss may not assure elimination, but the statistics show that only 8 per cent deal with the great deal of pressure properly enough to recover."

For that reason, Mr Lomuscio thinks as each team has their second game, the goals will begin to flow.

Blogger Rahul Thadani disagrees.

"The argument that teams are overly cautious in the first game of the tournament is redundant, as the simple comparison against previous editions of the tournament shows," wrote Thadani on buzzle.com.

"Maybe it's the drowning noise of those annoying vuvuzelas that is prohibiting communication on the field, maybe it's the freezing temperatures in South Africa, or maybe it's just a bunch of players unable to deal with the pressure."

Whether or not it's blamed for the lack of goals, the Jubulani ball is getting its fair share of stick.

England coach Fabio Capello has joined the chorus of criticism, calling the new ball "terrible".

"[It] is the worst ball that I have seen in my life," he said. "For the players it is terrible. It's terrible for the keepers because it is impossible to deal with the trajectory.

"But the really big problem is that sometimes this ball is just impossible to control. Impossible. And when you shoot at the goal, you can see it's difficult. When you play on the floor, it's good. When you play the ball longer, it's more difficult."

Mr Capello's comments follow a string of complaints about the Adidas ball from the players, including the Italian, Spanish, Brazilian and American goalkeepers.

All Whites keeper Mark Paston told the Herald's Stuart Dye he wouldn't change his style to counter the unpredictable flight of the Jabulani.

"I trained with it in Wellington and didn't have too many issues with it," said Mr Paston of the ball.

Mr Paston said he had more issues with the altitude, a factor goal.com considers here.

The Telegraph's Ian Chadband thinks playing the blame game is a pointless endeavour, and quotes South Africa's coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, who reckons the lack of scoring so far is down to little more than first-round nerves.

- NZ Herald staff