Football by @gnnr

Does the vuzuzela make it harder for teams to co-ordinate?

However, it is possible that the noise will only serve to strengthen the sides with the best coaches. Coaching 101 teaches us that a tactician should get his message across before the game, rather than shouting from the sidelines while players are concentrating on the action. By the time his team take to the field at the World Cup, a coach should have communicated his strategy to the players so effectively that they are no longer in need of direction. If things need tuning up, that can be done at half time.

I am not totally convinced by this argument - a well-ordered side and good game plan are all very well, but all matches are dynamic and changing, and teams need to adapt to them. A coach on the sidelines is able to see whether a particular players needs to push up more, or stay tighter on his man, and should be able to convey that instruction to them.

Of course, a counter-argument to that might be that well-drilled sides like Ghana, United States and Germany have been able to play organised football and adapt to game conditions, so maybe the noise isn’t such an issue.