Courtesy of Adidas The Jabulani has only eight thermally bonded panels, which makes the ball a perfect sphere and ensures accuracy. The ball was unveiled before the World Cup draw in Cape Town, South Africa.

Adidas has turned up the dial to 11 with its new match ball for the 2010 World Cup — the Jabulani, which means to celebrate in the Bantu language isiZulu.

The newly designed orb, with some new technology, was unveiled Friday before the tournament’s draw in Cape Town, South Africa.

There are 11 different colors on the ball, which represent the 11 players on the field for each team. It is the 11th official Adidas World Cup match ball. There are 11 official languages in South Africa among the country’s 11 tribes.

“It is all about innovation,” said Antonio Zea, a New Jersey native who is the director of Adidas Soccer North America. “The ball is the icon of the World Cup, the most visible symbol of the event. We try to include it in everything we do. And with some new technology — thermal bonding — we believe we’ve moved into a different realm. We’ve reduced the seams, using innovative ideas and materials from aerospace to determine the flight of the balls. We’re striving for it to have the same weight and shape in the first minute and the 90th minute. It’s about enabling the players to perform at the highest level.”

Adidas said that its new Grip’n’Groove technology enabled a more stable flight and the goosebumps on the ball’s surface provided players with a perfect grip under all conditions. With only eight thermally bonded panels, which are spherically molded, the ball is perfectly round and more accurate.

“We wanted to move away from a stitched ball and get a uniform product all the time,” Zea said about the Jabulani, which is manufactured in Asia. “The first ball is the same as the millionth ball. Uniformity gives it perfect balance in flight and reduces water uptake. With 32 panels, there are always intersecting seams and it effects shots and passes. This ball creates a uniform kicking surface and eliminates hot spots. We believe we’ve increased the kicking surface by 70 percent that enables players to transfer all their power into the ball.”

Here is an interesting slide show from The Daily Telegraph of London of World Cup balls through the years.

The first from Adidas that was the official World Cup ball, the black-and-white speckled sphere divided into 32 hexagons, the Telstar, carries an interesting story, Zea said. “It was the first World Cup televised in color and Adidas wanted the ball to be more visible, but the black-and-white design was not patented by Adi Dassler,” he said. The design became ubiquitous and recognizable the world over, not to mention copied.

Zea said that the Jabulani would be put immediately into play by Bayern Munich, Hamburg and Schalke in the German Bundesliga; in the Argentine and Portuguese leagues; and would be customized with a different color scheme for use in Major League Soccer in time for its 2010 season.

For some folks, mini-soccer balls are all the rage and a must have for their for your collections. Worldwide, Adidas sold about 15 million of the World Cup ball for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the Teamgeist, in various incarnations (match ball, replica, mini, etc.), Zea said.

Which is your favorite World Cup ball from the past 40 years? The speckled classic Telstar from Mexico 1970? The snazzy design of the Tango that debuted in Argentina in 1978 (my fav)? Perhaps the Fevernova from 2002?

As for turning up the dial to 11. … Exactly.