Once upon a time, football was a simple game in which the players worked up a sweat, the cure to injuries was a magic sponge and taking a penalty was a matter of hoofing a ball with your cork-studded boot.

No more.

At top level today, the 11 men on the pitch are supported by a ghost army of people in lab coats. Physics, computer simulation, aerodynamics, biomechanics, nutrition and psychology are just a few of the disciplines that underpin the modern game.

Indeed, the business has become so big that every four years a World Congress on Science and Football is held.

The last confab, which took place in Antalya, Turkey, in January 2007, ranged over issues from seasonal alterations in the composition of a player's body to lab tests on the effectiveness of sports drinks and "curved running," or how to run faster thanks to more efficient locomotion.

Here is a roundup of some of the latest work in the science of soccer:

Read my hips

Eighty percent of penalties result in a score. But scientists at John Moores University in Liverpool have found a way to help goalkeepers get more of an edge — to look at the position of the striker's hips just before the strike.

If the taker's hips are square-on to the goalie in a right-footed kicker, the ball goes to the right-hand side of the keeper. If the hips are more 'open,' or angled away from the keeper, the ball tends to go his left.

On the other hand, biomechanics also show the goalie's weak spot. If the keeper stays on his line in accordance with the rules, 28 percent of the goal is an unsaveable zone that guarantees a score provided the ball is kicked accurately and with sufficient force.

Seeing red

Bet on Turkey this year but don't put your money on Sweden, the Netherlands or Romania, at least if colours are any guide.

Experts from Britain's Durham University and Plymouth University found that football teams with red team strips, such as Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal, were the most successful, while those wearing yellow or orange were the least.

The theory is that in nature, red is a testosterone-driven sign of male aggression, and this is picked up subconsciously by the opposition.

Spin doctors

Using high-speed cameras and powerful computer programmes, physicists have unravelled the secrets behind the swerving free kicks made famous by Brazil's Roberto Carlos and England's David Beckham. The velocity of the ball, its spin and the drag of the air are the big factors.

Just after a kick, a spinning ball moves forward at relatively high velocity, and the air flows irregularly over it.

But when the ball slows down — specifically, when it reaches between eight metres and 10 metres per second, depending on its surface structure and texture — the airflow becomes smooth, or "laminar," which instantly increases the drag, or braking affect of the air.

In a fraction of a second, drag can be increased by 150 percent. This drastically brakes the forward movement of the ball and enhances a curving movement, derived from the ball's spin.

So the result is a ball that, initially, dips to the side or above a defensive wall and then suddenly curves into the net. If you want to impress your friends, just quote the Magnus Force and the Bernoulli Principle, which result in FD = CDrAv2/2.

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