Physics and the World Cup?

According to National Geographic, the new World Cup soccer ball, named Brazuca, is a six-panel ball that is said to move in a much more predicatble manner than previous balls. Traditional soccer balls are composed of 32 leather panels that are hand-stitched, but since 2006 soccer balls were modified in order to include balls that contained less panels and whose panels were glued and not stitched. Physicist Sungchan Hong from the University of Tsukuba, along with his colleagues, conducted an experiment in which the new ball and previous balls were sent in a specific direction in a wind tunnel. They concluded that the new brazuca ball was much more reliable in terms of movement and experienced less drag while in the air. However, the the majority of the variables in the study were controlled unlike the conditions that would affect a ball in a normal stadium.