Every time a ball is launched in the World Cup in Germany, the whoosh of wind it creates flows all the way back to Western Pennsylvania.

OK, not really, but those who work at a global company based in Canonsburg might feel that way.

ANSYS Inc. deals in simulation software and technologies. Some of that technology was used for research that found that soccer balls, including the adidas model being used in the World Cup, have been performing more consistently over the years.

That's good news to ANSYS president and CEO Jim Cashman, who played soccer at the University of Cincinnati and was on the verge of a pro career until the team he was with folded just before the regular season started.

"Particularly when you get to the World Cup, you want to make the equipment as neutral as possible so the players determine the game," said Cashman, 52, who switched fields to computer technology but never lost his love of soccer.

Fluent, a subsidiary of ANSYS, provided software called Computational Fluid Dynamics for a study at the University of Sheffield in England. The CFD technology was used to simulate the airflow around soccer balls and the resulting changes in the ball's path during match conditions.

Results, released last month, showed that variables such as panel design or stitch patterns on the ball surface, as well as any slight asymmetry, can produce erratic movement -- the "bend" you sometimes see in the flight of the ball -- even when a player does not put spin on the ball.

The study of those aerodynamics showed, though, that such drag on non-spinning balls has dropped by as much as 30 percent the past 36 years, helping to assure avid fan Cashman and his billions of cohorts around the world that the team from their favorite country won't be as likely to lose a World Cup game on a goal that artificially curves past a goalkeeper.

"We believe that our findings go a long way to explain the phenomenon observed when some players kick the ball with little or no spin yet get it to swerve in a seemingly erratic manner -- possibly producing an 'S' shape trajectory," said researcher Matt Carre of Sheffield's department of mechanical engineering.

Cashman noted that players can still get movement on a soccer ball by putting spin on it, but that the research suggests such kicks will perform more predictably with the newer equipment that produces less drag.

The CFD technology also was used to verify that the stadium in Munich -- where the World Cup kicks off today when host Germany plays Costa Rica -- has uniform air flow over the pitch, just as Swiss architects Jacques Duke and Pierre de Meuron designed.

"In that case, you're getting into the area of simulating the environment," Cashman said.

ANSYS computer technology is hardly limited to sports applications. It has been used to help design everything from pacemakers to rocket ships to oil platforms to city skylines.

"We're not a noisy company, but we probably influence things you do and use every day," said Cashman.

In recent years, more sports products and venues have used designs enhanced by ANSYS simulation technology.

Motor sports use aerodynamics to tune suspensions. More and more yachts used in the America's Cup have ANSYS technology in their design. Reduced-wake swimming pools thought to produce faster times use the technology.

ANSYS also has a hand in the design of tennis rackets that put less stress on the elbow and golf clubs that get better head performance. You can bet soccer balls will be close behind.

It's a high-tech way to effect a change in performance, sometimes based on a fraction of a percentage difference in design, Cashman said.

Cashman said some of the Beijing venues that will be used in the 2008 Olympics have incorporated ANSYS technology in their design.