I've seen a few excellent answers here on the Magnus force, which explains why balls with a spin will curve. However, my intuition is still telling me that the Bernoulli's principle would push it the opposite way and I need help understanding why my reasoning is flawed.
Imagine that you kick a soccer ball on the left side so that it's spinning clockwise (viewing the ball from above) and the ball will curve to the right. Since the left side of the ball is spinning against the air, wouldn't this mean faster relative speeds and thus a lower pressure than the right side? And wouldn't this lower pressure on the left side cause it to curve left instead of right?
Answer
What produces lift is circulation, which causes the airflow to be deflected in one direction, causing an equal reaction in the other direction.
If you want to think in terms of Bernoulli on your soccer ball, the air on the left side is being slowed, while that on the right side is being accelerated by the spin of the ball.
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