Italy World Cup Unis

[otisjames]

Looks like Italy did not wear the WC kits the team modeled a couple of months ago. Those had a v-neck on the jersey. Any one know why the switch?

[slapshot]

The V-neck is only visible on the white jerseys. The blue jerseys are slightly different, with placement of crest and Puma logo.

[harperdc]

yeah, those were the new aways.

I wish they'd kept Italy in nothing but blue, getting rid of the details that the other Puma uniforms have - making it a gradient and black just looks horrible.

[SteveR]

I just couldn't get comfortable with those. The gold letters/numbers strays too much from the traditional for me. Also, don't they usually wear white shorts with the blue shirts?

[harperdc]

yes, but Ghana was in all white and Italy were the away team IIRC.

gold numbers I can live with, but the black gradient business needs to go away. I like the piping on the back on other kits but they needed to keep the Azzurri's tops all blue IMO.

[YELDARBfield]

The gold numbers looked K.A., but the black gradient and the monochrome Seahawk-ish look was kinda weird.

[harperdc]

yes, but Ghana was in all white and Italy were the away team IIRC.

the monochrome look was a necessary evil because Italy's shorts had to clash with Ghana's, and Ghana wore white. This is also why other teams in the world cup have deviated from their standard look and worn all of one color, even if they "officially" don't have that as their uniform - Italy usually use white shorts, the Dutch have white shorts and blue socks, France have white shorts as well, but they've all had to wear non-standard shorts because they didn't clash with the home team, and because soccer jerseys aren't "home" and "away" but "first" and "second" - Italy will wear blue tops unless they're the away team and the home team's tops are blue.

[NYBadshah1]

Wait, wasn't Italy the "home" team? They were first in the schedule listing...

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/schedule.html

Also, I've noticed that whoever was listed first stood on the left during national anthems, and had theirs played first. Also, all of them were in their primary uniforms (for the most part), and knocked a few to the secondary ones (such as Paraguay). So am I correct when I assume that the first team listed is designated as the "home" team?

[Galwegian]

Not sure if this is relevant or not, but in European soccer, the home team is usually listed first, while in the US, they're listed second- in other words, Red Sox at Yankees would look like this:

Boston 3

New York 2

or, on the FOX bar on the top of the screen:

Boston 3 New York 2

But Arsenal at Liverpool would be:

Liverpool 1

Arsenal 0

or, more commonly:

Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal

[mrachmiel]

In my opinion, the way soccer scores are listed are more informative than how scores are listed in the U.S. With soccer scores, you can determine which was the home team by reading the score line, which you can't do with U.S. scorelines.

[hawk36]

Agree that the black gradient on the blue for Italy is terrible.

Also, I have to admit that I'm getting really tired of the swirley stripes that most teams seem to be sporting. This is a world wide event yet the teams all look as if they come from the same area, or at least from the same design house. BORING.

[harperdc]

In my opinion, the way soccer scores are listed are more informative than how scores are listed in the U.S. With soccer scores, you can determine which was the home team by reading the score line, which you can't do with U.S. scorelines.

it's understandable why we list home team second though - home team had second at-bat for baseball, so I would imagine the scoring (and putting the home team second) sprung from that.

between the American coverage of soccer I'm totally lost as to how they're listing it, so I'm not even trying.

[NYBadshah1]

Agree that the black gradient on the blue for Italy is terrible.

Also, I have to admit that I'm getting really tired of the swirley stripes that most teams seem to be sporting. This is a world wide event yet the teams all look as if they come from the same area, or at least from the same design house. BORING.

I totally agree with you. It seems like half the teams have that Puma design, and then a few more have that Adidas design. It really gets boring seeing the same templates every game but in different colors. It seems that the Nike teams (or smaller brands, like Costa Rica with Joma) are the only ones with their own unique styles (but I may be wrong).