2010 World Cup Kits

[fonz]

I'm confused. I thought the Superhero Abs jersey was Italy's official uniform. But today they wore ones without it. So are both official or just one or what?

[UnclearInitial]

fonz, the abs are so sublimated you can hardly see them, but in the right light + close enough you can

[Jarred Revolver]

Interesting story, England have revealed a third kit to use in a possible meeting against Paraguay. Paraguay uses a red and white striped jersey, while England's kits are both white and red. I'm not sure what Paraguay's away color is, so this seems a little unnecessary. Still, sweet jersey they unveiled. Love the recolored crest. Third kits for international teams are pretty uncommon, especially unveiling it so close to the WC.

I'm pretty sure those are just their training kits.

[aawagner011]

It's actually just part of their tonal range (basically a fashion line) where the Umbro logo and three lions are all the same color as the shirt. Though Umbro have said they have a blue England top in a secret room, that they've had for a while in the event they need a third kit. However, they're extremely secret about it, and I think they actually said if they wore it, it would be unlikely to be made available for purchase.

[dgthree]

What does the blue english jersey have to do with playing paraguay? They are not in the same group and they wouldn't meet if everything went perfectly until the quarters or semifinals.

[fonz]

fonz, the abs are so sublimated you can hardly see them, but in the right light + close enough you can

I saw them on the backs of the jerseys during the game, but I couldn't make them out at all on the front. I've also seen some retailers selling the jersey sans Abs.

[twi]

I thought England had sworn off wearing blue ever since the upset 1-0 loss to the US way back.

[CreamSoda]

So far, my favorite kit has been the Portugal white.

[knnhrvy16]

I must say, while I was watching the Japan/Cameroon game, I couldn't help but think of how sharp Japan looked. That kit looks really good in action. Even the goalie's kit looked really good - I'd never seen an all-grey goalie kit before. That looked really nice.

Cameroon looked pretty good too, thier colors make for a good kit. They only problem I had was the pinstripes stopping at and around the numbers on the front, forming this weird floating square. But nonetheless, still a good kit.

And plus, that was a dang good game, too. Really competitive and fun to watch. Japan's defense is better than what alot of others realize, I'm just sayin...

[MJWalker45]

I think Paraguay's away shirts are blue. They usually are. I thought FIFA was pretty picky about not allowing third shirts in the World Cup which is why most national teams don't have them except as a special one time use uniform, like the USA at Copa America 2007. So if FIFA allows that does that mean the USA could roll out a red jersey against another side? I know I saw pictures of a red shirt along with the blue and white. But seeing as the red shirts haven't been worn competitively since Frnace 98 I think they have the same stigma as England's blue jerseys

[totc]

I thought FIFA was pretty picky about not allowing third shirts in the World Cup which is why most national teams don't have them except as a special one time use uniform, like the USA at Copa America 2007.

They try to minimize kit clashing as much as possible, which is why sometime you have crazy-colored change strips for national teams ... light blue for Turkey, copper for Paraguay, and anthracite or gold for the United States, for example. I found it interesting, for example, that Uruguay's second-choice strip was on display yesterday, and it was stark white. In the Copa America you referenced earlier, Uruguay was wearing red as their second-choice. One year later, that second-choice was navy blue.

Also, note that Algeria is more of a lime green this time around. They used to be kelly green.

[Hoopskid]

I found it interesting that Serbia went all red considering they didn't have red shorts in any kit at the start of the tournement. They could've easily worn their standard blue or clash white and avoided clashing with the Germany black shorts, but they went all red. Does anybody know the story behind this?

[jr79]

Probably so they were solid colour versus white-on-black to make the contrast easier for people to see on television. White shorts clash with the German shirts, blue shorts are "dark" and therefore too close to black?

[Saintsfan]

Couple of things on England's third kit. The blue kit worn against the US was worn against Peru in 1959.

The only time the FA have marketed a 3rd kit, in the mid 80s they were powder blue (hence the powder blue shorts in the hand of god game). England have played Paraguay a couple of times in recent world cups. From memory, again, in 1986 England wore White shirts and Paraguay red and White stripes. In 2006 Paraguay wore all blue, England there White home kit. My personal guess would be that if they did meet up again and a change needed, Paraguay would be persuaded to change. Though FIFA might judge that the current Paraguay shirt is red enough to allow England to wear White.

[cubbies06]

I can't remember ever seeing Argentina play in blue shorts with the traditional home tops before.....personally, it looked strange and I prefer the black shorts.....

[Mingjai]

I can't remember ever seeing Argentina play in blue shorts with the traditional home tops before.....personally, it looked strange and I prefer the black shorts.....

I don't get it either--the black would clash with Mexico's white shorts just as well as the blues. And England should have worn white shorts (to Germany's black shorts) with the red jerseys. The all red look was a little too Liverpudlian for my taste...

[cubbies06]

I can't remember ever seeing Argentina play in blue shorts with the traditional home tops before.....personally, it looked strange and I prefer the black shorts.....

I don't get it either--the black would clash with Mexico's white shorts just as well as the blues. And England should have worn white shorts (to Germany's black shorts) with the red jerseys. The all red look was a little too Liverpudlian for my taste...

The England red/white kit is classic and one of the nicest ever to grace a football pitch. Glad I wasn't the only one to notice the "scousiness" in the England kits. (Although Liverpool fans probably enjoyed the break from the "Mancunian" strip.)

[apeman33]

I'm surprised nobody picked up on this: In Sunday's game vs. Mexico, the numbers on Argentina's white/blue striped jersies had white trim. But they didn't have that in the group stage games. I don't think it helped make the numbers stand out any more on TV (except in close ups) since the view is always so far away and the numbers are thin enough that you can't really read them that well, anyway.

[Saintsfan]

I can't remember ever seeing Argentina play in blue shorts with the traditional home tops before.....personally, it looked strange and I prefer the black shorts.....

I don't get it either--the black would clash with Mexico's white shorts just as well as the blues. And England should have worn white shorts (to Germany's black shorts) with the red jerseys. The all red look was a little too Liverpudlian for my taste...

The England red/white kit is classic and one of the nicest ever to grace a football pitch. Glad I wasn't the only one to notice the "scousiness" in the England kits. (Although Liverpool fans probably enjoyed the break from the "Mancunian" strip.)

England went for the all red as a 'lucky' kit after winning in it against Slovenia. Not sure it looks so luck now!

The only explantion for Argentina changing shorts and socks was that they decided that blue socks with the rest of the home strip didn't look good!

[derp]

I can't remember ever seeing Argentina play in blue shorts with the traditional home tops before.....personally, it looked strange and I prefer the black shorts.....

I don't get it either--the black would clash with Mexico's white shorts just as well as the blues. And England should have worn white shorts (to Germany's black shorts) with the red jerseys. The all red look was a little too Liverpudlian for my taste...

The England red/white kit is classic and one of the nicest ever to grace a football pitch. Glad I wasn't the only one to notice the "scousiness" in the England kits. (Although Liverpool fans probably enjoyed the break from the "Mancunian" strip.)

England went for the all red as a 'lucky' kit after winning in it against Slovenia. Not sure it looks so luck now!

The only explantion for Argentina changing shorts and socks was that they decided that blue socks with the rest of the home strip didn't look good!

I'm not even sure if it was a choice. From the way the World Cup table was organized, it looks as if the group winners were considered to be the "home" team. So, every team that won their group wore their first kit. And if there was a kit clash with the other team, the 2nd place team would wear their second kit. US wore white while Ghana, who also is white, wore their striped away kit. Etc. England were in 2nd place so they were stuck with red against Germany. This pattern applied in the other 2nd Round games. Portugal wore white against Spain because Portugal finished in second.

Only team that I can't quite explain is why Chile wore white against Brazil. Technically, white is their 2nd kit, but Red and Yellow don't clash...so there never should have been a reason for them to wear white. I guess in this case, maybe it was a decision based on "luck," since Brazil has owned Chile as of late and they had always worn red! Didn't work out too well though.