USMNT

[-kj]

That's some fine research.

[aawagner011]

This just in. It's not that uncommon. These are just a few of the participants in this years tournament who prominently feature stars in their crests. There are at least three or four others

Right, I know exactly what you mean, but in a way I felt compelled to show the history that the US had their crest before most of the other teams wore their crests with the stars above them. I just thought that was the most obvious reason that was escaping people. For whatever reason, I do not know. Oh well.

That's some fine research.

Thanks! I felt I had to do the topic justice!

[rams80]

Plus anyone who knows what the stars would stand for would know that the US hasn't won 3 World Cups...

That is not my point at all...

My point is that if you showed the Italian, Brasilian and American crest to a casual sports fan, they would probably think that the Americans had won something to have those stars.

Of course football fans will know this is not true, but not everybody knows the history of every sporting event ever.

No, because they'd likely not know what the Italian and Brazilian stars stand for. These are casual fans, right?

[Shmee]

Solid work by both aawagner011 and andrewharrington. Nicely done, guys.

[taantumus]

When it comes to American soccer shirts and stars, one should worry more about the MLS. That's just ridiculous. Teams are adding stars for every title.

I get it that with the stars and MLS Scudetto's and all, they try to sell MLS to the much bashed Euro-wannabes and inject some history and tradition to the product, but come on! The current habit pretty much undermines the whole idea. In Italy they have three teams wearing stars on their shirts and it really means something. Only Juventus has two of them. In MLS half the league is entitled to sew a random number stars above their crests.

[Lee.]

It's the professional equivalent of Everyone Gets a Ribbon sports days.

[The_Admiral]

Oh my God I opened this thread and I've spent the last 50 minutes trying to scrub "Antimalware Doctor" from this computer. I have never had this happen before. This Germans=Nazis talk wasn't worth this work.

[Unstable]

Really? This again? *sigh* Alright...

Yes, we all know that national teams generally use stars to represent World Cup titles that they've won. Everyone knows this, it's fact. It's also an exceptionally tired argument against the US national team using stars in its crest. Sure, argue all you want that it's a bit of an ugly crest; in fact, I won't disagree with that. But to say that the Stars and Stripes shouldn't use, you know, stars in its logo? Really?

I vaguely remember posting up, probably years ago, the national team crests around the globe that use stars in some way. Unfortunately, the search function on the boards hasn't been very helpful, so I'll recreate the list for you. I'll only include five-pointed stars.

I'm pretty sure I can't show all of the images in a single post, so I'll give you links instead:

Algeria

Bahrain (it's abstract, but I'm counting it)

Belarus (national coat of arms on shirt, not FA logo)

Burkina Faso

Cameroon

Central African Republic (inconclusive as to if they wear that, but their flag features the same motif)

Chile (apparently a new logo that Wikipedia doesn't have)

China (flag, not the FA logo)

Comoros (inconclusive as to if they wear that, but their flag features four stars)

Cook Islands

Cuba (use flag, not logo)

Djibouti

Ghana

Guinea-Bissau

Honduras (five!)

Indonesia (national coat of arms on shirt, not FA logo)

Latvia

Liberia

Mauritania (inconclusive as to use, but flag uses star)

Morocco

Mozambique (use flag instead of logo)

North Korea (flag, not logo, which contains flag anyway)

Panama

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Sao Tome and Principe (inconclusive as to if they use that, but their flag has two stars anyway)

Senegal

Solomon Islands (TEN!)

Somalia

Syria (flag instead of logo; both have TWO stars)

Tajikistan (Seven!)

Togo

Tunisia

Turkey (use flag on shirt, not FA logo)

Vietnam (flag, not logo; star on both)

By my count, there are thirty-five international teams wearing five-pointed stars on their shirt for reasons other than denoting championships. Why is it, again, that only the US gets stick for this?

It seems to me that this post should have been the end of the thread. I'd certainly like to hear what the OP thinks about it.

[TFoA]

By my count, there are thirty-five international teams wearing five-pointed stars on their shirt for reasons other than denoting championships. Why is it, again, that only the US gets stick for this?

It seems to me that this post should have been the end of the thread. I'd certainly like to hear what the OP thinks about it.

Agreed. Honestly, this entire thread has just felt like a crusade to say "BOO CURRENT US CREST, THEY SHOULD GO TO THE "DON'T TREAD ON ME" CREST." That's the only way that I can see how or why the OP is clearly ignoring the common sense solution to why the US has the 3 stars in their crest: Maybe because our flag looks like this:

I mean, come on. If you're going to do this, then you might as well complain about why Ghana has one star near the top of their crest. IT'S A SHAM, THEY HAVEN'T WON A WORLD CUP!!!

[andrewharrington]

This just in. It's not that uncommon. These are just a few of the participants in this years tournament who prominently feature stars in their crests. There are at least three or four others

Right, I know exactly what you mean, but in a way I felt compelled to show the history that the US had their crest before most of the other teams wore their crests with the stars above them. I just thought that was the most obvious reason that was escaping people. For whatever reason, I do not know. Oh well.

That's some fine research.

Thanks! I felt I had to do the topic justice!

My comment wasn't directed at you. It was directed at CreamSoda. Your research and my comment reinforce the same side of the argument.

[DrJack]

There's a phrase that says "Dress for the job you want, not the job you have". Maybe this is kinda the soccer version of that . . .

Personally, I don't mind the stars in the badge. This isn't some "rule" that is being broken. We're the stars and stripes and we have stars and stripes in our badge. So what?

HOWEVER . . . I would be all for the removal of the stars because someday (even if its 50 years from now), the US is going to actually win a world cup. And when we do, I want to add a "championship star" to the crest, and that is hard to do if you already have three meaningless design stars on the crest to begin with.

[Red Wolf]

We could add an eagle for every win.

[The_Admiral]

I can't believe how upset the threadstarter got over this. He must be a proud Sneetch.

[tBBP]

Wow...I really cannot believe I just went back through and read this whole thing.

A few things I'd like to point out:

I'm not going to rehash the whole use of the stars on the USMNT's crest; that's already been done. However, I do want to address the use of the stripes.

The United States men's national team has been using some version of the shield logo for pretty much its entire existence. As many have alluded to, and as is fairly common knowledge, the US flag has seven red stripes and six white stripes. Take a look at this photo--it's of the 1916 US men's national team. Check out the crest--can't quite make out the top, but the stripes itself are arranged in seven red/six white. It's hard to tell in this photo, but the same was the case in 1930. Now check out the shield kit from those "iconic" 1950 kits (which were later "replicated" as throwback kits. I don't know when, but sometime between 1930 and 1950, "USA" was added to that blue field. Look back at that shield--you'll see the stripe arrangement is reversed--seven white, six red. Some would cry foul about that, until you see that same shield on the official seal of the United States,which of course we all know inspired the US shield crest, and realize the stripes are arranged the same way--seven white, six red. There's a reason for that--the edges of the shield touch the wings of the eagle. There's a thing in heraldic art called the "rule of tincture"--simply translated, color should not touch color (nor metal on metal--but that doesn't apply here). So you see...the seven red/six white isn't a hard rule, at least not in heraldic art. The current USMNT crest does still have six colored stripes--I have no explanation for why they're blue, though. I also have no explanation for the nine white streaks and eight blue streaks trailing off the ball, either, though somebody in this world might. (I don't know, maybe somebody just thought it looked good--many times, it really doesn't go any deeper than that.)

Just figured I'd throw that out there for anyone who might have cared.

[CreamSoda]

Ha, I was never "upset" over anything.

Just wanted to have some discussion on it, that was all.

BTW with the Ghana star, their flag has one black star, same with their badge...

[CreamSoda]

Solid work by both aawagner011 and andrewharrington. Nicely done, guys.

Agreed, that was good work and what I was looking for.

I appreciate the actual effort and not just, "lol, dude our flag has stars and stripes"

Thank for the research and articulation on this matter.

[Lee.]

I'm writing a screenplay about the USMNT, and this thread has given me some valuable info. Thanks, all.

/longtimeCCSLCinsidejoke

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I have an ever awesomer idea for a new US soccer badge:

[Unstable]

Ha, I was never "upset" over anything.

Just wanted to have some discussion on it, that was all.

BTW with the Ghana star, their flag has one black star, same with their badge...

For their one world cup win? (Heh.)

How is that relevant?

[Still MIGHTY]

Ha, I was never "upset" over anything.

Just wanted to have some discussion on it, that was all.

BTW with the Ghana star, their flag has one black star, same with their badge...

So by that logic, you're asking the USMNT to redesign the crest with 50 white stars in it? Would that be acceptable then?