Costa Rica 0 Serbia 1
Group E is the only one not to feature any team with adidas kits. Costa Rica wear New Balance and it’s a tidy design, with narrow tonal stripes across the front representing DNA.
Serbia were a late addition to the Puma stable, meaning they are wearing modified teamwear rather rather than a fully bespoke kit, but it’s still a nice offering, albeit with a mash of different shades of red.
Brazil 1 Switzerland 1
Having worn white shorts so much at the last World Cup, it was good to see Brazil back in their traditional look, with the shorts a slightly lighter shade of blue than recent years. Incidentally, their goalkeeper Alisson Becker had no pattern on his sleeves, while Brazil’s frontal numbers are central, unlike the other Nike countries.
Switzerland’s shirts feature a topographical map of the country. Referee César Arturo Ramos of Mexico opted to wear long sleeves.
Germany 0 Mexico 1
In contrast to Group E, four the Group F residents wear adidas and this was another game where, mercifully, both teams could wear their first-choice outfits.
Germany’s kit references the victorious 1990 strip, with stripes of three varying widths giving a grey effect. Perhaps fittingly, the champions patches began to peel off the German shirts during this game.
Mexico’s look also harked back to adidas days of old, though to a 1993-94 design they hadn’t themselves worn (they were Umbro at the time).
Sweden 1 Korea Republic 0
Sweden’s smart kit has a very faint pattern featuring the diagonal parallelograms which were ubiquitous on adidas shirts in the 1980s. Their goalkeeper Robin Olsen wore the same colour-scheme as Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa, though with different colour neck, arm panels, shorts and socks.
According to Nike, Korea Republic’s away kit recognises the country’s global contributions. Preventing a nuclear war between the USA and North Korea until their leaders met is worthy of acknowledgement.