Tonight in Dortmund sees a friendly international between the two countries to have met the most in World Cup finals, Germany and Argentina (yes, we know that two of those were West Germany but they, like the present unified incarnation, were under the administration of the Deutscher Fußball-Bund, or DFB).
In all three of the deciders, one team wore their registered first-choice kit with the other in their default change strip (the side in their home kit won on each occasion), while in 1958, Argentina had borrow yellow shirts from IFK Malmö when they met West Germany in the group stages.
On each of the other three occasions that the sides have met, mashups have been seen.
1966
Drawn in the same group, as they had been eight years previously, this time the two countries were allowed to wear their primary shirts but West Germany donned white shorts, as England would when they met Argentina in the same competition. A 0-0 draw helped both sides to advance to the knockout stages.
2006
After meeting in the finals of 1986 and 1990, the countries wouldn’t clash again at the World Cup until the 2006 quarter-finals.
As with 1990, Germany were the ‘home’ team – not always a given for host nations in individual games at a World Cup – and Argentina switched to navy shirts. However, while the proper shorts for the change kit were white, instead they wore the black home set – while Fifa had become quite strict on shorts-clashes, this was preferable to the overall clash of white-black-white against navy-white-navy.
Following a 1-1 draw, Germany progressed on penalties.
2010
Another last-eight meeting and another shorts-clash, with Argentina the home side on this occasion.
Germany had opted for black shirts as their alternative this time, with the default white shorts featuring a red stripe on the left leg to match that on the shirt and sock. These had been worn in a pre-World Cup friendly against Argentina. However, their home and away kits were sadly not designed with interchangeability in mind.
Incidentally, this was a mashup from Argentina too – while white socks is their classic look, this kit was originally launched with black socks and the white set were intended to be used with the change kit, as evidenced by the darker blue trim.
Again Germany won, with a fine performance resulting in a 4-0 scoreline.
