The England senior team will wear their new strip for the first time in tonight’s friendly against Brazil – the fact that there is a refreshed kit design may have passed you by as build-up has been low-key.
The visitors will be in their new blue second strip, but it’s not always a given that meetings between the countries require a change – the last meeting, in 2017, saw white v yellow, with England in their red-socked Nike Vapor offering that was said to be based on the mashup worn against Brazil in 1984.
Eight years prior to that, the countries met in Los Angeles in the Bicentennial Cup and England had one of the most unusual looks in their kit history.
The previous meeting before that, in the 1970 World Cup, had seen Brazil in grey socks and this time England had strange hosiery.
The Bicentennial Cup included Italy and ‘Team America’ – essentially the stars of the NASL – and for that match England brought an all-yellow Admiral kit. The socks from that were worn with the home shirts and away shorts against Brazil.
It was the first time since the 1959 game against Brazil that England had appeared in white shirts and shorts with darker socks (on that occasion red sets were used).
The mashup didn’t enjoy any success – England lost 1-0 to Brazil – but then beat Italy 3-2 and the the yellow socks enjoyed some redemption as a 3-1 win over Team America gave them second place in the competition.
