In a previous article, we looked at how Jürgen Klinsmann had, during his time in charge of the Germany national team, succesfully pushed for red to be worn as an alternative when the primary white kit was unavailable (and unsuccessfully pushed for it to supplant white).
That 2005 kit was the first instance of the country wearing red in a first-clash match but a few years before that there was an unusual example of the colour appearing in an unofficial game
Pre-World Cup warm-up games against non-international sides have tended to throw up German oddities. For instance, in 1986, a game against Mexican team Atlético Morelia saw then then-West Germany in blue and 12 years later, an unbadged green adidas teamwear strip was used against a Côte d’Azur XI.
The next World Cup after France 98 was the 2002 edition, jointly hosted by Japan and South Korea. Prior to the tournament, in which an unfancied Germany would finish as runners-up, Rudi Völler’s side were based in Miyazaki and part of their preparations involved taking on a local U18 team.
It will come as little surprise to find that the senior international team won the game 10-0 but what was strange was what they were wearing – a red shirt that bore some of the hallmarks of the contemporary adidas stylings but also with three large stripes over the right shoulder in the style of the first iteration of the company’s ‘Equipment’ offerings in 1991.
While the players did have their names and World Cup squad numbers on the back, there was nothing else to mark this as a Germany shirt – the white socks served to make it look like the mashup used by Liverpool away to Bolton Wanderers in the 1993 FA Cup. Presumably midfielder Dietmar Hamann, who was with the Merseyside club at the time, felt at home in it.
In the World Cup itself, Germany would be able to wear their white shirts in each of their seven matches, meaning that the grey second strip would only have one more appearance than this red outfit.
