Category Archives: One-offs

Great one-offs – Borussia Dortmund, 1989

14 Saturday Apr 2018

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Having had Nike kits for 15 years in total between 1990 and 2009, and now clad in Puma since 2012, it’s easy to forget that, once upon a time, Borussia Dortmund wore adidas – like most German sides did.

From 1974-90, die Schwarzgelben carried the three stripes on a variety of designs (with the occasional shirt made by adidas’s sub-brand Erima). For much of that period, red – usually the colour of Bayern Munich – was favoured as an away choice, and also like Bayern, there was a high level of promiscuity as regard the style of shirts.

For much of the 1988-89 season, Dortmund wore a yellow version of the template used by the Netherlands in winning Euro 88, having reached the final of the DFB-Pokal (domestic cup), they came up something different.

Borussia-Dortmund-1989-adidas-DfB-Pokal-finale-trikot-Werder-01

Essentially the same design of shirt as would be used by Colombia in the World Cup a year later, it featured the adidas logo rendered very small, with the trefoil alongside the wordmark, as sometimes seen on the firm’s goalkeeper shirts in the 1980s.

The change did Dortmund good as they came back from the concession of an early goal to beat Werder Bremen 4-1, ending a 24-year wait for a major trophy, paving the way for more success in the 1990s.

 

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Great one-offs – Barcelona third shirt, 2001-02

03 Tuesday Apr 2018

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As we saw in a recent article, Barcelona used both red and blue change shirts for much of the 1980s.

Kappa and then Nike began to use different hues such as aqua, orange, silver and gold, but in 2002 the Catalan club took to the field in a third kit which employed the two primary colours.

In the second group stage of the 2001-02 Champions League, Barça found themselves drawn with Liverpool, Roma and Galatasary.

At Anfield, they wore their gold change shirts but, as the red shorts and socks clashed with Liverpool’s, the home sets were used.

Then, after Christmas, for the trip to Rome, the default away strip was approved for use, but as Roma had a halved European shirt, it was a real mess.

Presumably, given that Galatasaray have similar colours to Roma, UEFA told Barcelona to come with something else for the trip to Istanbul, and so they did, a blue shirt with red and gold trim – in the same design as Rangers’ away kit that season – paired with the away shorts and socks.

Barcelona-2001-2002-Nike-third-kit-blue-Galatasaray-01

A Luis Enrique goal gave Barça a 1-0 win to ensure they topped the group (they would reach the semi-finals, losing to Real Madrid), but the strange thing was that Galatasaray changed kits for the game too, wearing all-white.

Incidentally, Barcelona and Galatasaray were also in the same group for the 2002-03 Champions League, but Barcelona’s new kit had royal shorts and so home kits were worn in both games.

Great One-Offs – Sunderland third kit, 2000-01

29 Thursday Mar 2018

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It might be  surprise to some to learn that Sunderland were the first British football club to wear Nike kits, back in the mid-1980s.

That will be the focus of a future article, but today we’ll focus on a particular shirt from the American company’s second spell with the Mackems, commencing in 2000.

Nike gave the club very nice interchangeable home and away kits, with the white away shirt worn with three different shorts/socks configurations.

As can be seen from that last example, the white was allowed against Arsenal even though refs often have a problem with such a sleeve clash. However, for the visit to The Dell to take on Southampton at the end of April, they were forced to come up with a special third shirt.

Sunderland-2000-2001-Nike-third-shirt-Southampton-Kilbane-01

Following the design of the away shirt, it was similar to the Arsenal third which had been released before Christmas, while the away shorts, with a black Nike swoosh, were used. The away socks might have been a better bet too, given that the navy set were similar to Southampton’s black pairs.

Sunderland won 1-0, with Kevin Kilbane scoring an acrobatic goal – but did he mean it?

Great one-offs – Norwich City, 1985

18 Sunday Mar 2018

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By its nature, this series – see here for other articles – is more likely to include change kits, but there are instances of teams playing games in home-coloured unique kits.

In the past, cup finals were often a source of such outfits, and today’s entry is one of those examples. Next Saturday will mark the 34th anniversary of Norwich City winning the Football League Cup, known as the Milk Cup back then, as they beat Sunderland 1-0 (incidenally, both clubs would be relegated at the end of that season).

At the time, Norwich wore Hummel kits and in 1984-85 they had a fairly simple design, featuring the company’s chevrons down the arms. Hummel also liked to use their identifying marks down the sides of the body – as with Denmark’s Euro 84 kits – and these were the big additions for Norwich’s trip to Wembley.
Norwich-City-1985-Hummel-Milk-Cup-final-kit-01.png

As well as the commemorative text above the club crest, Norwich also had the logo of their sponsors, Poll Withey, changed from red to black for the occasion.

The latter alteration would become permanent for the 1985-86 promotion season but other than that, the only other difference would be narrow green stripes above and below the sponsor’s logo.

Incidentally, Norwich’s centre-back partnership of Steve Bruce and Dave Watson wore numbers 4 and 6 respectively in the final, as they did all season – see here for a piece on the reluctance of both players to wearing the Norwich number 5 shirt.

Great one-offs – Germany, 1991

04 Sunday Mar 2018

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Germany came to Wembley on September 11, 1991 for its first game against England as a unified country since 1938, and they did so in a unique kit.

When England had played West Germany in the 1990 World Cup semi-final, the eventual champions had worn the green change kit which had been present in varying forms since 1988, the design the same as the Netherlands’ Euro 88 kit.

For this friendly clash, the shirts remained green but now incorporated the black, red and gold ‘ribbon’ which had been on the home shirt since 1988.

Germany-1991-adidas-auswartstrikot-England-01

Karlheinz Riedle’s goal gave Germany a 1-0 win but that would be the only outing for the kit. The next time they needed to change, against Turkey in May 1992, they would have a green version of their new strip.

When The Football Attic, Design Football and True Colours combined to choose their top 50 shirts of all-time in 2015, this shirt came 48th (the home was, rightly, first) and Jay laid out why it was so praiseworthy.

As to why it was created rather than one last outing for the previous style, Andrew Hoare on Twitter has an interesting view:

Just been reading an article questioning why this was only introduced in 1991. My theory is that the previous away kit was the same template as the E.German home kit thus bad memories with the communist era kit, so fresh start

Given that the shirt wasn’t available commercially, the DFB couldn’t be accused of cashing in, so does Andrew’s theory hold water?

The one-offs – Manchester City third kit, 1989-90

06 Tuesday Feb 2018

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Manchester City fans have a lot of good kits upon which they can look back fondly, but this is not one of them.

In 1989-90, City’s first season back in the top flight, early away games saw them travel to face Coventry City and Wimbledon, with their maroon and white striped away kit worn. For the trip to Highbury to face Arsenal in the middle of October, they could have worn their home shirts, but there was a shorts-clash to deal with.

Sky blue shorts would be available later in the season, worn in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford, but they were not to hand on this occasion. Opting against pairing the home shirt with the away shirts – a look they would wear at Arsenal the following season – City instead went for the quick fix of a yellow teamwear strip (with mismatching shirts and shorts) with the club crest and brother wordmark applied.

Manchester-City-Umbro-1989-1990-yellow-third-kit-Arsenal-01

City lost 4-0 and rumour has it that club chairman Peter Swales saw to it that the kit was burned. How true that is, we don’t know, but it wasn’t worn again.

Incidentally, City would bring their tally of kits to four later in the season – with concerns over the striped away clashing with teams in white, a prototype version of the following season’s solid maroon change shirt, with a grandad collar like the striped kit, was used late in the campaign.

 

Great one-offs – Roma third kit, 1991-92

23 Tuesday Jan 2018

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In a Midweek Mashup last year, we featured the kit Monaco had had to wear against Feyenoord in the 1991-92 European Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final. In the previous round though, Monaco had been the cause of another side having to come up with an emergency third kit.

Apart from a few occasions in the 1960s and 1970s, AS Roma have had dark red home kits and white away strips, and neither was deemed suitable when they went to Stade Louis II on March 18, 1992 (incidentally, the practice in European competition nowadays  seems to be to ask the home team to change – Arsenal wore yellow against Basel in 2016 and will apparently have to wear blue when they entertain Östersunds next month).

While a yellow/gold/orange (Roma’s shades do tend to vary) third kit might have seemed logical, instead adidas came up with a navy strip which incorporated the club’s colours.

Something of a hybrid, it featured the old adidas trefoil logo and three stripes down the sleeves, as well as the three-bar style on the sleeeves, which would be seen on Arsenal and Germany kits launched the following summer. Unlike those kits, which had the adidas Equipment branding, the bars were also on the right leg of the shorts.

AS-Roma-1992-adidas-terzera-third-maglia-Monaco-01

Unfortunately for Roma, the kit was not a good luck charm as Monaco won 1-0. According to the excellent Roma kits book, La maglia che ci unisce, the navy kit was popular with fans (it’s unclear if replicas were actually sold) but the shirt wasn’t worn again for superstitious reasons.