Tag Archives: Argentina

2018 World Cup kit-tracker – knockout stages

17 Tuesday Jul 2018

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Second round

France 4 Argentina 3

2018-World-Cup-second-round-France-Argentina-01.png

Surprisingly, but refreshingly, both sides were allowed to wear their full first-choice kits with no alterations. Argentina exited the tournament having only used one goalkeeper kit.

Uruguay 2 Portugal 1

2018-World-Cup-second-round-Uruguay-Portugal-01

Spain 1 Russia 1 (aet, 3-4 on penalties)

2018-World-Cup-second-round-Spain-Russia-01

Russia’s home kit had match details in the middle but on the away, they were below the crest. The goalkeeper’s shirt followed suit for each game, meaning that Igor Akinfeev wore his blue (and green) kits with two different inscription versions.

Croatia 1 Denmark 1 (aet, 3-2 on penalties)

2018-World-Cup-second-round-Croatia-Denmark-01

With both of Denmark’s kits clashing with Croatia’s home, the two teams changed.

Brazil 2 Mexico 0

2018-World-Cup-second-round-Brazil-Mexico-01

In 2014, Mexico wore their away kit when the countries met in the group stage so it was nice to see both tri-coloured home strips here.

Brazil goalkeeper Alisson Becker switched to black, though his bright green was unlikely to have caused confusion with Mexico’s darker shade.

Belgium 3 Japan 2

2018-World-Cup-second-round-Belgium-Japan-01

This was certainly a match-up which would have resulted in one side changing kit in previous tournaments, but common sense continued to prevail in the knockout stages.

Sweden 1 Switzerland 0

2018-World-Cup-second-round-Sweden-Switzerland-01

Colombia 1 England 1 (aet, 3-4 on penalties)

2018-World-Cup-second-round-Colombia-England-01

With Colombia continuing to favour white shorts and socks, England wore their alternative away shorts, as they had done against Tunisia.

Quarter-finals

Uruguay 0 France 2

2018-World-Cup-quarter-finals-Uruguay-France-01

A fifth kit combination in as many games for France.

Brazil 1 Belgium 2

2018-World-Cup-quarter-finals-Brazil-Belgium-01

Sweden 0 England 2

2018-World-Cup-quarter-finals-Sweden-England-01

All-red for England again despite Sweden’s blue shorts – their kitman Pat Frost said that Fifa had ordered the change as Robin Olsen’s shorts were a light shade.

Russia 2 Croatia 2 (aet, 3-4 on penalties)

2018-World-Cup-quarter-finals-Russia-Croatia-01

The expectation might have been that Russia would have to change too, but they were allowed to wear their home shirts, with the proper socks back in action.

Semi-finals

France 1 Belgium 0

2018-World-Cup-semi-finals-France-Belgium-01

Another different combination for France, with the shorts changed too even though only the socks clashed. We’d have liked to have seen them in blue-white-white.

Croatia 2 England 1 (aet)

2018-World-Cup-semi-finals-Croatia-England-01

Despite being the away team, England were able to wear their home shirts, with the away shorts getting their first outing of the competition.

Croatia equalled France’s record from 2006 of wearing their change shirts for the fifth time.

Third-place play-off

Belgium 2 England 0

2018-World-Cup-third-place-play-off-Belgium-England-01

The outcome was the same as their group game but the visual was different as both teams wore their change kits, meaning England wore their proper away strip for the first time, their fourth different combination.

Final

France 4 Croatia 2

2018-World-Cup-final-France-Croatia-01

No seventh combination for France, but they won’t have minded. Croatia wore their home shirts for the first time since the Nigeria game, though again with white socks – along with Colombia, Egypt and Costa Rica, they didn’t get to wear their full first-choice outfit in the tournament.

2018 World Cup kit-tracker – Group D completed

04 Wednesday Jul 2018

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Argentina 1 Iceland 1

2018-World-Cup-Group-D-Argentina-Iceland-01

Two excellent kits, though we feel that both countries could have worn their home kits without too much trouble.

Argentina’s black change shirts are based on the 1993 change strip, although that was navy – we’ll have to dock a mark for the fact that the shoulder stripes are all white whereas the home shorts and away socks are sky blue-white-sky blue.

Volcanoes and geysers provided the inspiration for Iceland’s sleeve-design, while the red goalkeeper kit was pleasingly complementary.

Croatia 2 Nigeria 0

2018-World-Cup-Group-D-Croatia-Nigeria-01

Fans of Nigeria’s new home kit were left disappointed as they instead wore a solid dark green change kit – Croatia were forced to switch to white socks from blue as a result. Their famous chequered pattern is larger than usual this time around and the squares have jagged edges at the sides.

Argentina 0 Croatia 3

2018-World-Cup-Group-D-Argentina-Croatia-01

Having worn their home shorts with their away shirts against Iceland, Argentina did the opposite here as Croatia were in the black and navy change kit, which followed the same pattern as the home kit.

The first-choice socks for the Croatia strip were red and they would wear them in the knockout stages but in the group they opted for black sets.

Nigeria 2 Iceland 0

2018-World-Cup-Group-D-Nigeria-Iceland-01

Victory for Nigeria in their home kit’s only outing of the tournament. While their shirts didn’t have match inscriptions against Croatia, those details were included here.

Iceland’s home kit was in the same style as the away, with the black goalkeeper kit also following suit.

Iceland 1 Croatia 2

2018-World-Cup-Group-D-Iceland-Croatia-01

Ivan Perišić’s late winner secured a 100 percent record for Croatia but they would have topped the group anyway. Again, they were in their away kit, as were Iceland.

Nigeria 1 Argentina 2

2018-World-Cup-Group-D-Nigeria-Argentina-01

Another late winner, with Marcos Rojo ensuring Argentina advanced at the expense of Nigeria.

Argentina wore their proper home kit – perhaps surprising that Fifa didn’t consider dark green against black a shorts-clash.

Fantasy Kit Friday – Nigeria 2018 World Cup special

22 Friday Jun 2018

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Today is the day so many kit aficionados have been waiting for – Nigeria will wear their home kit in the World Cup game against Iceland in Volgograd.

Nigeria-2018-Nike-home-no-marking-01

Whatever your views are on the kit, there’s no denying that it has captured the collective imagination, with Nike claiming that it broke records in terms of selling out. Obviously, the eagle motif is specifically Nigeria – though perhaps could be adapted for Lazio or Crystal Palace – but when the question was put out there, we couldn’t resist:

Time constraints have prevented us from doing all 32, but we did manage nine countries. We know that some are terrible and some ideas didn’t quite land (the Switzerland cross, for example), but it was still worth doing.

2018 World Cup kit-tracker – Groups C and D

17 Sunday Jun 2018

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France 2 Australia 1

2018-World-Cup-Group-C-France-Australia-01

VAR and goal-line technology played roles as France got off to a winning start in the first game not to feature a team wearing adidas (the officials’ kits are made by the Germany company but they’re bereft of logos).

We actually quite like the three-tone blue of the French kit, but would have preferred the traditional red socks. Australia’s shirts feature a unique sleeve design – a wave design based on a rallying cry for a ‘sea of gold’.

Peru 0 Denmark 1

2018-World-Cup-Group-C-Peru-Denmark-01.png

A meeting of two of the nicest kits in the tournament, for our money. Denmark switching to red shots.

Peru are Umbro’s only contract at the finals and if we were to have on quibble it’s the way the front number is applied, creeping onto the sash – surprisingly, the back number sits flush on the sash whereas Fifa insist the likes of Croatia must have a plain back.

Denmark’s shirt features a number of subtle details, while the goalkeeper’s outfit mirrors the design.

Argentina 1 Iceland 1

2018-World-Cup-Group-D-Argentina-Iceland-01

Two excellent kits, though we feel that both countries could have worn their home kits without too much trouble.

Argentina’s black change shirts are based on the 1993 change strip, although that was navy – we’ll have to dock a mark for the fact that the shoulder stripes are all white whereas the home shorts and away socks are sky blue-white-sky blue.

Volcanoes and geysers provided the inspiration for Iceland’s sleeve-design, while the red goalkeeper kit was pleasingly complementary.

Croatia 2 Nigeria 0

2018-World-Cup-Group-D-Croatia-Nigeria-01

Fans of Nigeria’s new home kit were left disappointed as they instead wore a solid dark green change kit – Croatia were forced to switch to white socks from blue as a result. Their famous chequered pattern is larger than usual this time around.

1990 World Cup – all of the kits worn

12 Tuesday Jun 2018

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  • You’ll notice we have the word ‘worn’ in the title – change kits which didn’t get game-time aren’t included. That’s preferable to including some and then missing others we mightn’t be aware of
  • The labelling we’ve used is ‘Primary’ for the country’s first-choice kit and ‘Change’ for the second shirt; ‘Alternative’ is a kit which has different shorts or socks to the accepted make-up of a kit
  • For more information about each kit and when it was worn, see the following: Group A, Group B, Group C, Group D, Group E, Group F, Knockout Stages
  • Oh, and we did something similar for the 1970 World Cup

Austria

Argentina

Belgium

Brazil

Cameroon

Colombia

Costa Rica

Czechoslovakia

Egypt

England

Italy

Netherlands

Republic of Ireland

Romania

Scotland

South Korea

Spain

Sweden

USSR

UAE

USA

Primary
Alternative
Goalkeeper

Uruguay

West Germany

Yugoslavia

Match Officials

1990 World Cup kit-tracker – knockout stage

11 Monday Jun 2018

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Second round

Cameroon 2 Colombia 1 (aet)

1990-World-Cup-second-round-Cameroon-Colombia-01

A game remembered for Roger Milla’s goal as he dispossessed René Higuita, who had gone on an ill-advised dribble up the field. Higuita had clearly been impressed by the blue jersey Bodo Illgner wore against Colombia, as he was in a grey version.

His team-mates wore their yellow away shirts (Colobmbia wouldn’t change their home colours from red until 1992), which had different blue shorts to the home kit.

Their yellow socks meant Cameroon changed to green sets – even though there hadn’t been a problem with the Indomitable Lions against yellow-blue-red when they met Romania. Nor was the amount of green on Thomas N’Kono’s shirt considered a problem.

Costa Rica 1 Czechoslovakia 4

1990-World-Cup-second-round-Costa-Rica-Czechoslovakia-01

Tomáš Skuhravý scored a hat-trick for the Czechs, who wore their home socks with their change shirts.

Costa Rica wore a different red shirt to that of the group stages, with a red collar and a Lotto logo watermark. Having contravened the rules on logoless socks earlier, they wore the plain white away set here.

Meanwhile, having been there, done that and worn the three shirts, goalkeeper Luis Gabelo Conejo got injured, meaning that Hermido Barrantes took his place.

He wore a yellow version of the purple and green tops Conejo had worn, as well as having his number on his shorts.

Brazil 0 Argentina 1

1990-World-Cup-second-round-Brazil-Argentina-01

Brazil changed socks with Argentina wearing the white shorts from their away kit, the darker blue jarring with the rest.

Goycochea wore a ‘space invaders’ shirt for the first time, with the pattern the same way up as Egypt’s Ahmed Shoubeir rather than like Higuita, but arranged differently.

West Germany 2 Netherlands 1

1990-World-Cup-second-round-West-Germany-Netherlands-01

Both sides in their home strips and first-choice goalkeeper shirts.

  • Republic of Ireland 0 Romania 0 (aet, 5-4 on penalties)

1990-World-Cup-second-round-Ireland-Romania-01

Unlike 1987 against Brazil, Packie Bonner was given a proper grey adidas jersey and it was his penalty save from Daniel Timofte which allowed David O’Leary to score the penalty which sent Ireland into the quarter-finals.

The shirt differed from the yellow in that the stripes only ran to the shoulders.

Italy 2 Uruguay 0

1990-World-Cup-second-round-Italy-Uruguay-01

Uruguay wore their home shorts – with larger numbers. Given how strict Fifa are nowadays, it would be difficult to imagine a game with one team in white shirts and either goalkeeper in a grey/silver so light.

Spain 1 Yugoslavia 2 (aet)

1990-World-Cup-second-round-Spain-Yugoslavia-01

Yugoslavia changed to their away kit, with goalkeeper Tomislav Ivković wearing a proper adidas shirt instead of a rebadged Uhlsport. His top – officially named Montevideo rather than ‘scribbles’ –  differed from Jan Stejskal’s and Tony Meola’s in that the pattern was entirely grey.

England 1 Belgium 0 (aet)

1990-World-Cup-second-round-England-Belgium-01

David Platt scored a winner in injury time at the end of extra time, both sides in first-choice kits.

Quarter-finals

Argentina 0 Yugoslavia 0 (aet, 3-2 on penalties)

1990-World-Cup-quarter-final-Argentina-Yugoslavia-01

A first outing for Argentina’s change shirts, worn with the home shorts and socks while Yugoslavia wore their red socks.

One difference among the Argentina team was that Diego Maradona opted to wear a pair of Napoli away socks, featuring the Ennerre logo. They didn’t help him to score his penalty in the shootout, but Goycochea’s heroics saw them through.

Argentina-1990-adidas-away-kit-Yugoslavia-Maradona-Napoli-socks-01Italy 1 Republic of Ireland 0

1990-World-Cup-quarter-final-Italy-Ireland-01

Magic socks couldn’t help Maradona and meeting Pope John Paul II wasn’t enough to save Ireland as Toto Schillaci scored again.

West Germany 1 Czechoslovakia 0

1990-World-Cup-quarter-final-West-Germany-Czechoslovakia-01

Another straightforward home kit v home kit game for Germany.

England 3 Cameroon 2 (aet)

1990-World-Cup-quarter-final-England-Cameroon-01

Two Cameroon goals in five second-half minutes had them on course for victory but a pair of Gary Lineker penalties sent England through.

Semi-finals

Italy 1 Argentina 1 (aet, 3-4 on penalties)

1990-World-Cup-semi-final-Italy-Argentina-01

Schillaci netted again, but Claudio Caniggia equalised for Argentina and Goycochea came up trumps in the shootout again.

Having considered Argentina’s stripes to clash with blue shirts and white shorts in the previous round, Fifa allowed both home strips here.

England 1 West Germany 1 (aet, 3-4 on penalties)

1990-World-Cup-semi-final-England-West-Germany-01

Both sides had worn their home kits up until now, with England winning the toss for colours.

As with their home strip, Germany had had the same basic change kit since 1988, but originally it had a collar. Penalty misses by Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle meant that Germany advanced.

Third-place play-off

Italy 2 England 1

1990-World-Cup-third-place-play-off-Italy-England-01

The purpose of this fixture was actually to reward the two teams who had gone through the tournament wearing only one kit (and not having to change goalkeeper shirts), it just so happened that they were the two beaten semi-finalists.

Final

West Germany 1 Argentina 0

1990-World-Cup-final-West-Germany-Argentina-01

It was the same final pairing as four years previously, when Argentina had won in their home kit.

This time, they were in the darker blue, with Goycochea wearing the same socks as the rest of the team.

A penalty decided it for Germany – having scored from the spot against Czechoslovakia, captain Lothar Matthäus declined to take the kick when they were awarded it as he was wearing a new pair of boots.

Instead, his Inter Milan clubmate Andreas Brehme, normally left-footed, scored with his right foot to give them glory.

 

1990 World Cup kit-tracker – Group B

30 Wednesday May 2018

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Argentina 0 Cameroon 1

1990-World-Cup-Group-B-Argentina-Cameroon-01.png

Group B featured four adidas teams. Holders Argentina got off to a losing start as François Omam-Biyik scored the only goal for Cameroon. Argentina goalkeeper Nery Pumpido wore an unusual design seen on few other teams – in contrast, the style used by Thomas N’Kono for Cameroon was used by all four Group B countries.

USSR 0 Romania 2

1990-World-Cup-Group-B-USSR-Romania-01

It would appear that the USSR opted for white as their first-choice kit, given that Romania and Cameroon both changed against them. For the first time, a Romanian change shirt – the same template as the USA – featured all three national colours. As with Czechoslovakia, there hadn’t been enough time to design a new non-Communist crest so they went without.

Soviet goalkeeper Rinat Dasayev opted for yellow shorts and white socks with his scribbles shirt, a look he had often favoured during the 1980s. Playing in a major tournament for the last time, their outfield kit was without the usual ‘CCCP’ across the chest and their design was the same as the Czechs.

Argentina 2 USSR 0

1990-World-Cup-Group-B-Argentina-USSR-01

Wearing the same shirt as Romania’s Silviu Lung had against the USSR, Nery Pumpido had to retire injured after 11 minutes. His replacement Sergio Goycochea wore a crestless shirt as well as the team socks rather than Pumpido’s plain pair.

A notable difference on the Argentina outfield kit was the near-total removal of the adidas stripes from the shorts – coach Carlos Bilardo had ordered the change in a bid to summon the successful spirit of 1986 by making the shorts look more like those worn in Mexico.

With Dasayev dropped – he wouldn’t play internationally again – his replacement Aleksandr Uvarov opted for black shorts and socks. While Czechoslovakia had revered the red and white on the diamond pattern on each shirt, the USSR kept it the same for both. In addition, plainer white shorts were used here.

Cameroon 2 Romania 1

1990-World-Cup-Group-B-Cameroon-Romania-01

Roger Milla announced his arrival at the tournament as he came on to score twice. Silviu Lung opted for a reddish-orange version of the scribbles shirt, the only goalkeeper to wear that colourway.

Romania 1 Argentina 1

1990-World-Cup-Group-B-Romania-Argentina-01

Argentina wore their away shorts, with the full striping, though Goycochea’s continuing crestlessness meant only 10 of the 22 players had badges.

Lung wore his third different shirt in as many games, a blue version of the new adidas Taifun design. This result meant both teams qualified for the knockout stages behind Cameroon.

USSR 4 Cameroon 0

1990-World-Cup-Group-B-USSR-Cameroon-01

The USSR got going, but too late to save themselves and too late to stop Cameroon advancing.

Quite why the African side changed is anybody’s guess, while Uvarov wore a black and grey version of the shirt N’Kono had at the other end. Referee José Roberto Wright of Brazil opted for long sleeves.

The evolution of adidas goalkeeper shirts – Part 9

14 Thursday Dec 2017

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You’re forgiven if you had feared that this series had become our great unfinished symphony, given that the last instalment, Part 8, was back in July.

There were various different reasons for the delay, not least the difficulty in drawing one of the designs, which was worn by a number of goalkeepers in 1993. It’s a strange one, given that, as we saw in the last episode, adidas were putting their three-stripe about in a forceful manner on most other goalkeeper shirts back then.

This one is more in keeping with some of the outlandish Italia 90 offerings, but even then it comes with extra acid-house influence. The pattern is too difficult to describe in any meaningful way, so we’ll just present the uncrested version worn by Bulgaria goalkeeper Borislav Mikhailov when the country beat France in Paris in November 1993 to qualify for the World Cup in the USA.

Bulgaria-1993-adidas-goalkeeper-shirt-Mihailov-01

At the other end of the pitch that night, France netminder Bernard Lama was wearing the same shirt with his trademark trousers, while Erik Thorstvedt of Norway and Romania’s Florin Prunea also used it.

The only colour variation we know of was used by Fabien Barthez of Olympique Marseille, back when he had to create his own short-sleeved versions with scissors.

Olympique-Marseille-1992-1993-adidas-gardien-maillot-Barthez-01

By the time of the 1994 World Cup, adidas had a new ubiquitous style, which was dubbed the Predator range, the same as the company’s revolutionary new boot.

Irregular shaped ‘blobs’ were arranged in a loose ‘Ajax style’ on a black background, with matching shorts (both colours featured on each leg, but the left was the reverse of the right).

Some of the colourways represented new departures for adidas, but the gold and dark red, as used by Germany’s Bobo Illgner, was arguably a descendant of the Taifun style.

Germany-1994-adidas-torwartstrikot-Illgner-01

Ireland’s Packie Bonner used the same colours as Illgner, while he also had a silver/grey and purple edition.

Republic-of-Ireland-1994-adidas-goalkeeper-shirt-World-Cup-Bonner-grey-purple-01

Almost identical, but with a pinkish-red instead of purple, was the style which was used by Sweden’s Thomas Ravelli.

Sweden-Sverige-1994-adidas-goalkeeper-shirt-Ravelli-01.png

Spain’s Andoni Zubiarreta was seen in the grey and red, and also a green and grey version which no other country had.

Spain-1994-adidas-portero-camiseta-Zubizarreta-01

Ravelli and Zubizarreta’s deputy Santiago Cañizares (who played the first game against South Korea as ‘Zubi’ was suspended) both wore a blue and green shirt, which Norway’s Thorstvedt used too, but with extra shoulder padding – three panels arranged similar to the striping on the Predator boots. Mikhailov had this padding on his gold and red shirt too.

Norway-Norge-1994-adidas-goalkeeper-shirt-Thorstvedt-World-Cup-01

There were three different padding types, presumably rooted in the fact that different factories were used. The USA’s Tony Meola had wider padding but no ‘stripes’ – and his shirt had the blue and green in reverse order compared to all of the other countries.

USA-1994-adidas-goalkeeper-jersey-Meola-World-Cup-01

Meanwhile, Argentina’s Luis Islas had another padding format, as well as noticeable differences on his shirts.

As well as different shades of yellow/gold and red – and pink on his alternative – the pattern on Islas’s jerseys was rotated 180 degrees compared to the conventional style, while he didn’t have the quilting everyone else did.

Argentina-1994-adidas-portero-camiesta-Luis-Islas-01Argentina-1994-adidas-portero-camiesta-Luis-Islas-silver-pink-01

Clubwise, there was another unique colourway, seemingly only used by Rangers’ Andy Goram, with orange (cue the inevitable jokes) and grey featured.

Rangers-1994-1995-adidas-away-goalkeeper-shirt-orange-Goram-01

Goram wore the Rangers away shorts with that shirt and, with his grey and purple shirt, he went with the nearly-matching third shorts and socks.

Rangers-1994-1995-adidas-away-goalkeeper-shirt-purple-Goram-01

Meanwhile, Liverpool’s David James wore the conventional shorts early in the season before opting to wear the club’s away shorts – almost identical to those he used in 1993-94, but with the club crest in white, green and black rather than red.

Liverpool-1994-1995-adidas-goalkeeper-shirt-David-James-01

Back to USA 94 though, and two other exceptions to the Predator style. Nigeria captain Peter Rufai did wear the gold and red version against Greece, but in the country’s other three games he used a strange shirt.

It had a very busy pattern featuring the adidas trefoil, three stripes and the letters which made up the word, in varying fonts. The neck also squared off in the middle.

Rufai wore a bluey-green version…

Nigeria-1994-adidas-goalkeeper-shirt-Rufai-World-Cup-01

…and he also had it in purple, which was used by one other country.

Romania began the competition with Bogdan Stelea in goal, wearing the blue and green Predator against Colombia and Switzerland.

A 4-1 defeat in the latter game saw Stelea make way for Florin Prunea, who wore this as they qualified for the knockout stage. Prunea wore the blue and green Predator as Argentina were beaten 3-2 but he was back in the purple for the penalty shootout loss to Sweden in the quarter-finals.

Romania-1994-adidas-goalkeeper-shirt-Prunea-Sweden-01

We’ve probably said it before, but we mean it this time – it won’t be as long until the next instalment, which will take us up to the 1998 World Cup, incorporating a number of interesting styles.

The evolution of adidas goalkeeper shirt designs – Part 7

25 Thursday May 2017

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The latest addition to our series plays something of a sweeper role, rounding up those designs of the late 80s and early 90s which had yet to be classified, as well as looking at a developing theme in British goalkeeper shirts.

We’ll start with one as unusual for the team wearing it as the design. In the 1980s, Brazil’s Olympic committee had an all-encompassing deal with adidas. It meant that they wore this in the 1984 football competition and green shorts in 1988 as well as a beautiful blue away strip.

Goalkeeper Claudio Taffarel had blue and green versions of a wavy, gradient design, coupled with the home socks – though we’d have preferred the ‘Brazil’ across the chest.

The only variant we can find is that worn by René Higuita of Colombia in Italia 90 qualifying – indeed, he was wearing it in his sticker for the Orbis World Cup 90 part-work collection.

adidas-Colombia-goalkeeper-camiseta-jersey-1989-Higuita-01-01

As we saw in Part 6, Higuita wore three other styles at the World Cup, as did Argentina’s Sergio Goycochea, albeit only on the bench for one of them. Having taken over as first-choice goalkeeper from Nery Pumpido after the country’s runner-up finish, he continued to enjoy a varied wardrobe.

Away to England in May 1991, he was seen in another variation of the ‘scribbles’ design:

adidas-Argentina-green-goalkeeper-camiseta-jersey-1991-Goycochea

Then, later that summer, he had something plainer as Argentina won the Copa America, the yellow was favoured but the pink was used against Brazil. A nice, solid design, we know of no other examples.

If that was playing it safe, at the next Copa, in 1993, it was the complete opposite, again in a style which seems to have been unique to Argentina. A multi-coloured gradient, black shards emanating from nowhere and the crest repeated throughout the fabric – it would be hard to find something more 90s.

adidas-Argentina-portero-goalkeeper-camiseta-jersey-1993-Goycochea

In between, in at least one game in 1992 he wore another colour variant of the Taifun shirt which Bodo Illgner and Silviu Lung had worn at Italia 90.

adidas-Argentina-portero-goalkeeper-camiseta-jersey-1992-Taifun-Goycochea

That same summer, at Euro 92 Illgner was wearing it a different colourway too, one which looked perfect for Germany (left). An oddity though is the one he wore in a friendly against Brazil in 1993 (right), which featured a sprinkling of the same colour pink which had appeared on his 1990 shirt.

adidas-Germany-Taifun-goalkeeper-torwart-trikot-jersey-1992-Illgneradidas-Germany-Taifun-goalkeeper-torwart-trikot-jersey-1993-Illgner-Brazil

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Domestically, there was something different afoot, as adidas began to provide goalkeeper shirts for clubs which employed a fabric pattern similar to that seen on the outfield offerings.

This began, subtly, with their first set of Liverpool kits in 1985. While Bruce Grobbelaar did occasionally wear green versions of the dip-dye shirt of part 1 and the diagonal stripes of part 3, he was most often seen in yellow that season.

Featuring a massive collar, it had the same weave as the home, away and third kits, with the Liverbird and adidas trefoil repeating. There was also a white version, possibly only worn in the Screen Sport Super Cup semi-final first leg against Norwich in February 1986.

adidas-Liverpool-goalkeeper-shirt-yellow-jersey-1985-1986-Bruce-Grobbelaar-01adidas-Liverpool-goalkeeper-shirt-white-jersey-1985-1986-Bruce-Grobbelaar-01

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the launch of a new set of kits in 1987, the practice was stopped – or at least interrupted – as Grobbelaar went with the geometric style of part 4. Then, in 1989, Liverpool’s new ‘speckled’ home shirt was joined a green goalkeeping top in the same style.

adidas-Liverpool-goalkeeper-shirt-jersey-1989-1991-Bruce-Grobbelaar

A year later, and Arsenal would follow a similar suit, even including the same neck style with ‘AFC’ monogram.

In the 90-91 season, David Seaman’s change blue shirt – worn against Norwich – lacked any collar trim or adidas stripes, but in 91-92 it more resembled the green shirt.

adidas-Arsenal-1990-1992-goalkeeper-home-shirt-kit-01adidas-Arsenal-1990-1992-goalkeeper-change-shirt-kit-01-01

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manchester United were a slightly different case. On their 1990-92 home shirt, the zig-zag stripes were in a lighter red to the rest, but adidas opted to make them stand out in black on the goalkeeper jersey.

adidas-Manchester-United-green-goalkeeper-shirt-jersey-1990-1991-Les-Sealey

The final example of this was Scottish club Hibernian, whose shirts were similar to green versions of Arsenal’s, but with subtle differences. They too had an esoteric pattern on their 1991-93 home and away kits, repeated on yellow and red goalkeeper shirts, as well as unique three-stripe collar and cuff trim.

adidas-Hibernian-yellow-goalkeeper-shirt-1991-Burridgeadidas-Hibernian-red-goalkeeper-shirt-1991-Burridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, when the won the 1991 Scottish League Cup, goalkeeper John Burridge was wearing a Taifun shirt.

***

A big, aggressive change was coming on the adidas goalkeeper shirt front, though. More in part 8.

The evolution of adidas goalkeeper shirt designs – Part 6

14 Friday Apr 2017

Posted by in Football kits, Goalkeepers, Kit history

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It has taken a while to be able to add to this series, as adidas had so many styles at the 1990 World Cup, with many of them on the more advanced side in terms of design.

The last instalment, before Christmas, looked at half of the company’s offerings at Italia 90, with the output more varied than at any time before or since. For instance, already we have looked at two shirts worn by Sergio Goycochea after took over as Argentina goalkeeper following injury to Nery Pumpido, but in the opening game against Cameroon, Pumpido wore something which was almost unique.

It was grey shirt with an irregular pattern, not representative of anything in particular as far as we can see. In fact, the only other example we could find was a yellowy-orange version, worn by Goycochea for Racing Club.

adidas-Argentina-grey-goalkeeper-camiseta-jersey-1990-Pumpido

Incidentally, the shirt Goycochea wore for the latter stages of the tournament, the one we dubbed ‘the Space Invaders’ style, was also used by Colombia’s René Higuita, except that the pattern was upside-down (Argentina on left, Colombia on right)

Like Argentina, Colombia also had three completely different designs on show. In the first game against the United Arab Emirates, Higuita wore a grey shirt with a herringbone pattern on the front (below left), and then for the Yugoslavia and West Germany matches he had the one seen above.

Colombia met Cameroon in the second round and this time Higuita was in a different grey shirt (below right), with baggier sleeves and an arrow motif.

The latter style, in blue, was also worn by West Germany’s Bodo Illgner against Colombia.

adidas-West-Germany-Taifun-goalkeeper-blue-torwart-trikot-jersey-1990-Illgner

However, when one thinks of Illgner at that World Cup, it is his other shirt which comes to mind, the design known as the Taifun. He would wear a silver, black and pinky-purple version, with Romania’s Silviu Lung donning a silver and blue edition against Argentina and the Republic of Ireland.

At the time, we weren’t too keen on it, but now we can appreciate the the level of design involved. The shirt would appear in two other colourways, as we will see in the next part in the series.

Lung was another of the three-shirt brigade. Against the USSR, he wore the same purple and green style that Pumpido and Goycochea wore for Argentina against the Soviets (see Part 5). Then, for the match against Cameroon, Lung wore another distinct design, this one featuring what can only be described as scribbles across the torso.

Incidentally, none of the Romania shirts at the tournament, outfield or goalkeeper, featured a crest.

adidas-Romania-red-goalkeeper-shirt-jersey-1990-Lung-Cameroon

It was a look which a few other countries also had. Jan Stejskal of Czechoslovakia and the USA’s Tony Meola had a yellow version with grey collar and cuffs and grey and black scribbles, while Yugoslavia’s Tomislav Ivković also wore yellow, but with black collar and cuffs and seemingly only grey scribbles, though red and black versions exist too.

Incidentally, he only wore this in the knockout stages against Spain and Argentina, having had ‘badge-engineered’ Uhlsport shirts in the group stage.

As mentioned above, Meola wore the same as Stejskal for all of the USA’s games, but substitute goalkeeper David Vanole was clearly allowed some leeway as he appeared in both blue and dark grey shirts on the bench.

We’ll be back very soon with Part 7, as the designs in the 1990s began to become more and more brash, coupled with adidas’s own rebranding under the adidas Equipment heading.