Within minutes of kickoff in the U.S. men’s national team’s March friendly against Belgium, fans and television viewers noticed a major problem: the teams’ uniforms looked too similar. “Everyone was a bit shocked,” Christian Pulisic said. Weston McKennie added, “It definitely was a little bit difficult whenever you do like a quick glance to tell which was which,” and Pulisic added, “That can’t happen.”
Before any high-level soccer game there is some form of prematch communication about logistics, and that process differs by match type: for friendlies it is usually succinct, while for official tournament games it can be far more detailed, according to multiple sources. For the U.S.-Belgium friendly, the federations exchanged kit CADs — computer-aided design graphics of each uniform — primarily by email as they both wanted to showcase new World Cup launch kits.
“The computer isn’t real,” said one high-level soccer executive who has worked on uniform protocols. The executive said that, despite the CADs, both kits ended up appearing primarily white in reality, particularly from the back. The large white number plate on the back of the U.S. jersey intensified the clash when Belgium’s jerseys also appeared light under bright stadium lighting.
That outcome had an ironic precedent: an earlier version of the U.S. stripes jersey worn in 2012 had no number plate, which made numerals hard to read against the stripes. “In this case, it feels like the stars just aligned in a bad way for everyone,” the executive said, noting that stadium lighting and television cameras made the kits look different than expected.
Compounding the confusion, neither team could switch kits. As the home side, the U.S. had priority but its blue uniforms were back at the team hotel, according to multiple sources. Belgium had already sent much of its luggage, including alternate jerseys, on to the site of its next match. “To see something that bad and not be able to fix it is basically our disaster scenario,” said one kit man who has worked for a national team at multiple World Cups.
Despite the U.S.-Belgium incident, the reality, according to multiple sources, is that it is incredibly unlikely to see anything similar during a World Cup match.
