Tuesday, May 22, 2018

World Cup 2018 Kit Rankings

It's hard to believe the next World Cup starts in less than a month, and that the U.S. won't be there.  (Thanks Bruce!)  Anyhow, 30 of the 32 national kits have been announced and in my incredibly humble opinion, this is definitely an off-year for interesting uniform design.  There's a hell of a lot of monochrome red on offer.  And red is fine, but it's kind of ridiculous -- 15 out of 60 total home and away kits.

Anyhow, here are the best and the worst (both home and away):

The good:

1)  Saudi Arabia home (green is my favorite color, but the minimal design is also great)
2)  Mexico home and away (green again, but with a nice pattern at home, and the away has a nice retro vibe)
3)  Peru home and away (rocking the diagonal is always nice and more teams should do it)
4)  Belgium away (nice and bright, and ten times better than their home kit)
5)  France home and away (minimal, but somehow standing out as well)
6)  Croatia home (can't beat the checkers)

The bad:

1)  Anything mono-red -- England away, Iran away, Tunisia away, Belgium home, Russia home, Egypt home, Spain home (not entirely red but the pattern sucks), Serbia home, Denmark home (but the arrows on the shoulders are cool), South Korea home, Costa Rica home, Panama home, Portugal home (but the green is nice), Switzerland home, Poland home

2)  Germany home  (black and white, literally, and the shoulder piping doesn't match up with the pattern)

3)  Australia home (those sleeves are a mess)

Honorable mentions:

1)  Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil home are iconic and eye-catching.  Never change.

Still not sure:

1)  Nigeria home (points for trying something different)

As for the less important matter of who actually wins?  That'll be Germany again.  And who will I root for in a U.S.-less tournament?  South Korea, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Iceland.  (Mexico might do something, the other three not so much.)

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