World Cup Uniforms - A Fashion Perspective

As many of you loyal TSF readers know I often root for teams based on their uniforms. (among other factors like mascot or city/country of origin)

That, coupled with the start of the 2014 World Cup yesterday spawned a blog post dedicated to World Cup uniforms. My friend Luis gave me the idea and then it just...went from there. This is similar to my posts on Olympics (Summer '12) or football teams. Below are my pics for some of the best World Cup uniforms out there.

I should caution y'all. I literally know next to nothing about soccer. My knowledge extends to whatever I've gleaned from the Disney movie "The Big Green". So perdoname my wrong soccer terms. KTHX. Also, for my Euro/Non-USA readers, we call football soccer in the US.

1. Argentina
Dang y'all I love me some stripes. Light blue stripes? I'm done. I think this is why I STILL talk about Sweden's London Olympics opening ceremony outfits. AND LOOK AT THEIR COLORFUL SHOES!

2. Algeria
I love, LOVE The green! And the goalie's (keeper? guarder guy?) uniform is awesome!

3. Ecuador
I'm totally into the combination of yellow and blue here. I only wish the guy with the hat was wearing more of a vibrant color. Meh.

4. France
I love this deep blue and the subtle striping. Also, I love the monochromaticity. (this is a term I coined...thank you!)

5. Spain
Though I don't love red, yellow and blue together I think these uniforms are done well. Had the shorts been navy...meh, no thanks. But these royal blue shorts are great! And I'm really digging the socks. They make the pad things on their legs not look so awkward, you know?

6. Uruguay
I love this blue and black together. The end.

///Some random thoughts on soccer.
1. What is the goalie/keeper/guarder guy officially called?!
2.  Speaking to the #10 guy on the Uruguay team, David Beckham and anyone else...why rock the longish hair if you're going to put it in a hairband? Stop it. Either cut your hair or have it long enough to put in a pony tail. Or an Elsa-esque braid.
3. I think that of all the photos above, there are maybe 2 people smiling and they are both from Uruguay. Which brings me to two points. A: Soccer players are either mad or very serious and B: Uruguay is a happy country
4. People get CRAY and I mean CRAY CRAY about soccer. No joke.
5. I spent a better part of my day trying to figure out what FIFA stood for without Googling. I came as far as Federation for International Futbol Association. Then I Googled it. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. I was pretty DANG close! Just a different language. No big deal.
6. Go back up to the Uruguay pic. The guy on the end #10, doesn't he look like a long-haired Lance Armstrong? His face. Google Lance. Then come back. YES!
7. Why in the H are their numbers so small in the front? These guys are always moving around like crazy, so why wouldn't the umpire/referees need a larger number to see? Just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
8. I'm guessing only baseball uses umpires? AMIRIGHT??
9. Why can't teams do really patterned uniforms? Like a tie-dye? Or a paisley? It might make things more interesting to watch.
10. Will there be vuvuzuelas at this World Cup? Or the Brasilian equivalent? (See how I did that? BraSilian instead of BraZilian. I'm good.)
11. I know of the following soccer players by name: David Beckham, Mia Hamm. The end.

If you love dogs and the World Cup, check this out.