So are you guys watching the World Cup? Are any of ye in the blogger-verse fans of the beautiful game? I'm really enjoying this years tournament, at first I found the persistent drones of the vuvuzelas painful to say the least but now I'm actually learning to enjoy and appreciate them for the culturally significant artifacts they are!
So after the controversy of Henri's handball Ireland unfortunately didn't make the final 32! This entry will not be a rant about the aforementioned 'event', I bear no anger or resentment towards Henri himself...it's the actions of FIFA that annoy me!
Any way Ireland's absence begs the question...who to support this year? Well I lived in the States for years, and both my sisters and mother are american citizens so I will and have been shouting with pride for the US of A. I am also quite proudly lending my support to the English team, a certain minority in Ireland remain very bitter towards Brittan. In my opinion irrationally so. Our troubled history is behind us, I believe to move forward it's important to promote a higher level of solidarity between ourselves and our nearest neighbours! So public-ally for all fellow Irishman to hear, I hope England go all the way! Although based on their last two games that's not looking very likely, the British media coverage of the teams journey thus far is fantastically overbearing I'm not surprised England are feeling the pressure.
A third team I have always had a strange affinity with are Japan, all of which stems from the fact that I love their football kits, whether it be Asics or Adidas they always come up with something unique and special. I really hope the 'samurai blue' make it at least out of the group stages, I'm eagerly looking forward to their final group match against Denmark.
This brings me to the final part of this entry, my favorite kits of this years tournament. By far the award for most beautiful kit goes to the design team at Umbro for their entire England range the all white home kit in particular. Stunningly refined and elegant design with wonderful attention to detail make for a truly inspiring shirt.
Adidas took a huge gamble this year by developing tech fit jerseys, personally I don't think it payed off. The jerseys were optional and most players preferred to don the standard fitting kits they are used to. Personally I think the TF kits look like the players have been wrapped in electrical tape...not too flattering. Possibly a premature venture for Adidas, Tech fit it definitely the future but not quite yet...I love this kit though the Japanese Home (Standard Fit), I'm actually wearing it as I type...
Nike too developed some very simple stylish kits, in my opinion only let down by the unnecessary horizontal panel on the sleeves. I do however love these two shirt designs... USA (Away) and South Korea (Home)
1 comment:
Agree with your review of the adidas shirts being somewhat unflattering - they look good on some players, but on others it looks like one of those body swimsuits!!
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