An “awful” colour clash between US and Belgium kits caused significant confusion for players and viewers in the Americans’ 5-2 friendly defeat.
Neither team brought alternative jerseys to the match, prompting dismay from the sides playing in red/white and pink/pale blue patterned jerseys.
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The US team were reportedly so confused by the clash that they discussed recovering alternative jerseys from the team hotel.
Christian Pulisic, the US men’s captain, said the kits were “difficult to deal with” and “everyone was a bit shocked” when the clash became apparent. Amadou Onana, the Belgium midfielder, told The Athletic that the clash was “awful”. Goalkeeper Senne Lammens said he raised the matter with the Belgian team’s kitman at half-time.
The fixture took place at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium with the US in a new shirt evoking the colours of the American flag, with wavy red and white stripes running across the strip and a larger white space on the back of the jersey.
USA wore a new shirt evoking the colours of the American flag – Erik S Lesser/Shutterstock
Belgium wore their own recently unveiled men’s away jersey, which is a multicoloured, pale sky-blue jersey and also includes pink patterns and black detail.
Belgium wore their new men’s away jersey – Dale Zanine/Reuters
The kits had reportedly been approved by the match officials well in advance of the friendly. Pulisic was among several players who said that the similarly coloured jerseys made it more difficult to pick out team-mates.
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“It’s not an excuse at all because both teams deal with that, but that’s just… that can’t happen,” Pulisic said. “That was a bit strange.
“It’s difficult. A lot of times you get the ball and you look up, you can’t really lock in on something. You only can base it off the colour of the shirt. That’s how it works. And when it’s very similar, it’s difficult.”
Weston McKennie, the US midfielder, added: “I won’t put that at all for an excuse of the game, but definitely it was a little bit difficult.
“Whenever you do a quick glance to tell which was which, it was almost like a 50-50 thing. So you definitely had to maybe take a little bit more time on the ball before you made a decision or play one-touch to a player.”
A US Soccer spokesperson said a “multi-layered” process was used to check for conflicts before the match. Pictures of both jerseys were then sent to match referees, and a match coordination meeting was then held in which the jerseys were seen. Then the jerseys were seen again by the referees on game day. At no time did the referees indicate that they felt there was a conflict.
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Belgium’s victory proved a reality check for the Americans on the back of a five-game unbeaten streak. After the first half ended 1-1, Belgium exploded into life in the second half, with substitute Dodi Lukebakio netting twice.
The US, who are co-hosting the tournament alongside Canada and Mexico, open their World Cup campaign against Paraguay on June 12 in Inglewood, California.