{"id":9289,"date":"2026-03-29T13:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/9289\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T13:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:42:10","slug":"usmnt-belgium-jersey-color-clash-sparks-fury-from-players-fans-really-unacceptable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/9289\/","title":{"rendered":"USMNT, Belgium jersey color clash sparks fury from players, fans: \u2018Really unacceptable\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Christian Pulisic of the United States dribbling the soccer ball while Alexis Saelemaekers of Belgium defends him, Image 2 shows Tim Ream (13) tries the control the ball as Belgium’s Dodi Lukebakio (14) looks on during the second half of an international friendly soccer match, Saturday, March 28, 2026, in Atlanta. <\/p>\n

A clash of jersey colors caused confusion for players and made it difficult for fans watching on TV to tell the teams apart as World Cup co-hosts the US were accused of being responsible for a mix-up in a 5-2 friendly defeat by Belgium<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Both teams used the match to launch new kit they will wear at the June 11 to July 19 World Cup, which is also being held in Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

The US sported a design that pulls directly from the red and white stripes in the American flag, while Belgium wore their away kit, which was light blue with pink accents.<\/p>\n

\"Christian<\/p>\n

Christian Pulisic of the US with the ball while under pressure from Alexis Saelemaekers of Belgium, March 28, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you had to look twice, especially if you wanted to play quickly,\u201d Belgian winger Jeremy Doku told his national television afterwards. \u201cI would have preferred clearer colors.\u201d<\/p>\n

American captain Christian Pulisic said it was difficult to deal with.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times you get the ball and you look up, you can\u2019t really lock in on something. You only can base it off the color of the shirt. That\u2019s how it works,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cAnd when it\u2019s very similar, it\u2019s difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belgian television apologized to viewers after the match, with analyst and former Belgian international Marc Degryse criticizing organizers.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The US\u2019s Tim Ream tries to control the ball as Belgium\u2019s Dodi Lukebakio looks on, March 28, 2026. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball is a product that needs to be sold. Everything always has to be better and better, yet they still managed to make the match annoying with the jerseys,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis goes completely against the whole commercial aspect. This is really unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

US Soccer said pictures of both jerseys were sent to match referees before the match and at no time did they indicate they felt there was a conflict.<\/p>\n

Belgian media said on Sunday the fault lay with the hosts, who insisted on playing in their new red and white jerseys, which clashed with both Belgium\u2019s first-choice red strip and also the lighter away kit.<\/p>\n

Both countries wanted to unveil their new jerseys for the first time but after becoming aware of the situation, Belgium proposed to play in their traditional red, the reports said.<\/p>\n

However, that was not an option because the US shirt also contains a lot of red.<\/p>\n

One solution could have been for the US to play in their dark blue kit but that did not fit into their commercial plan, the reports added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Christian Pulisic of the United States dribbling the soccer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3924,7,210,4561,5421,5419,2732,6296,4539],"class_list":{"0":"post-9289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-alexis-saelemaekers","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-christian-pulisic","12":"tag-dodi-lukebakio","13":"tag-jeremy-doku","14":"tag-mexico","15":"tag-red-and-white-stripes","16":"tag-tim-ream"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116312758643263680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}