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.<\/p>\n
![\"US](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/54046e36a659a8a3202ad0445ba5cb2c.webp\"\/)
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USA wore a new shirt evoking the colours of the American flag – Erik S Lesser\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Belgium wore their own recently unveiled men\u2019s away jersey, which is a multicoloured, pale sky-blue jersey and also includes pink patterns and black detail.<\/p>\n
![\"Belgium](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/39e27271f2d80659dc071a5451b17ec6.webp\"\/)
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Belgium wore their new men\u2019s away jersey – Dale Zanine\/Reuters<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s not an excuse at all because both teams deal with that, but that\u2019s just… that can\u2019t happen,\u201d Pulisic said. \u201cThat was a bit strange.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult. A 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 colour of the shirt. That\u2019s how it works. And when it\u2019s very similar, it\u2019s difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weston McKennie, the US midfielder, added: \u201cI won\u2019t put that at all for an excuse of the game, but definitely it was a little bit difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
A US Soccer spokesperson said a \u201cmulti-layered\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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Belgium\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n