Argentina (Home 2018)

Now, what will Argentina wear in Russia? And, of course, which jersey are they going to reference? Well, given their history with Adidas since the late 1980s (only a short Reebok intermezzo from 1998 to 2001) there are many to choose. But which one? Well, their choice was in a way quite logical, let’s see:

 

 

Well, the inspiration is the 1993 jersey – the last one that won a trophy! And looking at it at a quick glance it is quite a good copy. Starting at the collar and the stripe width and the white sleeves, it all fit well. However, note that the shoulder stripes were not present then and like the collar of the 2016 jersey, they look a bit out of place. Wouldn’t have light blue fit better there? Yes, less visible, but would make for a better jersey!

The Adidas logo is updated since the company does not use the trefoil logo on their soccer shirts anymore and of course there are numbers on the front now. The stripes are a bit wider than on the 1993 original and somewhere between 2014 and 2016. However, it is the pattern on the stripes, that drives me a bit crazy! While the gradient on the 2014 jersey was OK and somehow a nice feature, this pixelated V-pattern is quite distracting, esp. when seen from the distance. It looks like, they were running out of blue colour when printing. Well, at least the stripes continue on the back. I already noted what I think about the new Adidas font for the 2018 jersey for the 2018 Germany jersey: not perfect, but acceptable.

What’s the conclusion? I think it is bland if not poor effort here. I do not like the overall white feeling of this jersey with some black splattered on there. The inspiration is valid, but I am not thrilled about the modernization. The pattern is highly distracting and gives the shirt a cheap feeling. There is only one way to make this jersey look better: win the Cup with it. The challenge is in your court, Argentina! Well, as the only team of my personal Top 3 (outside of teams with family links) to make it to the World Cup, I am actually hoping for it …

My rating: 5/10 stars.

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