Iceland (Away & Third 2014-17)

Let’s stay north, but go even further west and a tad up and look back at some recent Iceland shirts. As with the home jersey, I want to go back a bit further here, since I have not written anything about Iceland before.

In many ways, Iceland will be everyone’s second favorite team. What is not to like? Smallest nation by population, grim looking dudes, Viking chants and the lure of the upset. Even I was in the end happy that Iceland pulled the upset at the hands of my beloved Dutch and my home country. And of course, I was giddy as hell when England got eliminated.

So, let’s look at the alternate Iceland shirts, which are as expected mainly white with blue:

Well, this version that was worn during EURO qualifying is more or less the white version of the home kit, but thanks to the blue collar and the blue outline around the red/white band make it stand on its own and it has in a way more personality. I really like the separate collar on here. and even the band looks better here now that it looks a bit more complex. The fact that the font used for names and numbers is very plain and well legible is just icing on the cake. Now, if we could do something about the crest. Still, this one is better than the home version although basically the same shirt in white.

My rating: 8/10 stars.

Now, at EURO 2016 Iceland issued two alternate shirts with the white one worn against France and the black one mainly by the goal keeper – although it was issued as a field player shirt:

Now, in many ways I can describe these jerseys the same way as I did above: a white and a black version of the home jersey, but the red stripe is now flanked by an additional blue one which adds a little bit of complexity. But now, the collar does not stand out as much and in the case of the white kit, we are (vertical stripe apart) just switching colors. But oddly enough, here I like the blue version better than both the white and the black. Looking at the white, I do like how the vertical striping stands out, but it looks a bit too much like Costa Rica than Iceland in my mind. Still, not too bad:

My rating: 7/10 stars.

Now, the black version is not too different, but the blue is barely visible and also the fade does not look as nice here as on either the blue or the white one. Also, the white on the collar creates a bit too much contrast for my liking, making this one the worst of the crop.

My rating: 6/10 stars.

How would you rate these shirts?