Cote d’Ivoire (Away 2014-15)

The last jersey from the very colorful Group C (seriously, is there any group with more shades of color?) is the away jersey from the Cote d’Ivoire, which was generally green. I actually like how the team uses two of the nations three clors for their home and away jerseys. Now, if they would combine them and produce the flag in their kit, that would be truly wonderful. I guess FIFA’s kit police wouldn’t be happy, though. Anyway, I digress …

This is basically the same shirt as the home shirt, just in green instead of orange. Maybe, it would have been nice to make Puma’s pattern for the African teams more visible, but then again this is the simple look I generally advocate. The crest does not stand out as much here, since it is also in green. An orange outline could have helped.

The same goes for the back, so really, read my post on the home jersey for a proper critique.

Likelihood of being featured: 99%
vs. Japan: 1% (Should be 0%, but I leave 1% just to allow for some error)
vs. Colombia: 99% (Same as above, just reversed)
vs. Greece: 25% (Same as above)

A tad boring, but simple. Unlike Cameroon, the Cote d’Ivoire will have to shine on the field to be recognized and that is not a bad thing!

My rating: 7/10 stars.

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Galatasaray SK (Third 2013/14)

Like Manchester City, Galatasaray also used their third jersey rather than their “regular” away jersey in this year’s Champions League. And while they suffered a heavy defeat to Real Madrid in this jersey, they also managed to pick up a vital point in Turin against Juventus (although it might have been more).

The jersey is striped with two different tones of red. The darker is the one featured in the club’s colors, while the lighter red is most probably a reference to red as the national color of Turkey. The stripes are of medium width with the lighter one running down the center and through crest and swoosh. The round shirt collar is in the darker red tone, while the sleeves are in the lighter tone and have a yellow trim. Sponsors and swoosh are applied in yellow, thus reflecting the club’s second color. Overall, things are well arranged on the front, although I think the swoosh could be a tad lower or even exchanged with the Turkish emblem.

For Champions League play, the back also features a wide plate in the lighter red to display names and numbers which are all in yellow as well. The style for the numbers is a bit odd, but acceptable. Towards the end of the jersey, we again see the striped pattern from the front.

This is not a bad jersey, although I think it may have worked better in only the darker red. It still has a somewhat “royal” feel to it. It does reflect the club’s colors, but in a way provides also too little contrast to the home jersey.

My rating: 7/10 stars.

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Chelsea FC (Home 2011/12)

For Flashback Friday I decided to go only a very short while back and look at the 2012 Champions League Final. Having already covered Bayern Munich earlier, there is only one team left: the winner, FC Chelsea. I don’t want to take anything away from Chelsea, but one has to be honest that Bayern somehow managed to lose that final on their home ground. Still, Chelsea played a very defensively sound game and were opportunistic enough to deserve their win. As an old saying goes: the goals you don’t make, you will eventually concede. And so it was. Chelsea salvaged a season in which they arguably should already have been eliminated in the second Champions League round and where they never could mount a serious challenge for the English title. So, let’s have a look at the jersey of that miracle season:

I have to say, despite my joy of Chelsea overcoming Bayern, this was not my favorite Chelsea shirt. While the jersey has the classic blue and nicely follows the color scheme blue with white accents, I do not like two things about it: first the horizontal stripes in two different blue tones on the front (which is not mirrored on the back) and more importantly, the white shoulders. To me, this just looks odd. I think it would look a bit better if the colors were inverted and the shirt was then used as an away jersey, but I am just not a big fan of this one. A Chelsea shirt has to be totally blue with only very minor white on it. Everything else looks fine and I have no qualms about it.

I do like the back better than the front, but the empty white triangle below the collar seems like wasted space. I’d expect a CFC there – at least. ALso the two white stripes on the bottom are a bit out of nowhere. Other than that names and numbers are applied in a nice font.

This jersey will live long in the memory of Chelsea fans, but it is a pity that they won their first Champions League title in a more classic jersey – like the one for the 2013-14 season.

My rating: 5/10 stars.

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Galatasaray SK (Home 2012/13)

The last, but definitely the least team featuring in this year’s Champions League quarterfinals is Turkey’s champion Galatasaray SK. Together with their eternal rival Fenerbahce SK, Cimbom is the most successful club in the Turkish Süper Lig. However, what sets them apart from their Turkish peers is their better track record in Europe. Not only do they reach the latter stages of the Champions League or Europa League more frequently, they also have their UEFA Cup victory 2000 to boast. It is for this fact that I heard about Galatasaray much sooner than about other Turkish teams. The great roar from the much-feared Ali-Sami-Yen stadium was one of the highlights in Europe and that stadium will certainly be missed since the club now has their own modern ground. While this is as sad point for soccer traditionalists like myself, I do like that with their current home jersey Galatasaray near return to their very own classic design.

Traditionally, the Galatasaray home kit is an 8 piece shirt in red and yellow with white shorts and red socks. This means that on the front, the shirt is split in half with the right side being yellow and the left one red. The sleeves are then added in contrasting colors to their adjacent piece. The alternating pattern is also applied to the nice and classic collar as well as the sleeve trims – which actually is not part of the traditional design. I do like the idea for the collar, although it does look a bit funny, but would probably have preferred the sleeves to be in one color. Also, I am not a big fan of the sponsor on the sleeves. Crest and swoosh are nicely placed on the shirt as is the two-lined sponsor. As the Bundesliga, the Turkish Süper Lig has its own way of assigning stars to their most successful cubs. But unlike the Bundesliga, it is a rather straightforward system: one star for 5 titles. With 18 championships, Galatasaray is entitled to three stars. Still, I prefer the Italian system (1 star for 10 titles) more – a star should only be handed out for a World Championship or 10 league titles IMHO.

While the front looks very classic, the back unfortunately breaks a bit with that pattern: First of all the sleeves should have a different color on the back than on the front (i.e. the right sleeve is red on front and yellow on back). This way, the shirt has the opposite look on the back. So that did not happen. Second, while the big red back probably does make name and number more legible, it probably would have shown just fine without it since they are applied in white (I guess UEFA had a say in that one). I would have preferred if the shirt was also evenly split between red and yellow on the back to form the classic pattern. The additional sponsor makes the back loo crowded. I am not particularly fond of the font, but it is fine.

The attempt of returning to a classic design should always be lauded and I really want to do so. However, the back does not totally comply. Still, for many Galatasaray fans all around the world this should be a very welcome return to the old days.

My rating: 8/10 stars.

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