LASK (Home 1996-98)

As my collection is growing, I always wanted to document my shirts and I think this is the perfect opportunity to keep on posting to my blog. In case you are still interested in me rating current shirts, I offer you to come over to my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/MySoccerUniverse and follow me there. Now, I am planning to do these posts in order as they entered my collection which of course is a bit fuzzy esp. at the beginning. But for most cases, I have the order down quite well. But then, for this shirt I am not quite certain whether it is No. 3 or No. 4, but I think I owned it before the one I am going to post next. 🙂

⚽👕#3: LASK Home (1996-1998) 🇦🇹

Acquired: 1996 (Passage Linz – local sports retailer)

Brand: Reebok

Size: X-Large

Version: Fan replica version

Condition: very good (on pull on back and signs of use)

Favorite player: Vidar Riseth 🇳🇴

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Notes: Another quintessential shirt! This one is a true LASK classic and a model of how a proper LASK shirt should look like. It is also helped by the fact that at the time there was a true sense of change around the team and some of my favorite memories of watching the team were in my late teens. In particular the 97-98 season under Norwegian coach Per Brogeland and the then innovative and attractive style of play were a true joy. Heck, we even had the league’s top scorer in Norwegian Geir Frigard. This shirt may also be the first one that I bought with my own money, however I am unsure about the order in which I got my third, fourth and fifth shirt. In any case, I have worn this shirt a lot to LASK games and it is still my go to LASK shirt, so there are quite some signs of wear Interestingly, for the player version, the (then new) crest was one stripe closer to the center and the Reebok logo was centered I order to allow space for the (also then new) league logo resulting in a better look IMHO.

Argentina (Away 1999-2001)

Just when Argentina had a great away shirt, they switched supplier. Adidas out and Reebok in. And the Americans tried to respectfully update the look of the Argentina team – just in time for the 1999 Copa America. Well, not much should be said about this tournament. The team was eliminated in the quarterfinals by eternal rival Brazil, but the true feat of this tournament were the three missed penalties by Martin Palermo against Colombia. However in none of the Copa 1999 games, the new away shirt was worn, which is actually a pity:

Reebok retained the dark blue look, but gave it a new treatment: a white shirt collar replaces the light blue V-neck. The shirt collar is accented with dark blue and light blue stripes. Similarly, the sleeve cuffs of the largely dark blue shirt were also white with a light blue ending. The outstanding feature of the shirt are however the two light blue stripes below the chest with golden AFA lettering in its center. Above the line, the white Reebok logo was on the right, the front number centered just between the collar and the upper blue line and the updated AFA crest proudly displayed on the left. Actually using a shield around the crest was a very nice and classy move.

Argentina also got its very personal lettering style which was reminiscent of the 1986 glory days, but more rounded. The name was displayed in straightforward sans-serif uppercase letters as it had been all through the 1990s. To complement the new look, the jersey was worn with light blue pants and dark blue socks until 2000. Then, for the remaining time of its “shelf life” dark shorts were used to make for a nice all-dark blue look.

Actually, there is not too much wrong with this one. I just think if the band between the two light blue stripes were white it would have made for a more classic look. Also, I find the number on the front to be too much squeezed in between the stripe and the collar. It probably could have looked better if it was used instead of the AFA wordmark. The bands on the collar are certainly a matter of taste and in my opinion date the shirt a bit. All in all, a very decent jersey.

My rating: 8/10 stars.

How do you rate this shirt?

LASK (Home 1996/98)

Today is my brother Wolfgang’s birthday and in his honor I am going to review two jerseys of his choice. Since one of them fits so nicely into Flashback Friday, I will write about it tomorrow, but still for him. However, his first choice also holds a very special place in my heart since it is probably the most iconic jersey of our favorite team: LASK from our hometown Linz.In addition, this is my 77th post. Since this number is one if my “lucky” numbers, I just find it fitting to reserve it for a special jersey.

Some of the most memorable games that I remember from my teenage years have been played in this one. Although it fell apart quickly in November 1998, this was the time when our team finally seemed on the way of assembling a truly great team. One that played extremely entertaining and high-scoring (if often maddening) soccer under Per Brogeland and delivered Austria‘s highest scoring player in the guise of Geir Frigard. It was indeed a semi-Norwegian team back then featuring also Vidar Riseth (my favorite player of these times who also played at the 1998 World Cup), Rune Tangen and for a short period Hai Tran (yes, also a Norwegian). And they played in a jersey that should be a model for all subsequent LASK jerseys.

LASK traditionally plays in black-and-white stripes with a black stripe down the middle and the stripes having medium width. That is exatly what they got in their first year under Reebok. The jersey also had a nice shirt collar that fit in nicely. The single sponsor may not conform to the black-and-white color scheme, but note that red is the accent color and features usually heavily on the Away jersey. So, it just fits and is not too humongous either. The new LASK logo (and yes, we can debate about that one but it has been in use now since 1996) is framed in red and sits exactly opposite of the Reebok logo. If I want to be picky, both maybe should have been on the adjacent black stripe closer to the center, but are still appropriately placed. Also, the sleeves are in all-black. It really does not bother me that they are not striped since it gives the jersey a “cleaner” look, but since it was sometimes worn with white instead of black pants it made this particular combination a bit awkward.

Although not pictured (could not yet find one), the issue with displaying name and number on this striped shirt were very elegantly solved with applying a dark rounded rectangular black patch with red border for the name and a black circle (again with red border) containing the white number which were both in a very nice sans-serif font. I still wish, this way would still be used today.

There are some minor points that could be improved, but for sentimental reasons I am going to ignore them entirely. This shirt is the classic LASK shirt to me (and all my family), so I only can give it full marks.

My rating: 10/10 stars.

How do you rate this shirt?