Fans furious over clash of kit colours in US v Belgium friendly

A clash of kit colours caused confusion for players and made it difficult for fans watching on TV to tell the teams apart as World Cup co-hosts, the U.S., ​were accused of being responsible for a mix-up in a 5-2 friendly defeat ‌by Belgium on Saturday.

Both teams used the match to launch the new kit they will wear at the June 11 to July 19 World Cup, which is also being held in Canada and Mexico.

The U.S. sported a ​design that pulls directly from the red and white stripes in the American flag, while ​Belgium wore their away kit, which was light blue with pink accents.

“Sometimes ⁠you had to look twice, especially if you wanted to play quickly,” Belgian winger Jeremy Doku ​told his national television afterwards. “I would have preferred clearer colours.”

American captain Christian Pulisic said it was ​difficult to deal with.

“A lot of times you get the ball, and you look up, you can’t really lock in on something. You can only base it on the colour of the shirt. That’s how it works,” ​he told reporters. “And when it’s very similar, it’s difficult.”

Belgian television apologised to viewers after the ​match, with analyst and former Belgian international Marc Degryse criticising organisers.

“Football is a product that needs to be sold. ‌Everything ⁠always has to be better and better, yet they still managed to make the match annoying with the jerseys,” he said.

“This goes completely against the whole commercial aspect. This is really unacceptable.”

US Soccer said pictures of both jerseys were sent to match referees before the match, and at ​no time did they ​indicate they felt there ⁠was a conflict.

Belgian media said on Sunday the fault lay with the hosts, who insisted on playing in their new red and white jerseys, ​which clashed with both Belgium’s first-choice red strip and also the lighter ​away kit.

Both ⁠countries wanted to unveil their new jerseys for the first time, but after becoming aware of the situation, Belgium proposed to play in their traditional red, the reports said.

However, that was not an ⁠option because ​the U.S. shirt also contains a lot of red. ​One solution could have been for the U.S. to play in their dark blue kit, but that did not fit into ​their commercial plan, the reports added.

-Reuters

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