There was plenty to talk about after the United States men’s national team suffered a brutal 5-2 loss to Belgium on Saturday. But underlying the USMNT’s harsh reality check was another issue: the surprising similarity between the two team’s jerseys.
The USMNT was debuting one of its new kits for the 2026 World Cup: a white jersey with red stripes that emulate the American flag. But Belgium wore their away kit, which was also white with pink and light blue accents.
Up close, the two jerseys look nothing alike, but from a distance, the red accents and pink accents on the white jersey look far more similar. The result was a game where the main distinguishing factor was in the shorts: Belgium’s shorts were white, while the U.S.’s were dark blue.
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Postgame, USMNT midfielder Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie both said that the jersey issue wasn’t “an excuse” for their poor performance, but both noted that it made the game a bit more “difficult.”
“That just can’t happen. It was a bit strange. It was very difficult. I didn’t know until we took off the pre-match shirts and then saw it and everyone was a bit shocked,” Pulisic said postgame. “When you a lot of times you get the ball, you look up like and you can’t really like lock in on someone. You only can base it off the color of the shirt. That’s how it works. And when it’s very similar, it’s difficult.”
“Whenever you do a quick glance to tell which was which, it was almost like a fifty-fifty thing,” McKennie added. “So you definitely had to maybe take a little bit more time on the ball before you made a decision or play one-touch to a player.”
Belgium, despite getting the dominant win, reportedly also agreed: Midfielder Amadou Onana told The Athletic that the jersey clash was “awful,” and Belgium goalkeeper Senne Lammens told the outlet that he brought up the issue to Belgium’s equipment staff at halftime.
However, per The Athletic, though both teams considered changing jerseys, neither team’s alternate jerseys were available. The Athletic reports that the USMNT considered going to get their other jerseys from the team hotel during the first half, but they would not have been able to bring them back in time.
A U.S. Soccer spokesperson told ESPN that the jerseys were approved by both teams and the referees multiple times ahead of the game, and that the referees did not find issue in the jersey matchup.
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The USMNT’s other jersey, dark blue with stars, would have certainly served as better contrast to Belgium’s away kit. Natalie McKeough, a color designer with Nike who worked on the jersey, wrote on social media that the U.S.’s stripes jersey was approved as “the light kit” by FIFA.
“Whoever approved this matchup messed up fr,” she wrote.
The USMNT will play on Tuesday in another World Cup tune-up against Portugal. But breathe a sigh of relief: The U.S. will probably wear that dark blue kit for that game, leaving a similar clash with either of Portugal’s kits unlikely.
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