Fans attending the four group-stage matches of the FIFA World Cup at Hard Rock Stadium now know which colors to wear to support their teams, including appearances by Brazil, Colombia and Portugal all wearing classic colors.
FIFA also announced the introduction of special patches that will honor Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who will be making their sixth World Cup appearances.
FIFA revealed kit assignments for all 72 group-stage matches of the tournament, including the co-host United States opening against Paraguay on June 12 in red- and white-striped jerseys with white shorts.
Previous winners of the World Cup will play their opening matches in their traditional colors. Defending champion Argentina, for example, will wear blue and white stripes when it plays Algeria on June 16. And Brazil’s players will wear their iconic yellow jerseys with white shorts for their appearance at Hard Rock.
The matches in Miami Gardens open with Saudi Arabia, all clad in dark green, facing Uruguay, in light blue jerseys and white shorts, on June 15.
Uruguay will switch to navy blue shorts for its June 21 match vs. Cape Verde, which will be in all-red kits.
On June 24, Brazil will face Scotland, which will wear navy blue jerseys and shorts.
And the highly anticipated group-stage finale at Hard Rock on June 27 will feature two teams in their legendary kits. Colombia will wear yellow jerseys with red trim along with blue and yellow shorts when it plays Portugal, in all red with olive green trim.
Continuing with its effort to pay homage to previous World Cup champions, England will be in all white against Croatia; France in a navy blue and white against Senegal; Germany in white with black, red and gold features against debutants Curaçao; Spain in red and blue against first-timers Cape Verde; and Uruguay — the first-ever FIFA World Cup winner — in light blue against Saudi Arabia.
Special assignments also have been issued for teams making their World Cup debuts. Cape Verde will wear all white for its first match, Curacao in all blue, Jordan in white with red trim and Uzbekistan in white.
FIFA said in general, it prefers to assign each team to its primary colors but must adjust for certain matches to assure a contrast between the teams.
Players will wear the competition badge on their right sleeve and a message for social impact on their left. In the group stage, that message will be “Unite for Peace,” followed in latter stages by “Unite for Education” and “Football Unites the World,” which will be worn in the consolation match in Miami Gardens and the final in New Jersey.
FIFA also is introducing at this tournament patches for individual achievements. Players making their debut will sport a FIFA World Cup debut patch. Other patches will celebrate past winners of the Golden Boot, Golden Ball and Golden Glove with a gold honors patch. Additionally, the FIFA World Cup legacy patch will pay tribute to legends of the tournament — those featuring in their fifth or, in the cases of Messi, Ronaldo and Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa, sixth FIFA World Cups.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: World Cup: FIFA reveals kits to be worn for each group-stage match
Reporting by Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
