A clash of jersey colors caused confusion for players and made it difficult for fans watching on TV to tell the teams apart as World Cup co-hosts the US 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 new kit they will wear at the June 11 to July 19 World Cup, which is also being held in Canada and Mexico.
The US 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 colors.”
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 only can base it off the color of the shirt. That’s how it works,” he told reporters. “And when it’s very similar, it’s difficult.”
Belgian television apologized to viewers after the match, with analyst and former Belgian international Marc Degryse criticizing organizers.
“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 US shirt also contains a lot of red.
One solution could have been for the US to play in their dark blue kit but that did not fit into their commercial plan, the reports added.
