Costa Rica 2

 

Celso Borges (AIK, Sweden)
vs. Netherlands (0:0, 3:4 pen) | World Cup | 2014 in Brazil

As a German, the 2014 was a truly incredible tournament for me, naturally. It was the only time in my lifetime that I have seen us lifting a World Cup trophy, after all. That is hard to beat. But during the tournament, I have to admit that I was not that convinced and fascinated by the German team. They played a quite mediocre group stage and a terrible first knock-out match against Algeria. My favourite, instead, was tiny Costa Rica. The got drawn into a group of death with Italy, England and Uruguay, a team that finished fourth in the previous world cup. They literally had no chance - and took it. They started by beating Uruguay 3:1, continued by stunning Italy with a 1:0 victory and finally got a goalless draw to top their group. Even better, they played thrilling, mostly offensive football that really got my attention first and my love second. 

The match that really had an impact on me, though, was the Round of 16 match vs. Greece that followed. It was an unlucky 1:1 for Costa Rica, which was the better team over 120 minutes, and ended on penalties. They won on penalties, scoring all five and I will never forget how the coach explained their strategy later. He said that after 120 minutes, every player will be exhausted. Given the scope of the match, he will also be nervous and insecure stepping up to the penalty point. In that atmosphere, many players are finding it mentally hard to still trick the keeper by looking the other way or trying to read the movement of the keeper. Thus, he told the players to just switch off their mind and hammer the ball on the goal with all the power they still have in them. They are all football professionals and will be able to hit the goal somehow, even with a powerful shot and after 120 minutes of open play. The shot might be saved or they slip and fail - but that's fine. They will just not be mentally challenged and that is more important. It worked like a charm and Costa Rica scored all penalties. They did fail in the next penalty shootout in the Quarter Final vs. the Netherlands, though, in a truly scandalous display of unsporting behaviour. The Dutch keeper should have seen a yellow card for each single penalty, as he kept mocking and disturbing his opponents. Anyways, that's football, too, I guess.

Now this shirt is from that tournament. I jus thad to get it, given how much I rooted for the Costaricans. It cost me around 30€.

Belize 2

Russell Cassanova (San Antonio FC of Corozal)
vs. Honduras (0:1) | Copa Centroamericana | 2013 in Costa Rica

 

If you are reading my blog in one go (which is clearly unhealthy - stop it!) or follow me for ages (which you should), you will have noted that I have a big soft spot for small manufacturers of national teams. Spadd is one such company. It is actually a quite large company, based in Guatemala, that is a market leader in producing corporate uniforms for McDonalds, Pizza Hut, DHL or Bayer. You name it. On top of that, they also produce custom sportswear, but are largely unknown in this domain. Only once, they actually equipped a national football team - Belize for a brief period in 2013.

Back then, my mate Eric did buy some Belize shirts off them. I passed on the order back then, mostly for being a poor student, but also as I just got a matchworn retto shirt of Belize, another small unknown manufacturer. Yet, it did somehow hurt, as the design is quite nice and unique and I am missing a very unique company, after all. It was years later, roughly a decade, when Eric just sent me this shirt over, as a gift, if I recall correctly. Thanks, Eric, I absolutely freaking love this piece!

Anguilla 2 & 3

 

Unknown Players
vs. Trinidad and Tobago (0:15) | Friendly | 2019 in Trinidad and Tobago

 

Unknown Players
vs. Puerto Rico (2:3) | CONCACAF Nations League | 2019 in Anguilla

Quite often, small teams far down the FIFA world ranking are having terrible shirts. It seems like Adidas, Puma and Nike just dump their leftover templates to the bottom teams of the world ranking and forces them to cheaply add a little logo on it themselves. That is not true for Anguilla, at all. Somehow, the small British colony in the Caribbean always had absolutely incredible shirts. The first one I presented here, made by Fana, already had the three dolphins of the Anguillan flag all over the shirt - and these two from Pr1mo are copying that style, adding plenty of colours to it.

For me, there were two main reasons to spend 100 USD for both shirts combined: First, my first Anguilla shirt was probably worn by the women's national team, but not the men's team. I don't think that's a deficit, but of course I do have the ambition that I have a shirt worn by the first A men's national team nevertheless. These two filled that gap. Secondly, the shirt is made by Pr1mo, a small sportswear company based in Montreal, Canada. Pr1mo never sponsored and equipped any other team, as far as I am aware, which makes them one of those unique and rare manufacturers I love so much. Also, did I mention the design is just outstanding?