Canada 1993-95 Home
Canada 1998-99 Home matchworn?
Canada 2004-05 Away
Canada 2018 Home
Canada 2018 GK
Is it bad to say I have no idea what’s going on here? Across the top of shirt and sleeves there’s this dramatic swirling pattern of white on the red and it doesn’t appear to have much cohesion or meaning. But, it looks cool rather than messy? I like it, I just can’t really articulate why! That the pattern stops entirely on the back is a little disappointing though. The Canada logo can get a little hidden by being so small, but just in case it is tiled across the entire shirt in a jacquard pattern. Even in a slightly odd period for them, 90’s Canada can’t really get boring.
Score Sports appear very briefly in the Canadian kit timeline, with this shirt catching the end of 1994 World Cup qualifiers (along with the 1993 Gold Cup). The Gold Cup was short, with Canada drawing 1-1 with Costa Rica and 2-2 with Martinique as an ok start, but then getting annihilated 8-0 by Mexico to go out. The final stages of World Cup qualifiers had them comfortable over Honduras and El Salvador, but again would fall short of Mexico to send them into a play-off against Australia. Despite two close 2-1 matches, Canada would fall in the shootout and the Australians would make the finals.
Oh Canada, bring back old Umbro please. The 90’s were Canada’s highlight for shirts, with some spectacular Umbro designs including this specimen. Classic Canadian red with a black banded white stripe standing out clearly on front and back would normally be a good talking point but is blown out of the water by the giant maple leaves for the numbers. Beautiful shirt, with a few little additions such as a maple leaf and Canada (in the traditional font from the 80’s shirts) on each of the sleeves. The only downsides are the heavy collar and sleeve cuffs, that can be dealt with. Spectacular shirt.
The men’s senior side only used it in a singular friendly, but it was more widely used by the youth and women’s sides. Main evidence appears to suggest that it was used in the 1999 U17 CONCACAF Tournament, where Canada were drawn in a group with Mexico, El Salvador and Trinidad and Tobago. They were eliminated by a 4-0 loss to Mexico followed by a 2-0 loss to El Salvador, but did manage to hammer Trinidad and Tobago 6-0 to regain some of their honour.
Next up we have this weirdly common away shirt. I’ve so rarely seen the home but there are millions of aways. Not much to this standard Adidas template, with the classic stripes being black, rather than red, though at least there’s enough red on the shirt. Lots of blank space here, though the FA logo has nicely contrasting colours. Very plain from Adidas here.
Used across both the 2005 Gold Cup and 2006 World Cup qualifying, the shirt oversaw a disappointing period in Canadian football. In the Gold Cup they fell 1-0 to Costa Rica and 2-0 to the USA to eliminate them, before beating Cuba to regain a little honour. In World Cup qualification they comfortably dealt with Belize with two 4-0 wins but then were drawn in a group with Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras. They recorded only 5 points from their 6 games, finishing bottom, by drawing twice with Honduras and edging Guatemala away.
Canada did bring Umbro back, but modern Umbro were not anywhere near as entertaining. Looks a little like someone smeared Vaseline all over the top of the shirt, but on closer inspection it is vaguely like a pile of maple leaves which does work a little. It is also constrained, though whether or not that works is more up for debate. And really that’s all there is to it. It ends up a little too monotonously red to be too interesting, but has just enough to avoid plain. The GK shirt is plain, but it is also bright enough to be visible from space, so I wanted it.
Clearly realising they weren’t exactly onto a winner, Canada barely used the shirt. It saw action across most of Nations League qualifying, where Canada would cheerfully dismantle the US Virgin Islands and Dominica, before edging St Kitts and Nevis, with a different shirt in place by the time they beat French Guiana to qualify for League A! The women’s team used it in the 2018 CONCACAF Championship where they’d put two past Jamaica and 12 past Cuba without reply, before conceding in a 3-1 win over Costa Rica. Their 7-0 semi-final victory over Panama can’t be called anything but comfortable and the US promptly beat them 2-0 in the final. All about as expected, but at least the shirt existed in more matches!
The men’s senior side are typically more competitive than several of these examples. They qualified unbeaten for the 1986 World Cup (lost all games narrowly) and fell in the play-offs on penalties for the 1994 World Cup against Australia. On some recent occasions they’ve struggled to make the final qualifying stage though, including an infamous result where, needing only a point, they lost 8-1 to Honduras. Their 2022 World Cup qualification was a welcome return to the global stage, but results at the finals were somewhat lacklustre. The Gold Cup has provided a little more success, with championships in 1985 and 2000 and semi-finals in 1977, 1981, 2002 and 2007. After a few group stage exits they’ve started to return to the knockout stages, however. Behind the USA on goal difference alone in division A of the Nations League, they lost the next season’s final to the same opposition, though would fall immediately in the play-offs of the latest season on away goals to Jamaica.
The women’s side are considerably more terrifying. They’ve been to every World Cup except 1991, coming 4th in 2003 and reaching the knockout stages twice more since. Despite being in a confederation with the ever dominant USA team, they also have 2 titles (and 5 other finals too).5/5 top four positions in the Pan-American games, 2 Algarve Cup finals (1 title), 7 Cyprus Cup finals (3 titles) and numerous other medals really cement their credentials. On the men’s youth side, the U23s have never made the Olympics but the other youth teams more than make up for this. 8 U20 semi-finals in CONCACAF (2 titles) have led to 8 World Cups, including 2 round of 16 exits while 14 (from 17!) semi-finals, though mostly 3rd places, led to 7 World Cups, though all without progression. The U15s reached the semi-finals in both of their attempts. The women’s youth teams also have their successes, with two U20 titles and a title from each of the U17s and the U15s in CONCACAF with only 3 failures to reach the semi-finals. They finished 2nd in the inaugural U20 Women’s World Cup and 4th in the 2018 U17 edition, marking them as a definite force.
Futsal and beach soccer haven’t been as major a focus for Canada but they play both. In futsal they played the inaugural World Championship in 1989, only beating Japan and falling by 2 goals to both Belgium and Argentina. In CONCACAF they managed to edge El Salvador and USA in the 2012 and 2016 play-offs but then only have a sole victory against Curaçao to show for it. Beach soccer is a little better, with a 2nd place finish at the inaugural CONCACAF tournament (short on goal difference and head-to-head alone) qualifying them for the 2006 World Cup. They fell comprehensively to eventual champions Brazil in the quarter-finals and have placed bottom half in CONCACAF in the 4 tournaments they’ve attended since.
Drawn in the initial qualifying stage for 2022, Canada were both comfortable and confident. Easy victories against all 4 of their opponents (Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Aruba and Suriname) led to a 4-0 aggregate victory over Haiti for a spot in the Octagonal. Not necessarily expected to qualify, they topped the group with superb home form, only dropping points at home to Honduras and grabbing a decent mix of results away too.
Adam's National Shirt Collection 