Latvia 2000-02 Home, matchworn v Luxembourg
Latvia 2000-02 Away, matchworn/prepared v Scotland
Latvia 2002-04 Home, matchworn Andrejs Štolcers v ?, 2003 Baltic Cup
Latvia 2004-05 Home, matchworn/prepared?
Latvia 2006-07 Home
Latvia 2012-14 GK, benchworn Kaspars Ikstens v Czechia, 2016 ECQ
Latvia 2020-22 Home, matchworn by Andrejs Cigaņiks v ???
Latvia 2020-22 Away, matchworn by Kristers Tobers v ???
Tramondi aren’t a brand you often hear about, possibly because in the national game they only supplied Latvia for 2 years and then disappeared. The collar and sleeve cuffs are nice material while the material of the shirt is alright too. But, aside from some white trim, there isn’t a lot else to it. The logos are also quite solid for what they are and overall it ends up fairly basic. The Latvian maroon colour is probably the best part of the shirt, at least making it interesting.
2002 World Cup qualifiers failed to bring much joy for Latvia. While they had some close matches and scored in every away game, they finished 5th from 6 teams. Home and away losses to Croatia, Belgium and Scotland meant their only points opportunity was San Marino. A narrow 1-0 away win gave them most of their points, but a 1-1 home draw was not good enough. This left them with the lowest points total of any 5th placed team in UEFA.
Then there’s one of my least favourite Latvia shirts, because the colour is too red. Maroon is the colour of Latvia, where’s it gone here? There’s some white down the sides and on the front of the collar which adds a little, but the strange one is the white sleeve cuffs with the classic Adidas stripes across only that! Almost like they were ashamed to associate themselves with it, and perhaps they should’ve been. The white badge is also a strange one, typically the maroon outline is nicer.
It may not be a great shirt, but it will always be iconic, for it was used across their Euro 2004 qualifiers. Drawn in a group with Sweden, Poland, Hungary and San Marino they shocked everyone by reaching the play-offs! Defeating San Marino home and away would have been expected, trading wins with Poland and Hungary was more of a surprise. A 0-0 home draw and 1-0 away win against Sweden were the pick of the bunch though to leave them 1 point off top spot and 3 ahead of Poland in 3rd. A 1-0 home win followed by a 2-2 away draw against Turkey in the play-offs sent them to their debut Euros!
Next up is the rarest thing in the world: an intact 2006 World Cup qualifying patch! We’re back to the right colour for Latvia, with the deep maroon, and the Adidas stripes return to being across the sleeves. The white accenting now comes in the form of curved stripes on the front of the sleeves and the rear of the shirt. The badge returns to the correct colour scheme, though the logos and number are all centred, which leaves a bit too much clear space perhaps? A better shirt, but great is still somewhere far off in the distance.
The design is the other iconic design, being seen at Euro 2004 and across 2006 World Cup qualifiers. In Euro 2004 they lost 2-1 and 3-0 to Czechia and the Netherlands, who both went onto the semi-finals, and managed a 0-0 draw with Germany to register points in their debut! In 2006 World Cup qualifiers they beat Liechtenstein and Luxembourg and lost to Portugal home and away. Sadly, home draws against Slovakia, Russia and Estonia were followed up with away losses and they finished 5th from 7, 2 points behind Estonia but 7 points ahead of Liechtenstein (and 8 off play-offs).
Replica Latvia shirts have embroidered badges and the detail to it makes it look very nice on the shirt. The material of the shirt is also interesting, with the shirt material being a grid pattern across the entire shirt. The strangeness comes from the asymmetry with the white collar melting down the right shoulder and all the way down the right side. It definitely looks a little strange, but it is certainly eye-catching.
Used across Euro 2008 qualifiers, Latvia finished 5th from 7 teams in their group. They lost home and away to Denmark, Spain and Sweden, as expected. However, they traded 1-0 wins with Northern Ireland. Sadly, they lost 1-0 away in Liechtenstein, but did win 4-1 at home. The highlight of the qualifiers were their humiliations of Iceland, beating them 4-0 at home and 4-2 away to finish 4 points clear of them, but 8 short of 4th place.
Next up, a gold goalkeeper shirt! Subtle horizontal stripes across the front help remove any thoughts of plainness along with the interesting gradient effect on the numbers. There’s a slight white trim on the inside of the hem and sleeve cuffs along with the start of the sleeves, as well as the traditional Adidas stripes. Other than that, not much to it, no pattern on the rear of the shirt but a nice (albeit small) non-transfer badge.
Though this shirt was prepped for a Euro 2016 qualifier, where the #1 used a different kit (oh Latvia), this design saw use across 2014 World Cup qualifiers. They were in a group with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece, Slovakia, Lithuania and Liechtenstein, losing home and away to the top two of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Greece. However, they managed a home draw against Slovakia and traded wins with their fellow Baltic nation. The flaw in their campaign came in their away draw to Liechtenstein, though they managed to win at home. They finished in 5th, 3 points short of Lithuania and 6 ahead of Liechtenstein, though they’ll have hoped for more.
Latvia’s latest shirt is superb: bold stripes across the shoulders, a slightly lighter, digital camouflage effect across the front, an updated FA badge and detailing under the collar and at the back. The classic deep maroon colour is beautiful, though it could perhaps benefit from a little more detail on the rear of the shirt. Really well put together and a big improvement on some of their recent home shirts, for sure. The away mixes things up with the Adidas stripes down the sides and two backgammon patterns angled across the front to mix things up a bit. Two very decent kits for a nation who so often have had templates.
Used across the 2020-21 Nations League (and so far across 2022 World Cup qualifiers) , Latvia struggled in League D. In a group with the Faroes, Malta and Andorra they drew 4 of their first 5 games, with their only win coming against Andorra in their final game, though it was then 5-0. They showed that they could get results but fell short, finishing in 3rd. They’ll be expected to do better next season, but their failure to get promoted will be a concern.
Typically the men’s senior team has done reasonably well in their qualifiers, with the spectacular Euro 2004 qualification and them coming within 3 points of a play-off spot for 2010 World Cup qualifiers. Until 2016 qualifiers they’ve always won at least 3 games in Euro qualification. However, they have tended to be nearer the bottom of their qualification groups than the top and have deteriorated since 2012 with only 5 wins from 4 qualification campaigns. This is highlighted by their Nations League performances where they have finished 3rd in League D twice, winning only a single game and drawing 8 times. A spectacular run of 4 consecutive Baltic Cups from 2012-2018 allowed them to retake their title lead off Lithuania, with 13 titles (to Lithuania’s 10) from 27 cups but they shockingly lost the 2021 title to Estonia. As with the other Baltic nations they were at the 1924 Olympics, getting thrashed 7-0 by France and they beat Lithuania but lost to Austria to fail to qualify for the 1938 World Cup.
On the women’s side Latvia fall far shorter, sadly. They first tried to qualify for Euro 1995, but their 4 losses discouraged them so much that they next showed up in Euro 2009 qualifying! They tried to qualify for every Euros since and the 2015 and 2019 World Cups. They were in every preliminary qualifying round, except for Euro 2022 qualifiers which didn’t have one, but have only come within 2 points of qualifying for the main group stages twice (2017 and 2019). They lost every game in Euro 2022 qualifiers. Winning all three Baltic Cups from 2017-19 bolsters their stats but they remain the lowest placed Baltic nation in the standings after Lithuania’s 2021 win. Onto men’s youth football, the U21s had a brief peak with senior team, registering several double figure qualifying campaigns but have since fallen into obscurity, fighting at the very bottom. The U19s have reached the elite round 3 times, missing out on the 2018 Euros on goal difference alone, but typically do poorly. The U17s have reached the elite round twice, doing similarly. All three youth teams hold the record number of titles in the youth Baltic Cups though, proving their dominance back home. At women’s youth level they’ve beaten Armenia, Georgia and Estonia but goals and points are rare to come by and they’ve never troubled the teams that reach the elite rounds.
They’ve not participated in the Euro Beach Soccer League to date but Latvia have been semi-active in the UEFA World Cup qualifiers. They’ve won once, against the Netherlands but in one of the most ridiculous formats ever, have actually been to the Round of 16 twice, when 2019 saw every team from groups D and E qualify. Spain annihilated them 14-2. Futsal has proven more fruitful, with Latvia being good enough to make the main qualifying round, though not good enough to do well there and prevent them having to start in the preliminary round. Stuck in the middle of development, they’re yet to progress further. Back in the Baltics though, they’ve won 7 of the 9 tournaments, falling to invitees Finland once and Lithuania another time.
In a group with Turkey, Netherlands, Montenegro, Norway and Gibraltar they were only really expected to compete for second-last, a position they would comfortably take, even pressing Montenegro for 4th. Their matches were all tight, losing at most by 2 goals, and they grabbed 3 away draws against Norway, Montenegro and Turkey (at 3-3, initially preserving their unbeaten record against them technically stretching back to 1924, though they’d later lose this). A good performance, hopefully one to build on.
Adam's National Shirt Collection 