Bulgaria

Bulgaria 2002-03 Home Matchworn/prepared
Bulgaria 2016-17 GK
Bulgaria 2016-17 Home

Fairly plain but ok. That sums up this shirt. The badge is good, solid, rather than embroidered which makes the detail on it cleaner. Pumas and flags on both sleeves is pleasingly symmetrical and all the flag colours are incorporated with red and green sections. But overall, there’s not much to it. Feels very white and has green stitching around the red sections which doesn’t look great. Can’t really explain but it just feels a little disappointing.

The shirt was used across Euro 2004 and 2006 World Cup qualifying. Euro 2004 kicked off with a 5-0 loss to Sweden. Things improved, but not enough, with 2-0 and 2-1 losses to Denmark and Italy respectively. Both saw very late 2nd goals for their opponents. 3 away draws in World Cup qualifying would rarely be good enough and 2 home and 1 away losses meant that the qualifying spots were beyond reach. 1 point off Croatia and none off Sweden along with points dropped to Hungary and Malta (6 points taken from Iceland) was just about enough for 3rd in the group.

Last and very much not least we have the lovely home and GK shirts. The home has the striped pattern that builds up further and further down the shirt, flag coloured collar sleeve cuffs and red shoulders. The GK shirt is much plainer but has deep gold logos and a subtle roaring lion on it. The typeface is also quite nice, with each marked for players from the correct qualification period (yes, they used #13 as a main GK for several games). Two really nice shirts there.

These were used in 2018 World Cup qualifying, where in a group with France, Sweden, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belarus, they only dropped points to France at home in a 1-0 loss. However, appalling away form doomed them to 4th, with heavy losses to France, Sweden and the Netherlands as well as a 2-1 loss to Belarus and a 1-1 draw in Luxembourg. 1 point from 4 away games was never going to be good enough, but they were secure in 4th.

These results are fairly typical of modern day Bulgaria, where they can take a few results here and there and rarely threaten to finish in the bottom few positions, but only have that Euro 2004 qualification since 2000. Their history, however, is a hard one to match, with 7 World Cup qualifications leading to a 4th place in 1994 and the Round of 16 in 1986, though only 2 Euros qualifications, in 1996 and 2004, both with them failing to escape the groups. Much earlier they took 3 of 10 Balkan Cups before 1950 (and the 1976 edition, only 2 since 1950) and took silver at the 1968 Olympics with bronze at 1956. Despite being comfortably promoted to League B of the Nations League, their Euro 2020 qualification performance wsa very poor, with 6 points from 8 games.

Despite coming fairly close in the 90’s, their women’s side has never qualified for the Euros or World Cup. Their participation is a little sporadic too, with them not entering several sets of qualifiers. These days they tend to occupy the lowest rungs of women’s football. Their men’s youth teams have met with some success, but nothing recent, with 3 U19 Euros (and 4 further top 3s) along with a series of knockout stage participations across the 70’s for the U21s. Since then they’ve managed 5 U17 qualifications between 1985 and 1991 and hosted the 2015 edition. They’ve been active in women’s youth football, getting to the Elite round for the U19s and hosting the U17 tournament (lost every game) in 2019, but otherwise have been consistently competitive at the bottom of their qualifying groups.

They’ve never qualified for a major futsal competition, though have had some competitive finishes in the earlier rounds and have never won a beach soccer World Cup qualifier. However, they’ve done well in League B of the Euro Beach Soccer League, competing for promotion several times but never making it.

Bulgaria are not expected to compete for 2022 World Cup qualification, but are likely to take a result or two and aren’t to be underestimated at home. Their most likely outcome is to be kingmakers to take some crucial points off a competitor to prevent them qualifying.

Brazil

Brazil 2006-07 Home Matchprepared?
Brazil 2018 Home

Disappointing is the word that comes to mind. It does for every Brazil shirt for a long time. Numbers but no name, plain yellow across the board and a bit of green for the sleeve cuffs and collar. “Brasil” on the back of the collar and the stars on the inside of it are a little extra but there’s really nothing to speak about here. The numbers are quite nice though, even if the 5s are terribly placed.

Mainly used at the 2006 World Cup, the defending champions Brazil confidently swept the group stage, beating Croatia 1-0, Australia 2-0 and Japan 4-1. Ghana were swept aside 3-0 but a defensive lapse in the quarter-finals led to a 1-0 loss to France. A little disappointing from their standards, but hardly something that can be complained about.

Wait, isn’t this exactly the same shirt? Nope! Collar has a little bit more green on it and the green of the shirt is a slightly different shape. Ooh, innovative… Best part of the shirt is the arrowed air holes down the sides which are both practical and nice to look at. But really, when the best your shirt has is the inside of the badge has a nice design on it then you’ve surely failed.

Used at the 2014 World Cup there were big expectations for Brazil as the home side. Despite a slightly shaky start, they beat Croatia 3-1, drew 0-0 with Mexico and then took Cameroon 4-1. A 1-1 draw with Chile lead to penalties and a superb free kick helped dispatch Colombia 2-1. Despite some imperfect play, Brazil were in the semi-finals against Germany. Injuries to defensive stalwart Thiago Silva and attacking phenom Neymar devastated them and Germany took them to pieces in one of international football’s most shocking results. Still reeling from a 7-1 defeat, the Netherlands took and held an early lead to relegate Brazil to 4th place in a 3-0 defeat.

From those results you could be forgiven for thinking Brazil aren’t world beaters, but as everyone knows, they were much are. They’ve been to every World Cup, only not escaped the group stages twice (1930 and 1966) and have five titles from seven finals! Two 3rd and two 4th places show just how dominant the side has been across history, though with their last title in 2002, if they don’t win in 2022 they’ll be in their longest gap between titles. Slightly less dominant locally, Brazil have 9 Copa América titles and 11 further finals, with their 40 year gap (4 lost finals) the most punishing factor in their race for honours. Add to this 4 Confederations Cup titles, 4 Pan American Games and 2 Olympics silvers along with countless, countless friendly tournament honours and they’re one of the most titled teams on the planet.

Their women’s side are only barely less prestigious. They’ve been at every Women’s World Cup, only not escaping the group stages in the first two. Additionally, despite the comparative dominance of certain teams, Brazil managed 3rd place in 1999 and 2nd in 2007. 7 Copa América Femenina titles from 8 tournaments with only a draw to Colombia and two losses to Argentina to mar 44 games! Being Brazil, they wouldn’t just leave it at that though, with 2 Olympic silvers (and three 3rds), 3 Pan-American Games, runners-up in everything from the Algarve Cup, through the SheBelieves Cup to the Women’s Gold Cup and 7 titles from 9 of their own friendly tournament. Do things calm down a bit in the youth teams? Ha. Hahaha. AHAHAHA. Not in the slightest, Brazil are terrifying. 4 Olympic medals (1 gold), 7 of 13 titles in the CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament, 5 U20 World Cups from 9 finals, 11 CONMEBOL U20 titles from 18 finals, 4 U17 World Cups from 6 finals, 12 CONMEBOL U17 titles from 15 finals and 5 CONMEBOL titles from 7 finals. There really is nothing to do but list their titles. On the women’s side they add in all 8 CONMEBOL U20 titles (0 losses from 51 matches!), 3 consecutive U20 Women’s World Cup semi-finals (one 3rd) and 3 CONMEBOL U17 titles from 5 finals (1 group stage exit), though recent performances in the World Cups have been poor from both levels.

Maybe Brazil let up in futsal or beach soccer, variants they created or all but created. Ah, maybe not then. Kings and Queens of futsal they have an insane number of titles that it is practically faster to list what they didn’t win. 2 AMF World Cups, 5 of 8 FIFA World Cups, all but 3 South American titles, an absurd number of minor tournaments, all but 1 of the South American youth titles and the women don’t appear to have lost a competitive game in FIFA, winning all 6 World titles and the 5 of 6 CONMEBOL tournaments they bothered entering. They also have an AMF World Cup and both U20 CONMEBOL titles to date too. They are the team to beat, no matter the level. They’re similar in beach soccer, with an U20 title and an U20 runners-up from the 2 tournaments but the senior side continue the title streaks. Before FIFA came in they won 9 of 10 possible titles and since then have only managed a measly 5 titles from 10 tournaments… 7 CONMEBOL titles, another from CONCACAF/CONMEBOL and regular titles from invitational tournaments, their least successful is the Intercontinental Cup where they’ve “only” won as many titles as Iran and Russia by taking a third of them all (playing in 7 of 9). Football is in their blood.

2022 World Cup qualification is simple in format, complex in execution. Everyone in CONMEBOL in a giant round robin group. Brazil are expected to qualify but every team gets shaky results from nowhere. Naturally, they’ve ignored that and started perfectly with 6 wins from 6 games, though they’ve only played against 1 of the regular qualifiers.

Belarus

Belarus 2011 Home, matchworn by Uladzimir Khvashchynski, 2011 U21 Euros
Belarus 2014-15 (W) Home (dubious)

Ok, this one’s a bit of a strange one. We have the angular slice of green which is a nice way of adding the other main colour of Belarus. But the white stripe feels a little out of place, the red triangle down from the collar splits it up a bit too much and there’s a random red half stripe on one side. It isn’t exactly cluttered, but a bit messy around the collar. Otherwise, the green on the sleeves work, the diagonal stripes of aeration are alright and it works reasonably. But it feels like they tried to do too much when what they had would’ve worked.

Used only by the U21s at the 2011 U21 Euros, Belarus edged into the knockout stages by the finest of margins. Switzerland topped the group on 9 points, but the other 3 teams all had 3 points, 3 goals scored and 5 goals conceded. However, Belarus went through by virtue of having the best goal difference against Iceland and Denmark. A late Spanish goal took their semi-final to extra time where the Spanish won, but they edged the Czechs to qualify for the 2012 Olympics!

Next up is a dubious shirt, so I won’t spend long on it. A white half-stripe is all there is, beyond that lovely, detailed badge. Nice typeface for the numbers too but otherwise it is red and that’s about it! White collar and sleeve cuffs were desperately needed to add some life but there’s really not much here. Looks like what the players used so is anything from fake to matchworn…

Used across at least 2015 World Cup qualification and 2017 Euros qualifiers, the Belarusian women finished 2nd last in both, defeating North Macedonia and Montenegro home and away while defeating Slovenia at home. However, all their other games were defeats, typically narrower at home but they regularly suffered away.

Success certainly doesn’t sum up the men’s team from Belarus, but disaster would certainly be harsh. While their results have been fairly variable at times, with several campaigns ending at the foot of the table, they have several 4th places in their qualifying group history. The 2002 World Cup qualifiers brought them within 2 points of the play-offs, the closest they’ve come to a major tournament. Their first Nations League season brought promotion from League D, winning home and away against Luxembourg and San Marino but drawing twice to Moldova. They were a point short of Albania in League C the next season, narrowly missing out on League B football. They might not be hugely successful, but underestimate them at your peril!

The women’s side are fairly variable, having done everything from competing with the bottom side only to narrowly missing out on play-off spots. They’ve never qualified for a tournament but have been within 3 points and within 6 points of a play-off spot. They’ve only finished bottom of a qualification group once, though more regularly have poorer qualification attempts than good ones. Definitely some potential there. The men’s youth teams continue the odd trend. The U21s have been to 3 Championships, with 2 group stage exits and one 3rd place (1 win and two losses at the 2012 Olympics) while the U19s have never been, regularly not reaching the elite round for qualifying and tending to perform poorly when there. The U17s qualified on their first attempt, won their group at the 1995 tournament before being knocked out by Denmark, never to return to date. Variable is the right word. The women’s youth teams have made the elite qualifying round 3 times but also gamed the system by each level hosting a Euros tournament. Both scored a single goal and lost all three matches comfortably.

Futsal has brought a single Euros appearance for Belarus (in 2010), where they were thrashed by Spain but drew with Portugal and lost out to the latter on goal difference to be knocked out. They’ve reached several play-offs for further tournament spots but not managed to convert any of their opportunities. Certainly a reasonable side, expect to see them at future tournaments. They similarly fell short in women’s futsal, reaching the main qualifying round and finishing 3rd in their group. Beach soccer, in contrast, has them high up in UEFA. They’ve twice won their stage in Division A of the Euro Beach Soccer League and regularly do well in World Cup qualification. This culminated in a 3rd place in qualification for the 2019 World Cup, allowing them to debut at the tournament where they finished 3rd in their group, acquitting themselves well against Russia and Senegal as well as beating the UAE. Definitely a side to expect to see more of in future.

While Belarus are not expected to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, there is a slim chance at them competing with Wales and the Czechs for the play-off spot. Belgium will be out of reach and Estonia should be dealt with so their competitiveness against those two seems most important. Failing that, kingmakers will be their expected role as they are never easy to play when they’re at home.

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