Laos 2019-21 Home

Bonaire 2018-19 Home, matchworn/prepared?
Bonaire 2019 Away, matchworn? Women’s u17s v St Lucia?
Bonaire 2022-24 Home, matchworn/prepared

Diagonal sashes are cool. Alternating colours either side definitely help, mimicking the flag nicely. All the logos are embroidered, the collar is nicely elasticated and there are a few details including a gold clover. All told, a very nice shirt, with a lot of detail and it all coming through as very good quality. Typically unexpected for the non-FIFA nations, shirts like this don’t come around often!

This design was worn in their CONCACAF Nations League qualifiers, where they performed fairly well, all things considered. In general, they tired towards the end of their matches, and suffered for it. A 5-0 loss to the Dominican Republic was followed up by a 6-0 loss to Jamaica. These results were to be expected. A late collapse against St Vincent and the Grenadines in a 2-1 loss condemned them to League C but they redeemed themselves by holding on late against the British Virgin Islands to record a 2-1 victory, thanks to a late penalty. They showed they could be competitive, though.

It seems a letdown to then move onto this very basic Adidas template, with these kits’ appearance being a brief and strange one as it is. However, the typeface for the numbers is superb and the Adidas shirts are rare. Black and yellow does work fairly well, but it is a shame the black couldn’t be a prominent flag colour for a personalised touch.

The Adidas kits were used to round off the end of the 2018-19 Nations League, though the yellow was only used at youth level. Bonaire would fight for League C promotion in their first season, beating the British Virgin Islands home and away with late surges in goals (7 goals after the 75^th minute!) but only managing a 2-1 away loss and 1-1 home draw against the Bahamas. With only the group winner getting promoted, Bonaire would finish a comfortable 2^nd.

Returning to the heights of the other Robey shirt, Bonaire delight once again with their use of the flag across the shirt! This time it is used more as diagonal stripes, once again front and rear. A riot of colour, we have the golden clover return and the great logo framed by the flag sash showcases the flag as inspiration for the shirt. With the white sashes being narrower, as on the flag, it all comes together really well.

Used across the 2022-23 and 2023-24 Nations Leagues, Bonaire came bitterly close to promotion in the former. They grabbed matching 2-0 wins over the US Virgin Islands, beating the Turks and Caicos away and drawing with Sint Maarten at home to take a dominant position in the group. However, a devastating 6-1 loss away to Sint Maarten put them in jeopardy and Turks and Caicos beat them 2-1 to finish off their chances of promotion by a point at the death. 2 losses to Saint Martin, one narrow, and 2 wins over Anguilla were just enough to secure the best 2^nd place spot in 2023-24 to secure Bonaire League B football! It’ll be a struggle, but let’s see how they do.

It is hard to generalise Bonaire, since they don’t play very regularly. The deterioration of facilities on the island, a failed FIFA or abortive FIFA application and minimal CONCACAF participation means they’ve rarely played. Victories are, however, rare. In general, they’ve played against other CONCACAF minnows and the Dutch territories of the region. In 2011, they won the ABCS (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Suriname) Tournament by defeating Curacao 3-1 and then Aruba on penalties after a 2-2 draw. Otherwise, they’ve failed to emulate that success, with the Nations League bringing strong results against fellow League C teams, but struggling to make that final leap up into promotion.

Having debuted against club sides in Dutch Caribbean tournaments, the senior women’s side would make their formal debut in 2023 in the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup qualifiers. They struggled, but home wins over Aruba and the Turks & Caicos Islands made for a firm debut. The U17 boys came a distant 2^nd in their group of 5 to miss out on Championship qualification and the U15 boys have proved competitive amongst their fellow minnows and missed out on an attempted promotion battle by a single goal. In contrast their U20 and U17 women’s sides have played a total of 6 matches combined wherein they scored 0 goals and conceded 63. Something to work on there. No U15 side appear to have played and, being ineligible for the Olympics, no U23 sides have ever played.

Futsal doesn’t seem to have caught on, perhaps to do with the fact that people don’t want to run around indoors on the beautiful Caribbean island, but they went to the 2019 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship. The USA and the Bahamas annihilated them (both by 2 figure margins) before they lost 9-4 to Antigua and Barbuda. Again, their late game failed them, as it had been much more closely contested in the early stages.

As they are not a full FIFA member, Bonaire cannot participate in World Cup qualifying, but they are expected in the next season of the Nations League. Their promotion to League B as the best 2^nd place team leaves them in a tough position for next season and they’ll hope to survive.

Botswana 2019-20 Home
Botswana 2021-22 Third

So, Botswana like zebra. Maybe you could guess this from the FA logo, but just in case there are zebra stripe patterns everywhere on the front, with even the sleeve cuffs being black and white! It does feel a little undecided, particularly if you look at some of their older shirts, but it picks a theme and sticks to it. A decent shirt, but feels strangely cautious. Odd to say that about something using 3 colours, but there it is.

Used across 2021 AFCON qualifiers and 2022 World Cup qualifiers, it did not inspire a generation of success. 2022 qualifiers were over almost as they began, with a late penalty in the second leg from Malawi being the only goal of the tie and dumping Botswana straight out. 2021 qualifiers proved a little better, but a single goal loss to each of Zambia, Algeria and Zimbabwe was never going to be helpful Away in Algeria gave them a more devastating loss but an away draw in Zimbabwe and a 1-0 home win over Zambia meant they went home with some pride, albeit in last place.

Next up we have a third shirt, of all things. The faint stripes across the front are simple, but varied enough in spacing and thickness that they work to liven the shirt up despite their lack of complexity. The rear is plain, except for the ZEBRAS at the top. While that is the team’s nickname, it does feel that it could’ve been done a little better. The key part of the shirt, however, is the rearing silhouette of the zebra across the front. It matches the FA (and national) logo, it fits their theme and it isn’t intrusive. It is pretty great!

Definitely used in the 2022 COSAFA Cup, Botswana won all 3 group matches 1-0! The Seychelles, Comoros and Angola didn’t prove to be quite enough preparation for the knockouts though, with a 1-1 draw against Zambia and a 5-4 loss on penalties following in that stage. Relegated to the plate tournament, Botswana were more comfortable in a 2-0 win over eSwatini before falling in the plat final 2-1 against South Africa.

Fairly typical for Botswana, they tend to struggle across the board. Inactive in major tournaments until the 1990’s they’ve not then gone on to make any major impressions. World cup qualifying has, at best, been fairly middling, with some really mixed results. AFCON qualifiers started little better, with them going out in preliminary rounds or finishing bottom of their groups until 2006 qualifiers! Frankly, that state of affairs continued to not be unusual for them. There were some positive results (such as in 2008), however, and 2012 qualifiers brought a seismic shock as Botswana qualified for their first ever AFCON! 1-0 home and away wins over Tunisia (and Chad) were complemented well enough by 2 draws against Malawi and trading wins with Togo for them to top the group! However a 1-0 loss to Ghana and 2-1 loss to Mali would sandwich a devastating 6-1 loss to Guinea and they haven’t been back since. The COSAFA Cup has brought a little extra joy with 3 semi-final losses and 2 final losses, but no silverware.

2002 brought women’s national football to Botswana, as they entered the COSAFA Championship. That went so well (scored 1, conceded 24) that their next tournament attempt would come in 2008 WAFCON qualifiers. Generally results have very much not gone their way with wins few and far between (first WAFCON qualifier win in 2016 qualifiers). However, 2020 Olympic qualifiers saw them stun South Africa on penalties after two 0-0 draws and an away goals progression saw them at the 2022 WAFCON! 2-0 and 1-0 losses to Nigeria and South Africa followed up a 4-2 win over Burundi and they only lost 2-1 to eventual finalists Morocco in the knockouts! A big improvement that couldn’t quite be capitalised on, as they fell in the repechage to get to the World Cup play-offs. In COSAFA they’ve ended up having some success too, with a 4^th place in 2019 and 2^nd in 2020! The U23s and U20s have struggled, even at COSAFA level where they’ve never made a final, but the U17s have managed 3 AFCONs! The first came via Zambia’s disqualification, the second via them hosting it and the third, in 2013 through, astonishingly, 3 penalty shootouts after 2 legged ties! However, they’ve never scored a single point at a finals. As with the senior team, the women’s youth sides have distinctly struggled for results, though did progress in 2022 U17 qualifiers and have had results over Comoros, Namibia, Madagascar and the Seychelles in COSAFA tournaments.

Futsal and beach soccer are yet to be avenues for Botswana, but may be something for the future.

As with other results, not much will have been expected from Botswana in World Cup qualifiers. A drab 1-0 exit on aggregate against Malawi won’t have been received terribly well, but neither will it have been totally unexpected. They’ll hope for better next time out, but qualification for another major tournament will always be a stretch.

Madagascar 2019 Away

Burundi 2019 Home

Guinea 2007-08 Home
Guinea 2017 Home
Guinea 2021 Home, matchprepared v Turkey

Airness are a strange company, football seems to attract such companies. They tend to be reluctant to sell, but make some great designs. For all that this is a template, it is no exception, with the stripe along the front, in the collar and the short one on the right sleeve customised for the nations that wore it. Here we have the Guinean flag, lining up beautifully with the FA logo. Everything bar the logo is sublimated and there’s not much more to talk about, but it works really well. The only real oddity is that the sleeves feel a little longer and narrower than short sleeves traditionally would.

The shirt was mainly used in the 2008 AFCON qualifiers where their opponents were Algeria, Cape Verde and the Gambia. A poor start, with a draw against Algeria and a loss to Cape Verde was followed up by 3 wins from 4 games (drawing at home to the Gambia but otherwise not conceding) to take home the group and qualify, 3 points and 7 goals clear.

Next up we have this effort by Sindio and it is a good one. Fully sublimated is a bit of a shame but the design around the collar and sleeve cuffs is lovely. The front may appear to have only some slight bands of different shades but there’s also a subtle winding pattern across the bottom of the shirt (front and rear!) that really helps add to it. To add a brief splash of colour, there’s also the flag colours in a quick slash to the bottom left of the front of the shirt.

Nice though the design was, it only saw use at the 2017 Francophone Games where Guinea came agonisingly close to the knockout stages. They edged the Ivory Coast 3-2, managed 2-1 over Lebanon but lost 2-1 to Burkina Faso. This left them on 6 points, behind the Ivory Coast on goal difference by a solitary goal.

Lastly we come to a rare supplier in Masita. The Dutch company tended to vary their Guinea shirts a lot, with these early designs having the flag around the collar and dominating the front with the elephant design. Actually works pretty well and is nicely dramatic. However, the rear of the shirt tries a little too hard to look interesting (unlike many shirts where the rear is blank) and tiles a few dozen elephants of exactly the same design all across the back, except for the sleeves. Makes it look very strange, almost like a pair of pyjamas, less sure on that one.

Primarily used across 2022 qualifiers, Guinea didn’t fare spectacularly well. Drawn in a group with Morocco, Guinea-Bissau and Sudan, it was never going to be an easy time and Morocco were definitely the favourites. However, they would have expected to try and fight for that top spot. In actuality they struggled immensely, finishing 3^rd in a draw heavy group, on 4 points without a single win to their name. Morocco romped home on 18 points, beating Guinea home and away by 4 clear goals, leaving them to draw every other match.

The earlier shirts tend to sum up Guinea, they can be very impressive but tend not to make the leap.  They’ve been to 13 African Cup of Nations, finishing 2^nd in 1976 but mainly alternating between the group stages and knockout stages since. There also tends to be gaps in between qualifications for them, with three consecutive qualifications across 2004-08 being their only streak. This lack of ability to break into the top few teams in Africa has cost them in World Cup qualifiers, with them coming close in 1998 and 2006 in particular (1 point off Nigeria in 1998, 4 points off Tunisia in 2006 after 10 games) but many of their results have been middling. In other competitions they have a 2^nd place at the 1973 African Games and 3 CHAN qualifications have led to a 4^th and a 3^rd place.

On the women’s side Guinea have been more consistent than many of their counterparts. Far from perfect in that regard, they have tried to qualify for 7 women’s AFCONs and even participated in the 1991 finals, having been invited. Results have been very poor, with 1 goal scored and 71 conceded from their first 10 competitive games, though they have since beaten Mali and Sierra Leone. Things have improved since but their game time has become patchy. Men’s youth football has brought some strong success for Guinea, with 9 U20 AFCON appearances leading to a 2^nd place, a 3^rd place and a semi-final appearance along with 7 U17 AFCON appearances with three 3^rd place finishes and a 2^nd. These results have led to two U20 and five U17 World Cups, though their sole knockout stage appearance came in a 4^th place finish at the 1985 U17 World Cup. They’ve only played 3 qualification attempts at women’s youth level, never scoring or progressing to date, with the U20s attempting in 2008 and 2018 and the U17s in 2008.

Guinea have been much quieter on the alternative format front. They’ve never played any beach soccer and only showed up in futsal for 2020. The team qualified by walkover over Cape Verde and finished 3^rd in their group. They comfortably beat Mozambique but lost to Angola and heavily to Egypt.

Guinea didn’t have any easy route to the 2022 World Cup play-offs. Their youth performances were good, Morocco had been in shaky form, but their failure to win even a single match coupled with comfortable Moroccan victories meant top spot was well out of sight. One to forget for Syli National.

Malawi 2018-19 Away

Malta 1994-96 Home, matchworn v Norway
Malta 2007-09 Home, matchworn Shaun Bajada v Portugal

90’s Lotto were a mixture of the slightly dull and the spectacular. This Maltese shirt edges more towards the former, though there’s enough to keep the eye on it. A nice, messy pattern across it prevents it from being a uniform colour, though it was a template so there’s no special meaning attached. They do manage the George Cross on each shoulder for a bit of Maltese flavour but otherwise not a lot to this to talk about.

Used across Euro 1996 qualifiers, Malta suffered somewhat. Czechia, Norway and the Netherlands made for a formidable top 3 of the group, though they did take a 0-0 home draw against the Czechs. They would have expected a little more against Belarus and Luxembourg, but despite a 1-1 away draw in Belarus (one of only 2 goals they scored all campaign) they narrowly lost the other 3 matches. 2 goals scored and 2 points from the whole affair left them far adrift at the foot of the group.

Aside from an odd collar and some white trim around the shirt, there’s not too much here, is there? Wrong, because the George Cross stands proudly in the lower section of the shirt. Off centre and drawing the eye, I can’t explain why it works for me, but it really does. Yeah, we’ve got the Diadora logo on the sleeves as well, but the focus is the cross and that’s good. I’m totally unashamed of loving this shirt for reasons I can’t quite articulate.

2010 qualifiers did not go well at all. The managed close 1-0 losses at home to Sweden and Hungary, with a 0-0 home draw to Albania providing a useful point. However, they lost every other match by at least 3 goals, including home and away to Denmark and Portugal, and failed to score a single goal all campaign. The 3^rd worst goal difference in Europe and long distant of their group compatriots, it was one to forget for the Maltese.

For all the criticism that I’d laid on them, these sort of results are not unusual for the Maltese. They have never registered more than 5 points in a single qualifying campaign and typically concede an average of 2-3 per match in doing so. They have, at times, proven to be more dangerous than expected, with several narrow results against very big teams, but converting narrow losses into points has proven tricky so far. In the Nations League they remain competitive in League D, but are yet to gain promotion, despite some close matchups.

After a slow start, their women’s team proved keen on improvement, taking part in multiple friendly tournaments and driving improvement across the board. They struggled for points at first, but the preliminary qualifying stage brought them several strong results and they’re now comfortable in beating the bottom seeds in a group. The inaugural women’s Nations League may have put them in League C, but they comfortably won their group and will taste League B action next time around. The men’s youth teams have a lot of similarities with the senior side, typically staying towards the bottom of UEFA but with a little more volatility. None of them have qualified for a Euros except for the U17s hosting the 2014 Euros where they lost all 3 of their matches. They’ve been to the Elite round before, but that’s about all that can be said. Entrance into women’s youth qualifiers has been spotty, typically sending either the U19s or the U17s. They’ve never qualified for nor hosted a Euros and positive results have generally been rare, coming against the bottom ranked teams only.

Only recently active in futsal, Malta came in from 2006 onwards, They’re yet to win a qualifier and only have 2 draws to their name so far. Results have not been positive. They did try for the latest U19 futsal Euro, registering a win and draw in qualification, so there are green shoots coming. They’ve stayed away from women’s futsal. Beach soccer only started for them very recently, with an appearance at the 2015 Mediterranean Games only followed up in 2022 in the Euro Beach Soccer League. They have thus far failed to garner any points from 2 League B EBSL seasons and 1 set of World Cup qualifiers, but several matches have been close and it may well come soon.

With some more positivity in the team, Malta were hoping to act as kingmakers in their 2022 qualification group. They took 4 points off Cyprus with a dominant 3-0 home win (and a 2-2 away draw), adding a 2-2 away draw in Slovakia to their points total. However, a more attacking brand of football led to some brutal results in other matches, with home and away losses to Slovenia, Russia and Croatia. They finished bottom on goal difference alone, however, so it ended as a reasonable campaign.

Lebanon 2016-17 Home

Kazakhstan 2003 Home, matchworn Evgeni Lovchev v Portugal
Kazakhstan 2004-05 Home, matchworn Samat Smakov v Greece
Kazakhstan 2005-06 Away, matchworn Maksat Baizhanov v Denmark
Kazakhstan 2006-07 Home, matchworn Samat Smakov v ???
Kazakhstan 2009-12 Home, matchworn Maksat Baizhanov v Germany
Kazakhstan 2012-14, match prepared Bauyrzhan Dzholchiyev v Austria
Kazakhstan 2014 Home, matchworn? Konstantin Engel v Hungary
Kazakhstan 2014-15 Home, matchworn/prepared Azat Nurgaliyev
Kazakhstan 2014-15 Third, matchworn Toktar Zhangylyshbay v Russia
Kazakhstan 2020-22, matchworn/prepared Islambek Kuat
Kazakhstan 2020-22, matchworn Abzal Beysebekov v North Macedonia

We’ll start off with this Umbro template. Mainly remembered for its use by other teams, such as England, Kazakhstan also used it. White is used for detailing, rather than yellow, sadly, but we see it on the edges of the collar, the sleeve cuffs, the hem, in piping on front and rear and in the stripe down the front. All works to break up any plainness and to highlight the superb old badge. It isn’t the most imaginative shirt the world has ever seen but it works pretty well.

Used solely in friendlies against Poland and then Portugal in 2003, this shirt saw very little use! Kazakhstan lost 3-0 to Poland and then 1-0 to a Portugal side who tried out a young kid called Ronaldo for the first time. He probably didn’t amount to much. Not an auspicious pair of games for the shirt so Kazakhstan continued to play their little game of shirt roulette where for a few years they were terrified of wearing a consistent design.

Next up we have the white accenting conglomerating in the armpits and underside of the sleeves, as well as in a ring around the collar. It leaves a lot of space in a plain colour, and that doesn’t work brilliantly. Asymmetry with the centralised Puma logo is a bit odd but with the old FA logo and deep yellow numbers, it works ok. Interesting, but a bit plain in places.

In late 2004 Kazakhstan realised they’d used their previous Puma shirt for as many as 6 games, leading them to have to change shirts again before they became even vaguely consistent. So we got this design for 3 games, twice in the yellow against Albania in 2004 and Japan in 2005 and once in the blue, against Greece. They successfully lost all 3 games in it, leading them to change shirts again, falling 1-0 to Albania, 3-1 to Greece then 3-0 to Japan. The Greece and Albania results were in 2006 World Cup qualifiers and followed their pattern, with them finishing with only a single point from 12 games.

Diadora break up the plainer shirts with this spectacular effort. Their classic template from the era, we’ve got the high collar, spots around the shoulder and with the Diadora logo, but also blue and white striping down the right sleeve and shoulder. Numbers and logos are all centralised to avoid asymmetry there and it all slots together quite nicely. There’s still perhaps a bit too much of a singular colour but it is definitely an interesting shirt from it. Works in both blue and yellow!

The blue’s typeface was used across their disastrous 2006 qualification campaign. A 12 match campaign facing Ukraine, Turkey, Denmark, Greece, Albania and Georgia, they left with a solitary point. Aside from getting demolished 6-0 by Turkey, they lost all their home matches by a single goal. In their away matches they managed to keep Albania to within a single goal and grabbed their point in Georgia with a 0-0, but otherwise fairly comfortably lost. Absolutely a campaign to forget for the Kazakhs.

While the same as their 2005-06 shirt, they changed the typeface for the numbers for the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Eligible for the Euros for the first time, they were drawn into the joint largest UEFA group ever, with Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Finland, Belgium, Armenia and Azerbaijan. They finished 6^th from 8 teams, though Armenia and Azerbaijan didn’t play each other so 7^th would’ve been plausible. 5 of their 8 losses came by a single goal, they beat Serbia at home and Azerbaijan away but 4 draws (twice against Belgium) kept them towards the bottom of the table. They only didn’t concede in their away 0-0 draw to Belgium and 1-0 loss against Azerbaijan.

We return to Umbro, with this great blue and yellow effort. Here, the white accenting works well, adding to the use of the yellow rather than replacing it. Large swathes of yellow across the top of the shirt transition really well into the blue That the colour scheme is mirrored front and rear is a positive sign too, though the obvious panel at the back of the neck can stand out a bit too much.

Mainly used across Euro 2012 qualifiers, Kazakhstan struggled once more. Germany, Turkey and Belgium beat them home and away while they managed a credible 0-0 home draw against Austria. Their only home goals came in a 2-1 win over Azerbaijan, but a 3-2 loss away condemned them to the foot of the table. 4 away goals was a reasonable total, but only two games finished with a single goal margin.

How to liven up a standard Adidas template: here’s the example. Did it start off as a plain shirt with a yellow collar and Adidas stripes across the shoulders. They could’ve left it at that, but the pinstripes across the front change it to something actually interesting. Sadly they don’t extend across the back though. The wider outline of the FA logo, as it is yellow, also helps it to stand out. It makes for an interesting change to something plain, which is something different for Kazakhstan, if nothing else.

Qualifying for the 2014 World Cup didn’t go fantastically well, with Kazakhstan beating the Faroes 2-1 at home but only otherwise scoring points in draws away to the Faroes and at home against Austria. Germany, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland beat them home and away to condemn them to 5^th place from 6, 9 points behind 4^th and only 4 ahead of the Faroes. Some matches were fairly close, but scoring was a persistent struggle for them.

Here’s something familiar. Seemingly just to get in on the trend, Kazakhstan saw the plain Adidas template that so many other nations were using and grabbed one for themselves. A little bit of white at the collar, white panelling on the sleeves and some slightly strange joins at the top of the chest area. All very familiar, though the glued on FA logo is a slight improvement over the normal embroidered ones for this design.

Consistency remained something out of reach for Kazakhstan, with the design being used across a bare handful of friendlies in 2014. The blue was solely used in a 3-0 loss to Hungary, with the white away being used in a whole 3 further matches, in friendly victories over Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (2-1 and 7-1) before a 0-0 Euros qualifier against Latvia to finish off the design’s use. All in all a very mixed reputation for a rather unmemorable shirt.

Last, and very much least, are the dullest Adidas shirts. Almost completely plain, the only interesting thing about them is the blue collar and coloured Adidas stripes. Keeping the main colours of yellow and blue on the shirt is good, the total lack of any other interesting feature is less good. On the positive side, the crest is glued on, no heavy stitching or lazy transfers but otherwise what is there to say about it, really?

Kazakhstan continued with their streak of struggling in Euro 2016 qualifiers, drawn in a tough group with Iceland, Czechia, Netherlands and Latvia. They drew 0-0 at home to Latvia, with single goal defeats to Turkey and the Netherlands but managed better away from home. A 0-0 draw in Iceland and a 1-0 win in Latvia brought their total up to 5 points, level with Latvia but ahead on head-to-head to pull them off the foot of the table.

The new badge is mildly interesting but simplified from what it used to be and less interesting than it was. The home has a little interest with the Kazakh light blue helped with some deep blue accenting, but the front torso’s pattern is a little too subtle to truly stand out. Nearly everything about the away shirt is just blue though and there’s none of the yellow accenting that helped other shirts. The sleeves have the nice fade pattern front and rear (weirdly more so on the rear) to help give the shirt some definition, but there’s not a lot here, and the lack of nameset doesn’t help with that.

The Kazakhs found things tricky in 2022 qualifiers, drawn in a tricky group with France, Ukraine, Finland and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The other teams fought hard to take points off each other and that left very few points for Kazakhstan. They drew home and away with Ukraine, but lost every other home match 2-0, got their third point away to Bosnia and set their record defeat by getting battered 8-0 by France. Certainly a wild ride.

In general, this sums of Kazakhstan, they struggled in qualifiers to date, particularly so since their move from the AFC to UEFA. In the AFC they reached the final stage of World Cup qualifying once and missed out on goal difference the second time. They best they did for the Asian Cup was a point behind Qatar for a spot at the 2000 tournament and they did not excel in their brief foray into the Asian Games and WAFF Championship. In UEFA they’ve always occupied the bottom spots of qualifying, beating the likes of UEFA’s smallest, but never excelling in either qualifying. For the Nations League they were originally drawn in League D, finishing 2^nd in their first season but moving into League C through the restructuring. They took advantage of this move poorly, by taking points from 6 games against Albania (1 draw), Belarus (1 win) and Lithuania to fall into the relegation play-off.

Briefly active in Asia, Kazakhstan’s women’s team follow a familiar pattern. They managed a few results in the three AFC Championships they attended , scoring 0-0 draws against Hong Kong and the Philippines, while also beating Guam and Hong Kong in a later edition. However, they suffered dearly against the bigger nations. In UEFA they’ve been in preliminary qualifiers and Class B and have very few results to their name. Competitive with the very bottom nations, they’ve finished bottom or in the penultimate place every time in a full group. In men’s youth results they managed 4^th place at the 1998 AFC U20 Championship but otherwise struggled in the AFC. In UEFA they’ve had some reasonable performances at U21 levels, gaining up to 10 points in a qualification group, though the closest they’ve come to qualification is 7 points off the play-off team. At U19 level they’ve never reached the Elite round, only hitting 4 points in a campaign once, while U17 has been slightly better with 4 points twice (2 and 1 goals off Elite round) and once reaching the Elite round on 3 points, though they then lost every game. In women’s youth football they’ve only taken points off Greece at U19 level (a 2-1 win in 2010 qualifiers) while at U17 level they’ve drawn against Latvia and Serbia, beaten Moldova and been awarded a 3-0 victory over Georgia. Suffice to say, they’ve struggled.

The Kazakhs are fairly new to beach soccer, debuting in 2011 World Cup qualifiers, losing all 3 games. This dissuaded them enough that they didn’t try again until 2017, where they managed to beat Norway. For 2019 they managed to beat Czechia, putting them in the Round of 16, where Italy thrashed them. In the Euro Beach Soccer League they debuted in 2014 and played every edition from 2016. Generally poor in Division B, they’ve developed into a solid League B side, qualifying for the promotion play-off in 2018 and 2019, finishing 3^rd and then 2^nd to not quite get promoted. More active in futsal, they debuted in the AFC, coming 3^rd then 2^nd and then getting eliminated in the quarter-finals. This got them to the 2000 FIFA World Cup where they sadly lost every game. Moving to UEFA proved damaging at first but they developed slowly to the point that they made the 2016 Euros and World Cup, then the 2018 Euros, 2021 World Cup and the 2022 Euros. They reached the Round of 16 in the 2016 World Cup but finished 3^rd then 4^th in the Euros! In women’s and youth futsal they are yet to gain a point, though it is very early days.

Expected to finish bottom of their 2022 qualification group with France, Ukraine, Finland and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Kazakhs have done so. They tried their best to be kingmakers by limiting Ukraine, but the rest of the group was too good for them. Just not quite good enough from them.