Wales 2008-10 Home, youth matchworn/prepared
Wales 2010-12 GK

Champion, despite their name, are not exactly one of the most well regarded names in Welsh kit history. This plain shirt would, initially, appear to show why. I’m not sure anyone knows what’s going on with the white panelling, twisting and turning with no seeming rhyme or reason, though a dash of green at the collar is certainly welcome. The real attraction comes on the rear, though, with a giant dragon in the fabric. Very Welsh. It isn’t one of their classics, but I think it works well enough.

A pot 4 team in 2010 World Cup qualification, Wales satisfied their assigned position perfectly. They finished in 4^th place, losing every game to a higher seed and taking matching 1-0 wins against 5^th seeds Azerbaijan and 2-0 wins against 6^th seeds Liechtenstein. Their away matches in Finland, Russia and Germany were all by a single goal (only not scoring in Germany), but strangely they lost each home matches by 2, only scoring against the Russians.

Next up, a simple GK template from Umbro. Basic, subtle, stripes front and rear give the plain colour a bit of character with splashes of yellow on the shoulders breaking up some of the black. It isn’t exactly revolutionary, but the little Umbro/Wales tag on the bottom on the shirt is a nice touch that makes the shirt a bit better for sure.

Despite being 4^th seeds, Wales’ Euro 2012 qualification group was a readily contestable one and they’d have hoped for a chance at the paly-off spot. England won the group fairly easily, beating Wales home and away, but the rest was up for grabs. They won away in Bulgaria, but lost at home, which might have doomed them, only taking home wins against Montenegro and Switzerland to add to their points total. With 3 of their losses by a single goal and them in 4^th but only 3 points behind 2^nd, it was a tough ask, but an opportunity missed.

Wales really need no introduction as one of the longest lived international sides. Their first (and the rest) of their titles comes from the Home Nations Championship, winning in 1906-07! They’d win a further 11 times, although 5 of those would be shared. Early World Cup and Euros qualifiers were a bit of a mixed bag, with results varying somewhat. 1958 qualifiers saw them comfortably in 2^nd in their qualification group, but they were drawn in a special play-off against Israel for a World Cup space, with the rest of the AFC withdrawing. Wales would win both legs and go on to achieve 3 draws at the tournament (along with a ply-off win against Hungary) before losing only 1-0 to eventual champions Brazil! Their mixed qualification record continued, however, despite some positive results they managed only 2 Euros play-off losses until their 2016 Euros qualification where they would stun several high profile teams to top their group and would only go out in the semi-finals! Since then they’ve been to the 2020 Euros and made their World Cup return in 2022. A solid League B Nations League side originally, they were promoted in their second season, but came straight back down again.

Active since the mid-90’s in qualifiers (though much older with limited FA participation), the Welsh women’s team took some time to find their feet before reaching their current reasonable heights. Steadily accumulating more and more points in qualifiers, they’ve not appeared at a major tournament yet, but have come ever closer. 2023 saw them reach the play-offs where and extra time win would be followed up by an extra-time loss to come so close, yet so far. Initially drawn in League A of the Nations League, they had a torrid time of it and will look to rebuild in League B after being relegated. Other than that they’ve been reasonable, without greatly impressing in the Algarve Cup and do have a 2^nd in the Pinatar Cup too. Despite their deep history the men’s youth teams have little to shout about. They’ve been to 7 U19 Euros (mostly older) without further progression and only recently managed to make the U17 edition. Elite round appearances are getting to be pretty common, but tournament results are rare. Their women’s youth sides have similar struggles, with 3^rd place finishes in the qualifying round or regular movement between League A and B qualifiers generally being their lot. They hosted the 2013 U19 Championship, but went home without a point.

Consistently ranked near the bottom of UEFA for futsal, wales have never escaped a preliminary round if they started in one. They’ll happily grab results off the very bottom of UEFA, but struggle against any side that can make the main qualification rounds. Their solitary U19 futsal qualifying attempt matches this pattern, with no women’s futsal to date. They also haven’t tried out beach soccer to date.

2022 qualifiers were probably Wales’ chance. After consecutive Euros qualifications, with their stars ageing, they needed a strong performance. They managed 6 points off Belarus and 4 off of Czechia, but also only 4 from Estonia. A 1-1 draw against Belgium, however, secured them the necessary point to beat Czechia and grab a play-off spot. They’d then beat Austria and then Ukraine to secure their return to the greatest stage. Not as comfortable as they’d have liked it to be, but I’m sure they didn’t care!

Vietnam 2019 Home

Venezuela 2014-15 Away

Vanuatu 2011 Away
Vanuatu 2013-14 Home
Vanuatu 2015 Away
Vanuatu 2021-22 Home

Well, this looks very similar to my Cook Islands shirt doesn’t it? Lovely olive green colour but only a white band across the top of the chest and the Lotto logos to add to it. Differing to the Cook Islands shirt, the FA logo is more elaborate and fully detailed, rather than just using the shirt colour. It is a nice logo but when that’s the only redeeming feature? There’s just not really enough here.

The shirt was used across the 2011 Pacific Games where a late 1-0 victory over the Solomon Islands was added to by comfortable victories over American Samoa (8-0), Guam (4-1) and Tuvalu (5-1). However, a 5-0 loss to New Caledonia and results elsewhere meant that, despite drawing on points with both New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, they had the weakest goal difference (+11 v +29 and +16). Therefore they failed to make the semi-finals.

Next up we have this Veto design, another simplistic shirt, but a rather nice one. Black accenting in the solar, across the sleeves and down the sides make it a little less plain than the previous offering, though the rear of the shirt is a bit boring. Lovely traditional yellow colour, though the badge is only a transfer, it holds some interest but still isn’t as interesting as it could be.

Not used in tournament play by the senior side, Vanuatu used it (and the corresponding away) in the 2013 U20 and U17 OFC Nations Cups. They finished 3^rd in both, narrowly losing to both Fiji and New Zealand in the U20 edition but defeating New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea. In the U17s they again lost by a single goal to New Zealand but beat New Caledonia and the Cook Island 3-1 each, though only drew with Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

Moving on we go to the OFC own brand shirt. Instead of outsourcing work to brands, the OFC tried making shirts themselves. Without exception they were rather dull, with shirts like this made to look a bit like a boring Adidas template but not enough to see them sued. We’ve got decent enough colours involved and it isn’t totally plain, but no manufacturer’s logo contributes to the general dullness. Probably why they called the brand “Pasifika” later on.

This was used in the 2015 Pacific Games, where Vanuatu took their draw with Fiji and narrow loss to Tahiti a little too personally. They took things out on FSM by beating them 46-0,a  result only saved from total ignominy by it all being at U23 level. This still let them into the knockout stages for Olympic qualifying (as Tahiti were ineligible) where they lost to New Zealand, got awarded the tie when NZ were found to have fielded an ineligible player and then lost on penalties to Fiji in the final to miss the Olympics anyway. Wild times

Last but not least is this KPI design. Fully sublimated is not a great start, with a massive flag on the back helping to offset that. The collar stands out nicely, being black against the yellow and there’s a very strange transition between yellow shades on the chest but what makes the shirt are the sleeves. Lighter yellow cuffs to help accent them, but in the black area is this beautiful curving pattern based on the traditional Vanuatu sand drawings. Might be a little thing for the shirt, but a very lovely little thing.

The updated logo ended up not being used, with the design only used under the old logo for matches from the 2019 Pacific Games onwards. Vanuatu beat Samoa and Tonga comfortably and even drew with eventual champions New Zealand (U23s) but lost to Papua New Guinea to miss out on the medal matches entirely. A disappointing exit from a tournament where they showed some promise.

These results are fairly typical for Vanuatu, a team that are capable of taking decent results against the best of the OFC but are rarely, if ever, right at the top. They’ve never been to a World Cup, struggling whenever they’ve reached the final stage, but have been to all but 1 Nations Cup (missing 1996) and have four 4^th positions, though never any higher. Their Pacific Games performance is a little better, with a 2^nd and a 3^rd place finish back in the very early days. Between 1987 and 2007, they always finished at least 4^th, with two 3rds and three 4ths in 5 games, though they’ve dropped off since. Otherwise, they’ve been a little variable, but they did win the 1990 Melanesia Cup and the 2017 Pacific Mini Games.

On the women’s side, Vanuatu have been much less active, though that looks to be changing. They debuted at the 2003 Pacific Games, drawing with Papua New Guinea, thrashing Kiribati but otherwise losing, albeit 3 games by a single goal. Attending the 2010 Nations Cup, they lost all 3 of their games, improving slightly in 2012 Olympic qualifiers by beating Samoa. More recently they played at the 2017 Mini Games, reaching the final unbeaten and edging Fiji to take the gold medal. Then they fell short by a single point in 2018 Nations Cup qualifiers before an unsuccessful 2019 Pacific Games where they took a single point, against Tahiti. On the youth side, the men have never been to the Olympics, recently being competitive for top 4 in the confederation, losing the play-off for 2016 after receiving an NZ forfeit in the semis. U20s and U17s have ben impressive in several tournaments, with plenty of top 4s and three 2^nd places, with the most recent leading them to a group stage exit at the 2017 U20 World Cup, after narrow defeats to Venezuela and Germany. Victories have been scarcer on the women’s youth side, with the U20s managing a 4^th and a 3^rd place in larger tournaments but still large gaps to the biggest sides. The U17s have only played in 1 tournament, with 2020’s being cancelled.

The only nation to participate in every OFC Futsal Championship, Vanuatu started well but have always been in the middle of the table, typically finishing around halfway in the rankings with very little variation. Their performances have diminished in recent tournaments though, dropping them out of the top 4. After an initial string of 2^nd places in Beach Soccer, Vanuatu have slipped behind Tahiti and New Caledonia to fight out towards the bottom. They’ve never been to a World Cup for either.

Drawn in the easier of the 2 qualifying groups with Tahiti, Solomon Islands and Cook Islands, Vanuatu only managed a warm-up match before illness in the squad forced their withdrawal. They’d have tried to compete with Tahiti for 2^nd place, but it could’ve been tricky as both of the big two were in form. Nonetheless a real shame.

US Virgin Islands 2013-15 Home

Uruguay 1995-98 Home Matchworn v Brazil
Uruguay 2018 Home

Patterned material, deep blue and white accenting on the sides and high quality logos. This is a quality shirt and a truly beautiful one at that. What more is there to say, even the high collar (which is a crime) has some blue edging to it to make it better. Enerre have a good reputation and they have it for a reason. The numberset fits on it nicely and in general it just gives the impression of being really well put together, I’m a definite fan.

Used across a number of tournaments, Uruguay won the 1995 Copa América on penalties against Brazil (also eliminating Colombia and Bolivia), finished 4^th at the 1997 Confederations Cup (with a 100% group stage but falling to an Australian golden goal and then the Czechs got revenge in the 3^rd/4^th play-off), were eliminated in the 1997 Copa América group stage (edged by Peru and Bolivia but beat Venezuela) and lastly fell 4 points and a 17 goal swing short of 1998 World Cup qualification, finishing 7^th of 9 teams. All in all, a mixed bag from them where they’d have hoped to do better.

The second shirt is comparatively disappointing in looks, with a little black accenting but not much else to it that’s readily visible. However, the speckle pattern across the top of the shirt adds a little and the Sun of May from the national flag is sprayed across the centre in a similar style. Definitely a nice enough shirt but can’t live up to the highlights they have in their past, though how many modern shirts can?

Used for the 2018 World Cup, Uruguay were expected to progress to the knockouts from a group with hosts Russia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. However, a late header to beat Egypt and a fortunate goal to edge the Saudis 1-0 as well was a disappointing start. A 3-0 thrashing of Russia let them top the group and a fantastic Cavani double downed Portugal. However, in the quarter-finals they met France, losing 2-0 from a set piece and a Muslera keeping error.

The latter experience is definitely more typical of Uruguay, a nation that started off life incredibly but is more typified in the modern era by narrow qualifications and consistent knockout stage appearances. 6 of their 15 Copa América titles came before 1930, with only 2 since 1990 to add that total. Their 1924 and 1928 Olympic titles (when it was essentially the World Cup) make up their 4 stars on their crest with their 1930 and 1950 World Cup titles (with 1950 being the infamous final where Brazilian newspapers called their team the champions before the game). Refusing to take part in the 1934 and 1938 World Cups, they remain the only team unable to defend their World Cup title but have only otherwise missed 5 World Cups and never more than 2 consecutively. 4^th place in 1954, 1970 and 2010 (undeservedly!) show they’re never to be underestimated too, though they tend to qualify through the play-offs.

Their low population really hurts their women’s team, as they are considerably less established than the men. First playing in 1998, they’ve only gained 5 wins and 3 draws from their 25 Copa América Femenina games, and three of those wins were in their spectacular third place in 2006. Otherwise, they typically finish at or near the bottom in their continent with some significant losses and no blowout wins in their history. In terms of youth teams, the men have the U20s trying to emulate the senior side, with 8 continental titles (7 from 1981 and prior) and 6 World Cup top 4 finishes (twice runners-up). They’ve only been to one Olympics since 1928, though tend to finish top 4 continentally and have no U17 or U15 titles, though were runners-up 5 times continentally combined and once in the 2011 U17 World Cup. Their U20 women’s side has won 5 competitive matches, 3 against Bolivia, but the U17s have 2 World Cup qualifications and a 2^nd and 3^rd place finish continentally, showing that they have a good base to build from!

Though competitive in futsal, Uruguay cannot challenge the continental titans, with only 5 top 3 finishes and no titles. 3 FIFA Futsal World Cup appearances have brought little success and the U20s and U17s are competitive but very much middle of the pack too. Their women’s futsal sides are surprisingly similar, with a 2^nd place at senior level and a 3^rd at U20 level, but generally midtable finishes otherwise. Beach soccer, they again fall short of Brazil (who doesn’t?) but otherwise have been impressive. A great qualifying record (often 2^nd place continentally) has given them 16 World Cup appearances from 21. They’ve been runners-up thrice (each time to Brazil), 3^rd place 4 times and 4^th place once, though haven’t placed top 4 since 2009. The less said about their U20 record the better, could their star continue to wane?

Ranked 2^nd in CONMEBOL for 2022 World Cup qualification, they’re fully expected to qualify, despite the difficulty involved. A 2-1 win over Chile and a 4-2 loss in Quito doesn’t quite showcase what they’d want to though. Another play-off attempt in store?

Ukraine 1996-98 Home matchworn/prepared?
Ukraine 2012-14 Home, matchworn Marko Devych v Turkey
Ukraine 2012-14 Away
Ukraine 2016-17 Home
Ukraine 2021-23 Home, matchworn/prepared Olha Basanska

One of the more spectacular Puma templates around, this is something special. A tiled hexagonal pattern across the entire shirt, visible even on the “plain” colour torso really makes the shirt. Every part draws the eye and there’s nothing boring about it. On the sleeves, the pattern stands out more with the white outlines, which is a nice touch. Twin yellow stripes on the collar and sleeve cuffs liven them up as well. The only slight disappointment is the yellow stripes along the tops of the sleeves. It clashes a little with the sleeves themselves and that’s a shame. Nonetheless, a spectacular shirt.

These shirts were used across Ukraine’s 1998 World Cup qualifiers. They were drawn with two tough opponents in Germany and Portugal. They didn’t might light work of the 3 lower seeds either, drawing 1-1 with Armenia at home and only managing single goal victories home and away to Northern Ireland and Albania. However, a 2-1 victory over Portugal at home and a 0-0 draw with Germany mitigated away losses. They finished in the play-off spot, being drawn against Croatia. A 2-0 away loss set the tone and a 1-1 home draw couldn’t overcome it, falling just short of the tournament.

So, this would be a boring Adidas shirt if it wasn’t for the stripe. The pattern incorporates the FA logo but doesn’t just tile it and it stands out nicely without being too blatant. The pixel art style of it also appeals, though possibly just because I’m a gamer. Blue and yellow does work as a colour scheme but the main let down of the shirt is the transfer badge. It looks a little too large and the Adidas logo is central so without numbers it looks odd.

Regardless, Ukraine used the design for 2014 World Cup qualification. Drawn in a group with England, Montenegro, Poland, Moldova and San Marino their task was to grab the 1^st or 2^nd spot. 2 draws with England should’ve probably been enough but 2 results ruined that. A 0-0 draw away in Moldova and a 1-0 loss at home to Montenegro relegated them to 2^nd place (and 3 behind on goal difference). Drawn against France for the qualification spot, they grabbed a solid 2-0 first leg victory but lost 3-0 in France and narrowly failed to qualify.

It might be mostly yellow but there’s blue everywhere here. I’ve heard it called too busy, but Ukraine continue throwing traditional patterns around. One down each side and a fading out one up the front under the logo is pretty cool. To help that, blue accenting spikes all over the shirt. The FA logo also gets smaller and more reserved to help with my main issue with the previous shirt.

Ukraine were probably expect to at least get a play-off spot for the 2018 World Cup when they wore this shirt. Drawn in a group with Croatia, Iceland, Turkey, Finland and new boys Kosovo, their campaign was immediately dented with 2 draws, to Iceland at home and to Turkey away. Rarely dominate, they also lost home and away to Croatia, as well as in Reykjavik, to finish 3^rd in the group, a full 3 points distant of second place.

A shirt that certainly provoked some raised eyebrows when it was released, Ukraine entered the Polyester Atlas but adding their country’s outline around their FA logo. Certainly makes the logo stand out. Interestingly there’s not a lot else to the shirt, there’s enough blue around the edges to keep it from being too plain, but otherwise it is fairly simple. Typeface for the numbers is quite nice, but with the centralised logo it can look a little lopsided without them. A decent shirt, but likely wouldn’t have been remembered so much if it weren’t for the objections to including Crimea.

The design came in for Euro 2020, and stuck around for subsequent qualifiers. The Euros went reasonably, but started unspectacularly, with a late 3-2 loss to the Netherlands, a 1-0 loss to Austria and a narrow 2-1 win over debutants North Macedonia. Only 3 points, but a reasonable goal difference meant that they slipped through as a best 3^rd place team. They took nearly the full length of extra time to sink Sweden 2-1 before coming up against England. The English swept them aside 4-0 in the quarter-finals, but for their first ever Euros knockout stage appearance it was a good showing.

These results are fairly typical of Ukraine. Since their independence, they’ve regularly competed at a very good standard but seem to excel in falling just short. They’ve reached qualification play-offs 5 times and failed each time, to opponents Greece, Slovenia, Germany, France and Croatia. As co-hosts in Euro 2012, they beat Sweden, only to lose to France and England and not progress. A well rated team qualified for Euro 2016 but were the only team to lose every game and not score a single goal. However, they topped their 2006 World Cup, Euro 2020 and 2018-19 Nations League (tier B) groups. At 2006, they beat Tunisia and Saudi Arabia to reach the knockouts (also losing 4-0 to Spain) and then defeated Switzerland 3-0 on penalties after a 0-0 draw before Italy knocked them out 3-0 in the quarter-finals. Euro 2020 proved another highlight, but it came at the expense of getting relegated from League A of the Nations League. They narrowly failed to bounce back and remain in League B to date.

The Ukraine women’s side has also lost a number of qualification play-offs, but seems a little fonder of 3^rd place then the men. The typical inequality in women’s football means that they struggle against the top teams but mostly perform well. A sole tournament qualification came for Euro 2009, where they narrowly missed out on an automatic spot but thrashed Slovenia 5-0 in the resulting play-off. A 2-0 loss to the Netherlands and 2-1 to Denmark had already condemned them, but they regained some honour by defeating already qualified Finland 1-0. The women’s youth sides have typically done poorly, with the men’s sides barely better, though there are a few standout campaigns. 5 times European semi-finalists at youth level and 2019 U20 World Champions are not results to be sniffed at. There is, however, little consistency.

They are futsal regulars, with their peak coming around the late 90’s/early 2000’s. 4^th place in the world at Spain ’96 they then failed to qualify for the next Euros and World Cup before 3 consecutive top 8 finishes in the world and 3 consecutive top 4 finishes in Europe came out (two 2nds, one 4^th). Since then, they’ve fallen slightly to the status of regular qualifiers and knockout participants but rarely progressing further. In beach soccer, Ukraine typically are very good in qualification, qualifying for the 2005, 2011 and 2013 tournaments, but only have one knockout appearance to show for that. They’ve never lost all their games and regularly go to shoot-outs to determine results (instead of draws) but, as is becoming almost a theme, they’ve always fallen short of the final hurdle.

Ukraine were expected to be very competitive in a mixed group with France, Finland, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kazakhstan. However, a start of 5 consecutive draws was disastrous, with only negative results for their competitors keeping them in the fight. 2 wins and a draw along with results elsewhere dragged them into a play-off spot but, having beaten Scotland, they fell 1-0 to Wales in a very close decider. Typical Ukraine, but they did have a lot going on at the time.

Uganda 2019 Home

Turks and Caicos Islands 2017-18 Home
Turks and Caicos Islands 2019-21 Home
Turks and Caicos Islands 2019-21 Away

Let’s begin with Admiral. Most famous for their older kits, they are still active in the modern day. Scattered across CONCACAF’s smaller nations, they tend to be a bit template-y but otherwise fine. This is no exception, with a deep blue shirt having the most basic additions. White on the collar, sleeves and base of the shirt, with the blue sleeve cuffs making the sleeves stand out a bit more. The latest FA logo doesn’t live up to the older ones but fits the shirt nicely.

Senior games were few and far between when this shirt came into use, and it was used across the disciplines. The main tournament was probably the Caribbean qualification for the 2017 CONCACAF U20 Championship where they were drawn with Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia and Guadeloupe. Despite starting off with a respectable 2-0 loss to Saint Lucia, they were subsequently annihilated 11-0 by Trinidad and Tobago and 5-0 by Guadeloupe.

We then move onto little known brand Impact Prowear. Two custom, fully sublimated designs came forth, with the home being a little plainer, but with nice white dividers for the sleeves along with the slash marks down the sides. The away kicks things up a notch, though is also blue, with white, waving, segmented patterns across the top and bottom of the shirt. Really evokes the feeling of the sea, along with continuing across the sleeves and the rear of the shirt. Really nicely designed shirt.

Used across the inaugural Nations League season and 2022 World Cup qualifiers, the Turks and Caicos managed two losses to Guadeloupe (3-0 and 10-0) and two wins over Sint Maarten (5-2 and 3-2) to finish 2^nd in their Nations League group. Saint Lucia’s withdrawal from World Cup qualifying left them against Haiti, Nicaragua and Belize in their group and they lost, as expected, conceding 22 without reply.

These results are fairly typical of the Turks and Caicos, who have largely suffered when they have played. Their main positive results have been recently, with the wins in the Nations League and 4 points from its qualifiers. However, 1 win without progression in World Cup qualifiers and 2 wins and a draw in Caribbean Cup qualifiers isn’t enough for them to have progressed anywhere. One of the smallest teams on the planet, it is good to see their recent results but significant improvement is not expected.

In women’s football the Turks and Caicos follow a slightly depressingly familiar pattern, with no competitive wins to date. However, the margins of defeat have tended to be much narrower, indicating a smaller gap to the teams they’ve played in the Caribbean. Men’s youth participation has been fairly spotty, with familiar results rearing their heads. A handful of close games came against fellow low ranked nations, but mostly they’ve had losses. Women’s youth football is not something they appear to have been focusing on, with no participation.

The Turks and Caicos have been fairly active in beach soccer, appearing at the last four CONCACAF Championships. They’ve lost every group stage game they’ve played, but have had a couple of close losses and in 2017 defeated the US Virgin islands in the placement games to finish 14^th, though those placements have not returned. Futsal is currently an unexplored outlet.

Already eliminated from 2022 qualification, as expected, the Turks and Caicos will begin to focus on the next Nations League season.

Turkmenistan 2014-15 Away