Christian Pulisic expressed confusion after struggling to distinguish teammates from Belgian opponents during Saturday's friendly, which the US lost 5-2. The American midfielder attributed the issue to clashing kit designs, stating, 'That can’t happen. It was a bit strange.'
The US team wore new Nike jerseys with red and white horizontal stripes, inspired by their 1994 World Cup kit. Belgium, meanwhile, donned new Adidas away kits in a light 'Frozen Blue' with pink and black trim, paying tribute to surrealist artist René Magritte.
Weston McKennie noted the difficulty: 'It definitely was a little bit difficult whenever you do like a quick glance to tell which was which. It was almost like a 50-50 thing.' He added that players had to take extra time before making decisions.
Both teams exchanged uniform plans ahead of the match, according to the U.S. Soccer Federation, and the outfits were cleared by match officials before the game. However, neither team had alternative jerseys available at halftime to switch to.
Pulisic said players were unaware of the issue until removing pre-match shirts: 'I didn’t know until we took off the pre-match, whatever, shirts and then saw it and I was like — everyone was a bit shocked.'
