The main difference is the blue is lighter, and it has that red collar, and it doesn't have that 2-panel thing going on in the chest-midsection area. Also, there are sort of dark blue vertical stripes on it. It's kind of hard to see, but look carefully. http://www.nikkansports.com/ns/soccer/japan/f-sc-tp3-040126-0034.html
Pretty good... although the blue may be a tad bit too light for my tastes. Either way for looks it does look better than the South Korea shirt, which ended up looking rather pink rather than red. Should be closer to the blood red we're more accustomed with. I like the Korea shirt because of the memories, but I think it's time we had a better one lol.
Yeah, I don't like the shiny blue or the vertical stripes. Oh well. We'll have new ones in 2006 anyway. Korea should get new ones soon too, right?
the shiny effect makes the unis look so heavy... and cheap... i dunno... the trend these days seemed like to go for the more pastel coloring look... shiny is so.. 80s simplicity and pastel is the look these days i think. whats with the red collar? i never saw red on japan's unis before the korean pink does suck but on TV it looks better then blood red personally. i prefer that over 98 kit i just wish the Mens NT will also be given the blue/gray kit like the women's and use that instead of the white one, which resemble's china's kit
Are you talking about Japan or Korea? Either way, I have never seen this uni. Do you have a pic? And about red, the 2002 WC unform has red. There's a thin red line around the collar and it runs to the sleeves in the front and the back. It looks like they got rid of the lines and put the red on the collar. BTW, here is a better picture. You can clearly see the stripes. I think the back is like the front. Also, look at the sleeves. They are shorter and the addidas stripes are pointed at the end. It would be neat if only Japan had the pointed stripes but knowing how Nike and adidas "cookie cut" their kits, it may be asking too much. It looks more like a "refininement" of the old 2002 jersey than a total new design. I think that's what they probably had in mind when designing this. http://www.jfa.or.jp/NRadd/2004uniform/Home.jpg Also, go to adidas Japan site - http://www.adidas.com/jp/ for full details. They appear to be using that same away uniform they debuted a few months back. I like the black shorts on the away uniform, but don't like the white shorts on the home uniform. I think all blue would be unique.
color is the only major chiange and they made it worse. pretty disappointing. i liked the old one and also one from year 2001. i hope it looks ok when japan take a picture after winning the asia cup and athen olympic. let's hope when we win germany 06 we are wearing something a lot nicer.
sorry i was reffering to the korean unis, my bad the only time i saw the blue unis was when the korean Women NT played during the asian WQ i think the best japanese unis were the one they were wearing during 94 WQ i like the wavey designs oh and i heard from a friend that the stripes on the arms are supposed to represent mount fuji so when a person wears it it looks like a mountain / \
Zico said he wanted more red in the shirt. Rough translation: "I was hoping for the color red that would uplift the spirits. Now, when we play badly, we can no longer blame the uniform." (http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/soccer/japan/headlines/20040126-00000048-kyodo_sp-spo.html) Wait, we were blaming the uniform before? History of Japan's uniform in pictures: http://www.kana11.net/soccer/daihyo.htm Interestingly, Japan wore red and Korea wore blue in the early 80's.
The France 98 kit was pretty bad. lol. At least they could have made a special fan's version and had that in a more blood red colour. I mean, we don't always go everywhere with flood lights and cameras chasing us now do we ?
my France 98 Japan kit rocks the world! I dont like the new outfit (same can be said of our new coach) they are both gay!
OHH sorry guys! I meant Korea's France 98 shirt. Yeah I thought Japan's France 98 kit was pretty cool. Also the ones they've been using before the release of the new ones looked very good too. Nike was just horrible because all the shirt designs were EXACTLY THE SAME except with colours changed. And you can tell they only really had Brazil in mind because that's the only shirt that actually looks right. Well a few others ... like the USA one ain't bad but some others are just hideous!
Ugh.... those new japanese kits look like plastic are football kits for a football team in the old microprose soccer game from the end 80's. The kits have the same colour as the japanese standard garbage bucketts!!!!! Why do Japan always play in blue?
I've got a question. Are those three dudes modeling the new Japanese NT kit, football players? Please tell me they're not because they look about as athletic as a 3 month old Christmas fruit cake. When Korea plays Japan, one of our players should crack a joke by pretending to be looking at his reflection off their shirts and fix their hair.
The Japan Blue I googled and found some info about the Japan Blue. Why blue? We don't know for sure. It's one of our favorite colors. The sea and the sky are blue. We live on the Blue Planet. It's the color of Nature. It's also a metaphor for the youth in Japanese. The oldest existing kits were the ones used in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. They were colored light blue. Japan beat Sweden then. In the 80's Japan played in red, the color of the Rising Sun, but their record was not really good. So they adopted blue again. Blue fits well with red and white, and hence the 1996 model, the oceanic blue with the burning red emblem, had these colors. Blue stands for our sea and sky, speed and youthfulness. Red stands for our passion, blood, and national flag. White stands for our fair play, teamwork and mutual trust. I hope this helps.
well the JFA going for the Azzuri look hey? I don't think it would work for the Japanese team. And why would you blame your shirt if you lost? You would be proud to put on your kit of your country. Now the Socceroos kit of 1990-1992 would be a valid excuse to blame your shirt if you lost, in fact it most likely induced vomiting. look how horrible the Socceroos jerseys are! (yellow, green and vomit) I guess the japanese kit will grow on us.
Hmm... Frankly, I think the uniform should be much more deeper blue. Maybe I'm just too used to seeing Japan in a deeper blue. I still think that Japan's 2000 jersey (one they used for Asian cup and youth world cup) are the best jerseys ever... too bad I can't find it anywhere anymore.
To add to Lakeside Park's post, nature is especially important to Japan because much of the national religion is based on worshipping nature. Mountains, seas and trees are considered gods (or godlike) and treated with reverance. This was the best shirt ever used by Japan (2001): Too bad they only used it for one year. I actually saw this when I was shopping in Osaka, but it was just a wee bit too expensive for me.
Ughh... the socceroos kits are more awfull, I will name them "drink my puke". Typical for japanese to stop using red because they didn't play well in them and change to the colour they used when they once were succesfull in. But i still hates garbage can blue colour they have adopted. The Marine Blue colour were so cool.
They're not the only ones: Brazil stopped wearing white after losing to Uruguay and England blamed their defeat in Euro96 to the grey shirts they wore. But I'm with you in not understanding teams who don't wear their country's colours. Another example in Asia is Kuwait, who wear blue.