Colours by
Country:
England vs.
Argentina
Have you ever stopped to wonder why
England wore red when they won the World Cup in 1966? Just me, then. Well,
it wasn't always the second choice colour, and if it hadn't been for
Argentina, maybe England would have been decked out in blue on that historic
day.
Let me explain. Each team's colours
are steeped in history and tradition. Football seems to have more than its
fair share of superstitious fans. When colours are changed and teams then do
well, they invariably keep those colours. Conversely, if the change
coincides with a bad run or a painful experience, the colours are quickly
discarded. If England had beaten Germany in the Euro '96 semi-final, there
is little doubt that we would have seen more indigo blue change uniforms in
England's wardrobe in the years that followed.
England's humiliating defeat at the
1950 World Cup to the un-fancied American team was experienced in their blue
change uniform. Almost a year later, England faced Argentina for the first
time, as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations, at Wembley. With
Argentina wearing blue and white stripes, both of England's uniforms created
a colour clash, though the blue of Argentina was a very light blue, compared
to the navy blue of England. Nonetheless, a new red shirt was worn by the
home side, though the socks remained navy.
Victory was achieved in dramatic
circumstances, with two goals in the last eleven minutes wiping out the
South Americans' lead. England met Austria in a new red uniform the
following year. This was the game when Nat Lofthouse became the 'Lion of
Vienna'. They then twice defeated West
Germany, who were World Champions at the time. Red was well and truly
established as the number two colour. They even tried blue again in 1959,
against Peru, because of the home team's red sash, and suffered a 4-1
thrashing. This was the death knell for the blue change uniform. Only light
blues have been worn as alternative colours since. And so it was that the
first meeting with Argentina triggered the change to red, in which England
triumphed on that July afternoon in 1966.
England's first visit to Argentina
came two years after their first Wembley meeting. They met twice, though the
first fixture's status in the record books is disputed due to England
fielding a reserve side and Argentina playing their first team.
Unfortunately, the second fixture was abandoned after 22 minutes, because
torrential rain had left the pitch waterlogged and unplayable. For both
games, the English team was in white, so the colour clash of 1951 was no
longer an issue, or was it because they just didn't want to pack another set
of uniforms for the tour?
They did not meet again until the 1962
World Cup, when England switched to all white and Argentina wore a blue
shirt for the first time against England. Argentina's colours never veer
from blue, white and black, and they never change when facing a team in
blue shirts.
In 1964, they met in Brazil, and
England wore their red uniform. This was the first game in which England
wore plain red socks, without any white on them. There were also signs
that they were running out of shirts in this last game of the tour, as a
couple of players appeared without their Three Lions emblems in the second
half.
The infamous encounter in the 1966
World Cup quarter-final saw England back in all white again and when
Argentina returned to Wembley in 1974, with their own referee to satisfy them that they
would be fairly treated, both teams were in their first-choice uniforms for
the first time since their 1953 meeting.
|
England's
Colours Against Argentina 1951-1974 |
|
No. |
Date |
Shirts |
Shorts |
Socks |
Gk |
Venue |
Shirts |
Shorts |
Socks |
|
263 |
9 May 1951 |
|
|
|
|
Empire Stadium, Wembley, London |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
277 |
17 May 1953 |
|
|
|
|
Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti, Nuñez,
Buenos Aires |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
360 |
2 June 1962 |
|
|
|
|
Estadio Braden
Cooper Co., Rancagua, Chile |
|
|
|
|
382 |
6 June 1964 |
|
|
|
|
Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho,
Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
407 |
23 July 1966 |
|
|
|
|
Empire Stadium, Wembley, London |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
482 |
22 May 1974 |
|
|
|
|
Empire Stadium, Wembley, London |
|
|
|
|
|
|
In 1977, the
sides met on what would have been a useful exercise
prior to the following year's World Cup in
Argentina, had England qualified, but they took the
positives from a 1-1 draw, remaining unbeaten
throughout the tour. Argentina had now changed their
socks to white, whilst England were back in red.
A 19-year-old
Diego Maradona impressed at Wembley in 1980, despite
England's 3-1 win against the World Champions. It
now became clear that whilst England were happy to
change to red in Buenos Aires, their opponents did
not consider that there was any colour clash when
they came to Wembley, though they did switch to
black socks on this occasion. We could not
have known at that stage, what an impact Maradona
would have on England's fortunes and on World Cup
history.
The World Cup quarter-final of 1986 could
not have had a bigger build-up. Not only did the
countries have a history of controversial incidents
on the field, but they had also been to war, over
the Falkland Islands, since their previous meeting.
Even something as trivial as what colours were to be
worn on the big day had to be negotiated with
extreme caution. The result was a unique
combination.
It appears
that both sides made a compromise, similar to the
outfits worn at the 1962 World Cup. Argentina
changed to blue shirts, for the first time against
England since 1962, but only their shirts, whilst
England ended up with a combination they had not
worn before in their history. They kept their white
shirts, but for some strange reason, also wore the
light blue shorts and socks from their
third-choice all-blue uniform, which had not seen
the light of day before. The events of this match,
for the reasons outlined at the top of the page,
would ensure that this combination would never be
worn again.
Five years
passed before Argentina appeared at Wembley again,
this time in white sleeves, and with England,
once again, switching to red, but 1998 brought
another epic confrontation in the World Cup. This
was the first time that Argentina wore a complete
change uniform against England, a rather smart all
blue kit, and England's all white completed the
ideal contrast, as Michael Owen scored his brilliant
individual goal, David Beckham got his marching
orders and it all ended in tears for England in yet
another penalty shootout.
Two years
later, back at Wembley, in their first meeting
during the season, Kevin Keegan was keen to see
England in red to rekindle the passions of the past.
This was the first of four internationals, the last
four to be played at the old stadium, in which
England wore red each time. Argentina, meanwhile,
wore light-blue sleeves for the first time.
The colours
were the same in their 2002 World Cup clash in
Japan, the only difference being that David Seaman
was in all black. Then, in 2005, they met in
Genève,
where England wore their first-choice uniform for
the first time in 25 years against Argentina, and
for the first time outside England since 1953.
Argentina switched to their blue change uniform, but
this time with white shorts. It was only the fourth
time in
14
meetings (15 according to the
Asociación del Fútbol Argentino),
that
they had
changed from their traditional striped shirts, and
all had been in neutral countries (Chile, Mexico,
France and Switzerland).
|
England's
Colours Against Argentina 1977-2005 |
|
No. |
Date |
Shirts |
Shorts |
Socks |
Gk |
Venue |
Shirts |
Shorts |
Socks |
|
513 |
12 June 1977 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Estadio Camilo Cichero, La Boca, Buenos Aires |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
539 |
13 May 1980 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Empire Stadium, Wembley, London |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
618 |
22 June 1986 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Estadio Azteca, Santa Úrsula, ciudad de México, Mexico |
|
|
|
|
672 |
25 May 1991 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Empire Stadium, Wembley, London |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
750 |
30 June 1998 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Étienne, France |
|
|
|
|
765 |
23 February 2000 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Empire Stadium, Wembley, London |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
792 |
7 June 2002 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sapporo Dōmu, Toyohira-ku, Sapporo-shi, Japan |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
834 |
12 November 2005 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stade de Genève,
Genève,
Switzerland |
|
|
|
______________
GI
