The second day of competition in the 2014 World Cup brought a trio of very fun matches, some interesting boot spots, and some fantastic kits kits in action. There were surprises aplenty,both on the pitch and in the scorelines.
World Cup gear watch: Mexico, Cameroon, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, and Chile
Phil Walter
The Kits:
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While Mexico and Cameroon's kits aren't the most beautiful at this summer's tournament, they certainly are among the most interesting. The green and yellow clash was one that was fitting of a summer in Brazil.
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The Netherlands showed up at Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador wearing their stunning away shirts that somehow looked even better in the rain and from far away than they do dry and up close. Spain, on the other hand, were caught in an interesting position. They debuted a new third kit in a surprise move after the team and adidas were forced to create one on short notice after FIFA ruled (for some reason) that Spain's dark red home kit wasn't different enough to the dark blue of their opponents.
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Chile and Australia met up for the night's final match in a clash of very clean kits. Chile's polo collars deservedly took a hard-fought three points against the polo collars of Australia.
The boots
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Mexico v. Cameroon brought us a very nice cross-section of the boots on offer at the World Cup. We saw the Nike Mercurial Superfly and Magista line up next to Puma’s Tricks series. adidas Battle Pack was widely represented, as were some others that we’ll come back to.
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Above is Australia's Matthew Leckie clashing with Chile's Gonzalo Jara. The latter is wearing the adidas Nitrocharge Battle Pack colorway while the former has gone for a boot, the Nike Mercurial Vapor X, which we won't see much of in the professional ranks over the coming months. The Vapor X ditches the Superfly IV's Flyknit upper, dynamic fit collar, and carbon fiber outsole, instead opting for a synthetic upper and molded outsole.
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Mexico's Jose Juan Vasquez wore a boot that you won't see on the feet of anyone outside of El Tri's ranks for their opening match against Cameroon. The boots are made by a brand called Concord and feature a colorway that is specially designed for Mexico.
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Cameroon’s Benoit Assou-Ekotto returned to an old favorite for his World Cup opener, donning the Under Armor Blur Carbon III in a colorway that made its debut in the summer of 2013.
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Robin van Persie and the Netherlands surprised both Spain and the world with an incredible performance against the holders in their opening match. Despite showing off his new Battle Pack boots from adidas in the buildup, Robin van Persie instead elected to return to his Earth Pack colorway F50s with the custom adiPower Predator outsole that he has been using for the last few years. If he keeps scoring goals like he did against Spain, no one can be too upset about the Manchester United man's decision.
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