Ukraine / The Ukraine have provided some of my highlights of the EURO 2016 tournament so far, watching as I do with my 11 year old boy. Every mention of star forward Yevhan Konoplyanka’s name forces a giggle and defender Olexandr Chevspunk has him in bits.
I never know whether I’m supposed to say it Ukraine or The Ukraine. It’s the eternal Wirral / The Wirral conundrum transported eastwards. If I just say ‘Ukraine’ will we get angry emails from ‘Angry of Donetsk’? It’s a minefield (*sideways glance*). Whether its Де Україна or simply Україна Adidas have delivered Ukraine / The Ukraine a shirt that’s basically Sweden’s shirt with added fancying about.
Both the home and away shirt have the magnified image of a de-constructed Shredded Wheat woven into the design to reflect Ukraine’s / The Ukraine’s love of both wheat and shredding things. The blue away shirt is a bit of a shy classic. Clean-ish, simple-enough design (even the shredded wheat bit looks cool in blue), made even more swish by being in the usually winning Adidas colourway of royal blue with yellow striped sleeves. It’ll look shite when it inevitably ends up plastered with the mis-coloured UEFA branding but photographed with the right filter or hanging in a well-lit shop it looks a bit dreamy.
The home kit is a yellow shirt. Being the reverse colourway of the away shirt once again the colours obviously complement each other in that natural Adidas-y way but yellow isn’t blue. It looks ok but apart from the obvious, yellow football shirts never look good on anyone.
