Greece Adidas away shirt review

In the 2004 Euro Cup tournament Greece surprised everyone when their workmanlike and well-coached team made it all the way to the finals and managed to defeat the host nation Portugal to win the whole shebang. Their uniforms for 2004 were mostly an afterthought. They were almost a straight-off-the-rack job with a Greek flag and some numbers slapped on.

In 2008 the opposite happened. They got really nice and unique uniforms, but the rest of Europe was not going to be surprised this time around and they failed to get out of the first round. Our pal Travis at SoccerPro.com hooked us up with Greece’s 2008/2009 blue away jersey. It’s a cool shirt for sure. Alas, it does not smell quite like Euro Cup victory, but most people will not notice.

Chris Ketcham, Supermodel

Instead, the ‘lines’ of Greek flag are sublimated into the design along with some inescapable Adidas stripes on the shoulder. As some of the other pictures on that handy link show, there are sorts of special touches—with the word “Greece” spelled out in, well, Greek, and on the inside hem there is the Greek anthem! All those cool special touches make this a worthwhile shirt to own. On the pitch the shirt preformed well. I played on a fairly nice sunny day—so I can’t say how it performs under monsoon-like conditions, but it’s a super comfortable sharp looking kit that handed the rigors of two hours of soccer in style.

The emblem on the jersey's upper left corner is an inverted form of the Greek national flag with Ελλάς (that's Greece to you and me) at its top. The white cross symbolizes the Orthodox church, effectively the national church and at the very heart of Greek identity. The nine stripes represent the nine syllables of the phrase Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος (Freedom or Death) or the nine Muses of Classical Greece, depending on your perspective. Freedom or Death was the rallying cry of Greeks rebelling against the Ottoman Empire in Greece's war for independence.

(Editor's comments: What a photo! Just have to say how great that shirt looks with the backdrop of the blue, blue sky, the green grass and the ball at Chris's feet. He just owns that photo. Speaking of having the ball at his feet I seem to remember about five occasions in which Chris took that ball and launched it straight into an opponent's knee, chest, foot or the fence behind the goal. Or maybe that was me before I hobbled off with a bum knee. Considering our respective appearances - me in tattered DC United t-shirt, Chris in graceful blue Greece shirt - who would you put a bet on?)

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