A strange thing happened on June 10th 1978. The scene was Mar Del Plata in Argentina. The time: 2.30pm. Two teams lined up in the Parque Municipal stadium to play a first round match in the World Cup finals - France and Hungary.
It was any wonder the match came to be played at all. Argentina was a country still viewing television broadcasts in black and white back then, so all matches had to feature one team wearing a dark-coloured strip, the other a light-coloured strip. As France's blue shirts and Hungary's red ones were deemed to be of too similar a shade for monochrome TV, France were asked to wear a change strip. They didn't have one.
When it was looking like the match would have to be called off, someone had the bright idea of borrowing the shirts worn by the local team, Kimberley. So they did, which is why the French team on that day strode onto the field wearing green and white striped shirts, blue shorts and red socks.
Christian Lopez scores the first for France against Hungary
It didn't affect their play - as a matter of fact they went on to win 3-1, despite having a goalkeeper called Dominique Dropsy (but that's another story...)
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8 comments:
Do you remember the sweets called 'Pacers' ..?
lol... Just as well they didn't model themselves on Bubblicious bubble gum...
hmmm
the way I remember it was that both teams turned up with only their white change strip. Of course I could be wrong, being only 10 at the time...
lol... I'm prepared to admit I might be wrong, but the sources I've used in my research all say the same - that the TV broadcasters wanted France in the white change shirts which they didn't have with them.
Anyway, the green and white stripes were quite distinctive, wouldn't you say?
check this out:
http://www.planetworldcup.com/CUPS/1978/wc78_004.html
Hey, look at that... you're absolutely right!
Thank you so much for confirming that to be the case. If it's any kind of excuse, I was only SEVEN at the time!!!
Well done for providing actual proof that Hungary were playing in white that day... as would France have done, if they'd had the chance! :)
And the borrowed Kimberley kit had no shirt numbers above 16, so Dominique Rocheteau and Olivier Rouyer took to the field wearing their proper numbers, 18 and 20, on their shorts but 7 and 11 on their shirts! I was also 7 at the time and remember this game vividly (and we had a black and white TV then).
What a good shout, Jess! I never knew that!
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