2013 MLS jersey rankings update: LA Galaxy third kit

This should be the final addition to my 2013 MLS jersey rankings. On Saturday, the Los Angeles Galaxy unveiled its new third kit. The internet's reaction has been very polarized. What do you think?

I guess they weren't allowed to smile for the photo shoot.

Detractors are saying it's a super ugly, clown-like color scheme. I absolutely love it. For a team with such a traditional color set otherwise, it's a nice way to jazz things up. Yes, it's a bit gaudy, but it's a third jersey. Third jerseys are meant to be experimental and weird.

The new uniforms are an homage to LA's original, gloriously hideous 1996 kits:

The homage is much more faithful than Sporting KC's new "retro" third jersey. Fashion is cyclical--are we reaching the point where over-the-top '90s designs are back in style? Liverpool, one of the biggest clubs in the world, recently unveiled an incredibly-'90s away kit as well.

Aside from being a throwback, this new LA Galaxy jersey tickles my flag-enthusiast fancy. The seemingly strange color scheme is a reference to the Los Angeles city flag:

I guess they wanted to outdo their LA rivals Chivas USA, who use the city crest on their new away jersey. If more MLS teams incorporated their city and state/provincial flags into their uniforms, I'd be a satisfied man.

Much like Sporting KC's new uniform, I like this new Galaxy kit so much I wish it would replace the comparatively boring (but still well-designed) LA away jersey.

2013 MLS jersey rankings update: Sporting KC third kit!

A quick update to my ranking of Major League Soccer's assorted club uniforms for the 2013 season: last month, Sporting Kansas City unveiled a third jersey. What do you think?

Black with an argyle light/dark blue pattern across the chest. It's apparently a reference to the team's original jerseys back in the '90s when they were known as the wonderful Kansas City Wiz, later extended to the Wizards.

The jersey is great. The design is original and striking. The sponsor logo below the argyle pattern makes the whole thing look a bit too busy, but we can't escape big ol' sponsor logos even in specialty shirts... or can we?

Scottish giants Celtic and Rangers seem to be able to convince their sponsors to minimize their logos when the clubs want to release commemorative jerseys. Celtic's new 125th anniversary kit features the Tennent's sponsor logo in small white-on-white lettering below the team crest:

Why couldn't Sporting KC convince Ivy Funds to do the same?

Anyway, the dark new third jersey is so good, I'm not sure why it's a third jersey. Really, it should replace SKC's decent-but-unremarkable current away jersey:

But the whole "acknowledging our uniforms from the '90s" thing may be a sham. I don't recall nor could I find online any evidence of 1990s argyle jerseys in Kansas City. I guess the jerseys are meant to be a reference to this beauty:

A black shirt with a wavy design on the chest. But way more groovy than Sporting KC's new third jersey.

Overall, Sporting's new kit is a great design, but it doesn't quite bump the team up in my previous jersey rankings.

2013 MLS jersey rankings

I've been on a jersey roll lately! I did a Major League Soccer jersey ranking a few years ago, but it's time for a new one, especially when everyone's jersey is lightyears ahead of where they were last time I  did this list.

The MLS season started this past weekend, so there's no better time to rank the league's uniforms for the year. MLS has acknowledged jersey enthusiasts this year, with their first-ever "Jersey Week" revealing all the new kits for the season. Adidas does a great job with its MLS uniforms, so even the "worst" jerseys on this list look great compared to many teams around the world. So let's get started!

Note: there's a new number/name font for the back of MLS jerseys this year. It's a big improvement over the last one.

19. Portland Timbers

It breaks my heart to put Portland dead last. The last two seasons they wore perhaps my all-time favorite Major League Soccer kits. It's as if they didn't really know how to improve upon perfection, so they just went for a huge downgrade.

Both their home and away jerseys look very similar to their last set, but with unnecessary changes. I guess that's the real shame of the soccer world's constant jersey turnover cycle.

Why do they need those arbitrary white stripes on the sides? Why do they need that sci-fi triangle collar thing? That Portland city flag near the waist is nice, but why does it need to be in the shape of Oregon? Isn't that a bit redundant?

18. Montréal Impact

It's a shame that a team with such an iconic French-Canadian identity to capitalize on has such a lackluster uniform for its first couple years in MLS.

Yes, they wear blue and white and they feature the fleur-de-lis everywhere, but I can't help but feel that their shirts look like practice jerseys. And really, "Montréal Impact"? I still can't get over the fact that their team name is incredibly 1990s.

But there's hope! Last week the club unveiled their new third jersey, and it's a work of art. The Inter Milan-style blue-and-black stripes are timeless. One can only hope a shirt like this eventually becomes their home jersey.

Thoughts on the new U.S. national team uniform

Yesterday, U.S. Soccer unveiled its new "Centennial" home kit for 2013/14. A throwback to the first U.S. soccer jerseys in 1913, it's a simple white design with a retro crest:

The new kit has been universally praised by fans, and for good reason. In an age of all sorts of "technological advancements" for jerseys, this is a clean, classy design from Nike. And I don't think the centennial crest will be the new permanent team logo, but it could at least be a hint that the old ugly logo is on its way out for good.

But I'm not so happy about this jersey. First of all, it seems U.S. Soccer has finally succumbed to the Annual Jersey Cycle, releasing a new kit for fans to shell out huge amounts of money on every single year. Sigh. I guess that's modern soccer for ya.

More importantly, though, do we really want this blank white shirt to be our "look"? It doesn't stand out at all among international teams--many of whom have been around for much longer with much more celebrated histories than U.S. Soccer--and these blank white shirts don't give us any sort of identity.

U.S. Soccer has struggled with the Generic White Shirt look for a long time, but they seemed to finally figure it out last year when they unveiled a beautiful red and white striped shirt with blue shorts (pictured on right). The hoops looked great and gave us a real identity we didn't have before.

But of course, fans are always afraid of change, and many refer to it disparagingly as the "Where's Waldo" jersey. They were all ecstatic to see a return to vanilla with the centennial jersey.

It's a shame. I was hoping the Where's Waldo jersey could turn into a permanent identity for U.S. Soccer as our national team slowly becomes a real player on the world stage. If we're lucky, U.S. Soccer will return to the red/white horizontal striped look for the World Cup next year in Brazil. If we're lucky.