Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Good, The Bad, The WTF

Let's just get three things out of the way. One, Shakhtar Donetsk shirts are not the easiest things to find on the net. Two, if the Ukrainian club were not in today's UEFA Cup final, this shirt would merit no attention at this time. Maybe, down the road, when we hit week number 482 of this column, it would fit, but now is not the time. Oh well. And three, Shakhtar's opponent, Werder Bremen, has a whole host of shirts that I could use here, but I did them once already. And I only use the repeat offenders tag for clubs that truly deserve it.

Anyway, let's go take a look at a recent ugly, but not horrible, shirt from the team that, half an hour before kickoff, I am declaring UEFA Cup champions.


Okay, so orange and black aren't the most inspired choices to put together. Look how well it has worked for the Cleveland Browns, you know? But this shirt isn't really bad, it's merely unpleasant. The big problem is that the shirt colors, and these are their normal colors, are nothing like the badge. You look at that badge and you see a more reddish orange, black and green. Why change the orange for the shirt? It makes no sense.

And about that badge. The badge on the shirt is significantly different than the one we put up in the UEFA Cup open thread immediately preceding this post. If this shirt is only from 2007 (which it is), then why the big change there? Apparently the big pull was to get the crossed hammers back onto the crest after 30 years of absence. Couldn't tell you why, but last year, Shakhtar made the switch. The new crest, at least, drops the green field, though the oranges still differ between the badge and the shirt. My favorite part about the badge change is the change in spelling. I know that it's in Cyrillic, but I have to wonder why the spelling changed from "WAXMEP" to "WAXTAP"

Obviously, it's a little hard to work up some vitriol for a relatively benign shirt. This is one of those that resides in the Bad camp, but only just. Next week, I promise, we'll return to WTF territory.

8 comments:

Andrei said...

ШАХТАР is a Ukrainian version of ШАХТЕР (pitman or coal miner in Russian).

Jacob said...

I guess the old way would have been in Russian. Makes sense. Thank you.

EbullientFatalist said...

You're getting intercontinental here at UF. Methinks this is a good thing.

And, if I may make sure-to-be-wrong prediction: a Russian or Ukrainian club will win the CL within the next ten years. And in ten years I will comment here at UF to brag.

jjf3 said...

@umlaut: I think I've seen every one, but in case I haven't, ever subjected a Rovers away jersey to ridicule? My G-d, some of them are horrible (Bill Walton voice)...

@EF: I would say you've got at least a 70% chance of being right. Brag anyways, but this world is changing faster than our history imagined...I wouldn't be shocked to see an Asian team win within 15 years...(only guarantee - I'll forget this within a week, much less 15 years)

Jim Hendry said...

EF: the hilarious thing is that they'll do it much like Shakhtar... with a team full of Brazilians. The origin of the club is becoming meaningless, as every top club is chock-full of players from all corners of the world.

That said, you're probably right. Once those Russkie petrodollars are strong again, someone will build up Zenit to even greater strength.

Magnakai Haaskivi said...

Did we really need to bring the Browns into this? I come here to escape that pain.

Jacob said...

Sorry, MH. The worst part is that the Browns, of course, are Orange and Brown, something that didn't occur to me until well after this was posted.

jjf3 said...

Holy shit, what was I drinking last night?