Continuing on from Retro Shirt Reviews, we have another new feature here for the “kit-interested” as we perform a detailed break down of what some selected nations wore for historic qualifying campaigns or tournaments.

Background:

Norway started 1992 in Hummel. The brand is usually more associated with neighbours Denmark, but they had also produced kits for the Norwegians since the early 80’s. Fittingly it was against Denmark in a friendly in April that Norway would last wear a Hummel kit, in this case an all-white away ensemble:

(They actually may have played one more time in Hummel, against the Faroe Islands the following month, but unfortunately no visual evidence appears to be available for this match.)

Soon the switch was made to Adidas, who had been the previous kit provider before Hummel took over. Norway adopted a template similar to what Arsenal would wear form 1992-94, but with the addition of stripes down the sleeves. Both a Norwegian flag crest and federation logo were on the chest, and interestingly a traditional Adidas trefoil  instead of the new Adidas Equipment logo, as seen against Sweden in August in the last friendly game before qualifying began:

The employment of the trefoil is an odd instance, since the Equipment logo had already been in use for a year with Liverpool being an early adopter in 1991, and Euro 1992 saw the participation of several nations featuring the new branding. Why then it was decided to go with the old logo for the new Norway contract  is anybody’s guess, especially since it was not the case on basically the same shirt with Arsenal and Germany. However, Norway were not alone in this feature for qualifying in Europe as both the Faroes and Portugal used a similar template with a trefoil (and in the case of Portugal would be worn all the way until late 1994).

Norway, 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification, UEFA Group 2

England
Netherlands
Poland
Norway
Turkey
San Marino

Match 1, at home to San Marino, Sep ’92:

Norway’s previous and only appearance at a World Cup before this was in 1938 where they played one, lost one. But in 1992 they were about to enter a golden age that would include two World Cup appearances in ’94 and ’98, a defeat to Brazil in the latter of these, and a spot at Euro 2000, as well as several high profile international stars. This road would so being with a 10-0 trouncing of San Marino in the traditional colours of red shirts, white shorts and navy socks:

The stripes on the sleeves that break through the red and navy flashes are what set this shirt apart from the other similar designs already mentioned and here we get a good look at it’s glory:

Another anomaly is the use of traditional Adidas striped numbering which had been introduced back in the 70’s, and like with the trefoil, had been mostly phased out in the rest of Europe including on the likes of Portugal’s kits. However, we are of course not complaining:

Match 2, at home to Netherlands, Sep ’92:

In a group that also featured England, 4th seed Norway confirmed themselves as serious challengers for a qualification with an unexpected 2-1 against the Dutch, who wore their change kit to avoid a clash of orange with Norway’s red:

Match 3, away to San Marino, Oct ’92:

A 2-0 win away to San Marinese was next in a tiny ground which looked like it was on the side of the road, and that you’d hardly believe was holding an international fixture. Heroic:

Match 4, away to England, Oct ’92:

The win streak came to an end away to England a few days later, but Norway earned an important draw to stay undefeated. Since goalkeeper shirts are harder to find evidence of, we won’t really be covering them as much in this series but here we can see a green ‘keeper top being used at the time:

Match 5, at home to Turkey, Apr ’93:

Norway returned to winning ways in 1993 with a 3-1 defeat to a white and red clad Turkey at home:

The striped numbers were still in use:

Match 6, at home to England, Jun ’93:

Another big step towards qualification came with a famous 2-0 win over the English in June as the kit saw it’s first alteration with block numbers now replacing the stripes:

Match 7, away to Netherlands, Jun ’93:

The first deviation from the red/white/navy would come a few days later as a change kit was now needed away to the Dutch. En route to an important 0-0 draw, a lovely white version of the shirt was used with red shorts along with the navy home socks:

After the change of numbering on the home shirt, the striped numbering was back:

We can also see here that the goalkeeper shirt had been updated to a design that at first glance you would not assume was made by Adidas (although higher res photos of the shirt show that it was):

Side note: This game was not actually the first appearance for the away shirt. It had been worn along with white shorts and socks in a friendly against Scotland back in June ’92 (side note to the side note: it was my 6th birthday the day that match was played) in what may have been Norway’s first appearance in this Adidas run, depending on that Faroe Islands game which preceded it. I hadn’t mentioned it earlier so I could save it as a little extra surprise for now:

Match 8, at home to Poland, Sep ’93:

A win 1-0 at home to Poland in September was enough to secure qualification against the odds. But the more important thing is that the striped numbers were back on the home shirt, showing the block numbers used against England was presumably a one off mix-up rather than a change of artistic direction:

Match 9, away to Poland, Oct ’93:

With qualification now in the bag, a win was still needed to secure top spot in the group. Norway comfortably achieved this with a 3-0 win away to Poland; comfortably due to their sweet kits that is (at least in the sense that they were comfortable with their outward appearance if not physically, although I’m sure this was fine also). With the two sides already having met in their regular attires in Oslo, one would have assumed the same situation here, but due to an over abundance of red and white Norway delightfully elected to don royal blue shorts instead of their normal white. This makes me very happy:

Yes, the numbers are stills striped:

Again the stadium is not exactly what you’d expect from a World Cup qualifier, which is a major plus to us:

Match 10, away to Turkey, Nov ’93:

The pressure was now off and Norway could afford to suffer their first and only loss of the campaign, away to Turkey in their last game. And in the rain, they would see one more different kit combination. Similar to the Poland games, presumably there had been too much red and white for comfort in the earlier tie and again Norway now used change shorts. This time navy to match the socks rather than royal blue:

And for completion, the famous striped numbering was of course still employed:

Breakdown:
Team: Norway
Kit Supplier: Adidas
Years: 1992, 1993
Competitive Games: 10
Combinations used: 4