You know those agonising moments when a striker’s foot perfectly connects with a volley, the ball travels through the air like a missile, beats the outstretched keeper, crashes against the underside of the bar and goal line before rebounding away to safety?
The bar rattles for the next five minutes and all you’re left with as you stand with your hands on your head, exhaling the air out of your lungs, is adrenaline.
So, so close.
So memorable.
Oh, what might have been!
That’s how we feel about this set of shirts from Ligue 1 side Lille and New Balance.
Both the home and the third kits have an abundance of design flair.
The home kit has a wild, unique pattern in red, white and blue.
The third kit brings the pentagon of Lille’s modern badge and repeats the shape across the shirt like ripples from a stone skipping across the water.
The resulting slim navy lines across the white shirt brings to mind the classic Bretton style France away kit.
It’s so close to perfection!
Only, New Balance have decided to break the design at the shoulders leaving a panel of plain colour as they have done for Liverpool and Porto.
So with the air having left our lungs, we still look at these two shirts as absolutely marvelous and demonstrative of the great kits on display in France’s Ligue 1.
Let’s not be too picky here, let’s take a moment to celebrate the imagination and the flair, and to gasp at the audacity of the effort.
C’est magnifique.
As for the yellow away kit?
Meh . . .
Sartorial Soccer 