Why Japan plays in blue at the World Cup when the flag is red
· Yahoo Sports
Japan's flag is red and white, so the blue jerseys at the World Cup throw people. The nickname is Samurai Blue, which only makes the kit color sound older and more deliberate than it really is.
Visit orlando-books.blog for more information.
It came first, back in 1930. Tokyo hosted the Far Eastern Championship that year and tapped a team from Imperial University, not the University of Tokyo, to stand in for the country. They wore the school's light blue and won. So, no one saw a reason to change it.
Then, wearing blue, Japan upset Sweden 3-2 at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It was the country's first real win on a major stage. Athletes are nothing if not superstitious, so lucky blue jerseys were not changing.
It has stayed blue ever since, with a detour.
Coach Kenzo Yokoyama switched the team to red and white from 1988 to 1992 to match the flag. Japan missed the 1990 World Cup and the 1992 Olympics. The jerseys were blamed, of course, and the blue came back. A darker, bolder blue than before.
The Samurai angle is the fun legend part, but it has a thin link to history. You will hear the blue is linked to Kachi-iro, a victory color old warriors supposedly wore under their armor. There is very little evidence of that. The JFA did not make Samurai Blue official until 2009, after floating it before the 2006 World Cup
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why does Japan wear blue at World Cup; what does Samurai Blue mean?