Our friend David sent along an interesting link.

Which predicts which teams will get out of the group phase of the World Cup based on … how sharp their uniforms look.

And this is courtesy of the uniwatch.com site. Which ranks the 32 teams 1 through 4 in each of the eight groups.

Some thoughts.

Can’t say I agree with these guys down the line.

Truth is, I don’t spend a lot of time studying how a shirt is trimmed, or which colors clash or coordinate, or what sort of typefaces are used for names/numbers.

Thus, some of their choices strike me as strange.

–Croatia the second-best uniform in Group A? One of the few fashion rules I have for jerseys is this: No checkerboard pattern, and Croatia flaunts that incessantly; they look like they have shirts made out of table cloths from an Italian restaurant. Well, yeah, the red-and-white checks are right in the middle of their flag, too, but shouldn’t the sports teams try to escape that?

Another fashion rule of mine. No “hoops” of color. No hooped shirts and no hooped socks. Ever. Pretty sure nobody in the World Cup is showing up with hoops.

–Is uniwatch prone to front-running tendencies? They love Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Beligum and Colombia — all favored to win their groups. They like Portugal. The only major power they don’t have finishing in the top two of their group is Spain. Could we put Neymar or Cristiano Ronaldo in anything, and these guys would like them?

–It’s hard times, for Concacaf — the four sides from North America. The U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras each finish last in their groups, according to uniwatch. And, actually, I can’t really disagree much with that. On the U.S., they write: “The primary kit is beyond awful. Overly simple, and the collared white golf polo shirt look is embarrassing.” And I agree that the U.S. jersey is hurt by the ancient and crude US Soccer crest.

Uniwatch suggests Mexico’s jersey was inspired by Luchador masks. They say the Ticos’ unis as looking cheap — and I think they, in fact, were. And Honduras has the weird affection for the big capital letter H, which is something you usually see on a Euro faux sports tee with nonsensical words/letters on it. Actually, they suggest Honduras is wearing a “Hanes beefy-T.”

–Uniwatch has Uruguay No. 1 in their group, but all that baby blue looks like it was inspired by a T-shirt worn by an infant boy.

–I don’t see why boring English red and white is second in their group, while boring Greece blue and white is last in another group. It all comes down to the crest?

–I fail to grasp what is so fabulous about Brazil. A yellow shirt. Big deal. You like the five stars, one for each World Cup championship? May look interesting, but it has nothing to do with the shirt.

–And Belgium, top of Group H? All three of those jerseys looks like a hot mess.

Anyway, go have a look. See what you think.