England made a big change to their kit for the World Cup opener, but hardly anyone noticed.
All eyes were on England as they kicked off their World Cup journey with an easy win over Croatia on Wednesday night.
England took the lead early when Harry Kane scored his penalty on the second try, but Martin Baturina quickly leveled the score with a great long shot.
The Three Lions didn’t stay behind for long—Kane headed in a goal from a Declan Rice corner to put England back in front. But just before halftime, Petar Musa scored to make it 2-2 again.
After the break, Thomas Tuchel’s team came out strong with one of their best performances yet. Goals from Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford helped secure a well-earned 4-2 victory.
Fans cheering for England might have missed a small but important change in their kit during this game.
They wore their new home shirts, which were slightly different from the ones they wore in warm-up games. Earlier, the squad numbers were placed under the Nike logo on the right chest, causing some confusion, since promotional pictures showed them in the center of the shirt.
For the Croatia match, the numbers were moved back to the center, just like in the official photos and on their red away kits.
England is also planning something new by possibly playing an extra game during the World Cup.
BBC Sport says the team is in talks about a friendly match with Sporting Kansas City, a well-known MLS team. Although nothing is confirmed yet, the idea is to play this friendly between their World Cup games against Croatia and Ghana.
England has already played Miami FC earlier in the tournament, winning 6-0 with Ivan Toney scoring three goals.
Now, they’re based in Kansas City, training at Swope Soccer Village for the whole event.
When asked about the extra game, Thomas Tuchel said: “Yes, we’re trying to play a practice match after our game with Croatia to make good use of the time. There are many days between matches, and it gives players who haven’t played much a chance to get some real game time, not just training. We did this after the Costa Rica match and plan to do it again after the Croatia game.”