New England Revolution

The New England Revolution are in need of a change. They have a logo that looks like the US flag drawn with crayon. I gave them a traditional crest, but kept the name. I used red and white stripes with a navy crest. The tree is from the flag of New England. I gave the green new vibrant colors(Timberwolves green) to make it pop.

 The Revs have had an all navy uniform for a lot of their career. I wanted to include red and green, so I had green piping. The clash is inspired by the US national team's uniform, which is ever so sweet. It's the same basic uniform as the home, but with stripes. The socks also have hoops!

Edmonton Drillers

I went to the Rowdies game on saturday, and they played FC Edmonton. They wore throwback Edmonton Drillers uniforms. The Drillers are the team from Edmonton in the old NASL. I figured since most teams were throwing back, this team would be a good team to do. I changed the colors to a deeper navy and orange. The logo is a modified version of the old logo. I used the ball from RSL, and modified it a little and thought I had a solid logo.

 The road uniforms were orange, so I had to bring it back. It's a recolored home uniform which I did in all white. 

Fantasy Football Concepts

I've been doing some fantasy football concepts for a guy and I'd like to show you all!

WYC: The Netherlands

I brought this logo back from my Dutch International Circuit logo. I loved the way the windmill looked. I updated the crown from the soccer team's lion crest, and put it on a shape similar to the Suns. I just wanted as much orange and black as I could.

 The black and orange mesh really well together. I ran a sash down across the jersey, and put my nike cuffs on them like many other teams. Nothing really special, but the colors do the talking.

WYC: Italy

I used a crest shape I call the "Italia", because the soccer team uses the same shape. I wrapped a banner around it similar to the Phoenix logo. With the flag running down it, and then the letters are in brown. They wore brown pants at the 2009 Confederations Cup, and I really liked it. I brought it back because of this.

 The team wore an azurri blue top with brown pants, and I brought it back. I used gold numbers to stand out and not clash with anything, and the gold looked really good with the brown.I did a concept like this for the world cup with the flag going across the chest, just like the Germans did for Euro 08.

WYC: Sweden

This was probably my favorite logo. I modified the St. John's logo, put the Swedish crowns over the banner, with the flag under. I put "Sverige" on the banner, because that's the country's name in the native language. The yellow also pops on the green field! 

 The uniforms were similar to the English team. I was inspired by the Euro jerseys that had navy, and included navy into the color scheme. Most home uniforms for Swedish teams are yellow and that stayed true. Also note the crowns above the chest stripe!

WYC: Russia

For this one, I used a few elements from other teams. I played with this crest shape and liked it. The eagle is from a few Russian national teams, I think I used the soccer team's version. The flag pattern under is based off of Germany's version for their soccer team. I used a red, and maroon to be different. The soccer team did use a maroon and gold uniform a few years ago, and I used them as secondary colors behind red.

 I really liked doing these uniforms. A strip across the chest with some gold balancing it out with the number, and stripe under. Then I put a sublimated eagle on the back for detail

WYC: England

This one isn't that special, I used the 3 lions crest from the soccer team. I did add a red outline around it, and darkened up the blue to five it a deeper feeling. This team was all about simplicity

 The white uniforms has the English flag on the chest, similar to the old Wayne Rooney ad. I wanted to limit the color on that, but make the red pop when I used it. Same with the white n the red kit.

WYC: Germany

I tried to do a similar effect like the event logo, but with the German flag's colors arching over the DFB eagle. It took a while to get right, but I finally got it all to fit in a circle. I just added another line and Deutsch Yakball Verein.

 The uniforms are based off of the soccer team's uniforms of a few years back. I loved the flag running up the back. I put it on the same template as canada. The road is my favorite, the soccer team has used green before, so I made it more of an army green. Imagine the US's red stripes against those things. Oh man.

European Qualifying

What some are calling the most competitive yakball tournament to date, the class of Europe headed to England to face off with the top 6 teams advancing to the WYC. England led off the festivities in London against Spain. The Spaniards gave England a scare by leading at half, but Joseph Southall led a furious comeback and England won by 7. The Danish team and Italian team faced off in Leeds looking to tie up the English team. The Italian’s speed outplayed the Danish strength in a 43-37 win for the Azurri. One of the favorites in the tournament opened group B, Russia was in Newcastle playing Finland. The Fins were outmatched by the precision of the Russians, and lost by 14. The other Group B matchup was Ireland and France in Sheffield. Both side’s fans were loud and rowdy. The French side pulled away late in a 8 point victory.  The Swedish team had their opening game against Wales in Manchester, which was almost a home game for Wales. The crowd showed up big and led the 27^th ranked team over the 6^th ranked team putting Wales in a good position to advance. Scotland was also in the group, and they showed up against Greece in Nottingham. James McAlister went 15 and 9 and led the Scots to a victory. Finally, Group D started with a bang. A favorite in Germany faced off against the Ukraine in Birmingham.  Germany dismantled the Ukrainian defense every time down the field. Captain Jonas Müller led the Germans with 19 points in a 25 point win over a very good Ukrainian team. The Netherlands and Poland national team had the last game in round one in Liverpool. The Dutch team actually had a worse rank than the Ukrainian team, but they played better, atleast against their opponent. The Polish team had a 4 point lead after 1, but the Dutch went on a run and never looked back.

England and Italy were the two teams playing in Manchester, which ultimately would decide the winner of group A. Southall and Giuseppe Rossi matched eachother point for point, with the English team coming out on top 43-41. The Spanish and Danish teams were matched up in Newcastle, the Spanish team once again had the lead, but the Danes shut down the scoring late and the Danes were able to take the lead and hold on. France and Finland had their match in Sheffield. The French had their star center Jacques Garreau injured in the game late when the game was in hand. It could ultimately ruin the French’s chances. The Russians were in Liverpool playing Ireland. The Irish were shut down by the strong Russian side who is the 5^th best team in the world, with a 13 point victory. The Scottish team was playing Sweden in London, with a chance to eliminate the 6^th best team in the world. Henrik Larsson had none of that, and led the Swedes to a 5 point victory. Greece and Wales had their game in Manchester, with Wales looking to advance to the knockout stage.  The Greeks matched the Welsh team point for point, and overpowered the underdog Welsh team and won. The historic rivals Germany and the Netherlands had a match in Leeds, the German machine took a 10 point lead into the half, and the Dutch team closed the gap to 4, before the Germans went on a 10-0 run and iced it. The Euro 2012 hosts had the last game of the second round of games, and the Ukrainian team had a comfortable win over Poland in Nottingham, eliminating them.

The Danish needed a win and an Italy loss to advance to the finals. The Italians had the advantage over Spanish team in Liverpool, but both teams wanted to win the last game for their own reasons. Rossi carried the Azurri to a win, and a place in the knockout stage. The English team had the Danes wanting to win, even though they wouldn’t advance. The English team had the hometown crowd in Birmingham carry them and lead them to the victory, and an undefeated record in the group stage. France had their best player out for the game against Russia, which would just decide the seed in the knockout. The lack of one of the best centers in the game hurt the French, and the Russians took advantage and beat France in Leeds. The Irish and Fins played for pride, with the winner finishing 3^rd in group B. The Irish fans traveled to Sheffield and the Irish sent them home happy with a 40-32 win. Group C was all tied up 1-1 with the winner of both games advancing. The two Great Brittan rivals Scotland and Wales played in Newcastle, the 9^th best team in the world showed why they have that ranking and pulled away after half and advanced to the knockout stage. The Greeks had a chance to be one of the lowest ranking teams to advance, but the 6^th best team in the world was in their way. The Swedes took a 3 point lead into the half, and that was the closest the score would be the rest of the game as they pulled away as they won in Nottingham. Ukraine and Holland were playing to advance, with the winner doing so in London. The Ukrainians had the better team, but the Dutch were playing better. Holland’s strong starting wings, including Steven Van Dijk accounted for half of the Dutch points, and led them to the win by 5. Manchester was the site of the last game of the group stages. Germany was looking to go undefeated, and they did so as they beat Poland by 16 while resting their stars for the group stages.

The first match up of the knockout stage was England-France in Liverpool. The centuries old rivals battled it out but with France still being injures, England took advantage and won the game qualifying for the semifinals and the WYC. France would go to an elimination game between the loser of Sweden and Holland. The Dutch crowd was eager to face the Swedes who were proven to be beatable, but the fans that traveled to Newcastle were sent home unhappy as Sweden hung on after a late Dutch run to win 52-48. Russia and Italy matched up in Leeds hoping to qualify. The Russians who haven’t played to their first potential finally beat up on a team that was proven. Italy had an early 5-0 lead, but a timeout by the Russian coach turned the game around. Italy would face the loser of Germany-Scotland who were playing in Birmingham. The Germans were showing to be the best team of the tournament by sweeping Group D, and facing off against Scotland, the best opponent they faced so far. The Scottish team had more fans, but the Germans and their clockwork passes led the team to a 49-42 victory. France and Holland were in Sheffield playing for the right to be in the WYC. France’s Garreau got the start, but wasn’t effective because of the injury. Holland showed their colors and beat the French team and qualifying for the tournament in the US. Italy and Scotland had a showdown in Manchester, the better of the two elimination games. A back and forth game, the only difference maker was Scotland’s inability to stay out of the penalty box. Italy won by 5, and qualified. The Scottish coach was on the hot seat.

The final 4 would take place in London. England and Sweden would be the first match up, with Germany and Russia immediately after. England had the crowd, but Sweden had the lead at half. The halftime talk must’ve worked, because the English team opened with 8 straight points, but the Swedes had Larsson who put up 18 points. Southall countered and led England to victory. The Russians and Germans had the best game to date. Both teams entered the game undefeated, and they played like it. The Germans rallied with 4 points in the last 2 minutes to send the game to overtime, 40-40. The Russians and Germans matched eachother possession to possession for two more overtimes. The score was 52-52 going into the 3^rd. The Russians were put a man down on a rough hit on Müller. That was the break the Germans needed and they scored 3 on the powerplay putting the game out of reach. The epic final between England and Germany was set. Germany took a 6 point lead to half. England countered with a big run, and a 2 point lead starting the 4^th. Germany scored with 20 seconds left with a 1 point lead. The English rushed the shot, and the Germans took the ball and held on for the championship.

Qualified Teams

WYC: Australia

Pretty simple deal with Australia. The icon is a kangaroo silhouette with the southern cross under it's back legs on a crest. Nothing really too out of the box. The field has a southern cross on it.

 The jerseys are reincarnations of the World Cup uniforms I did for them in 2010, I really liked the piping i used, so I brought it back. I put another cross on the back to add something

Oceania Qualifying

The smallest tournament of qualifying was Oceania, but Australia and New Zealand were solid teams and had a good match up to be. It was the first match up of the tournament in Aukland. Jordan Kyne led the Aussies over the All Greys in a hard fought, back and forth game. The two best teams in the league got their match up out of the way, with Australia having the upper hand in the group. Fiji and Tahiti had their game in Christchurch, the Tahitian team’s game plan worked in shutting down the Fiji enforcers, leading to a 10 point low scoring win.

New Zealand had the task of fighting back and hoping the Australians lost twice, the only way they could advance. The All Greys thumped Fiji by 24, and did their side of the deal in Dunedin. Australia came out fast against Tahiti in Wellington, ruining the dreams of New Zealand, who could only hope to tie the Australians’ record, but lose on head to head.

New Zealand had one more game against Tahiti for pride. They won easily by 21, sending the Wellington team home with some sort of prize. The Aussies were wrapping up their New Zealand tour against Fiji, and the 8^th best team in the world only looked better, a large win against the 0-2 Fiji team who had no shot from the beginning.

Qualified team

Tampa Bay Rowdies

My team is the Tampa Bay Rowdies, currently their logo is just a green script(seen above) and the star, so I wanted to give the Rowdies an actual crest instead of just the iconic script. I went with an italian type crest which is a vertical oval. I put a ball, and the years that the original Rowdies, and the current Rowdies were started. Those go above the team's green and yellow stripes running horizontally.

The kits are the same as the current, but on an adidas template.

WYC: South Africa

I sort of used a lot of elements I've done before. The logo has the protea, the national flower of South Africa. I designed a crest and put it on it. I made it stylized, and liked it. So it was pretty simple. The turf is the green color the team is.

 I did this design for the soccer team during the world cup, and I liked it enough to bring it back! The design has the South African flag on it, which is one of the most unique flags in the world. I used the traditional yellow/green, green/yellow look like the soccer team

African Qualifying

The African tournament was wide open, the favorites were the host South Africa, but many teams had a strong shot at making the finals. With the lack of arenas in South Africa, the set up was different. Group A would play in Cape Town, and Group B in Durban. The final 4 would take place in Johannesburg. South Africa and Algeria faced off in the opening game in Cape Town. South Africa won by 8, and started the tournament off right. Egypt and the Ivory Coast played with the Egyptians rallying late and downing the upstart Ivory Coast team. Group B opened with the Cameroon team upsetting the Ugandan team with a big 3rd quarter. Kenya faced with their eyes set on beating the 40th ranked team in the world. They couldn’t close the game in the end and Tunisia won their first group game. 

South Africa played the Egyptians trying to advance to the next round. They were successful with an 11 point win. Algeria and Ivory Coast were trying to set up a win-and-your-in game in the next round against Egypt, Algeria won handily setting up the showdown. Tunisia and Uganda played in Durban, and the Ugandans opened a 12 point lead and Tunisia never got within 4 the rest of the game. Kenya played Cameroon trying to earn their first win and tie up Group B 1-1. Kenya did win, setting the score for the 3rd game. 

 South Africa was already in the knockouts, and had the Ivory Coast between them and the knockouts. The starters were phased out with the lead at 15, and the Ivory Coast team went home with a 0-3 record. The climax of group B came with Algeria and Egypt playing to advance. The Egyptians had the lead in but the Algerians came back and won by 4 and set a date with the winner of group B. Uganda-Kenya, and Tunisia-Cameroon with each winner advancing to the knockout stage. Uganda took a 2 point lead into the 4th and stretched it to 12 before the final buzzer. Cameroon opened up a 8 point lead at half, and the Tunisian team slowly lowered the lead, and then passed the Cameroon team halfway through the 4th and never looked back. 

South Africa and Tunisia matched up in Jo-Burg, and Mikel Mkandla led the South Africans to a victory with an 18 point performance. Uganda won group B, and faced Algeria looking for a finals appearance. Uganda’s barber pole uniforms were all over in their victory against the Algerians with a 7 point victory, which was never really close. The South Africans were looking to join China as a team winning their home tournament. They played their best game of the tournament, and sent the Ugandans home, and booked their ticket to the US.

Qualified teams

Puerto Rico Islanders

I was reading an article about the Cosmos, and the Islanders’ gradient multicolored excuse for a logo just stood out. I went to their website, and it was almost as bad as their logo.

 http://www.prislandersfc.com/

 I especially like the logos in jpg with white borders around them. 

 Trying to replace the worst logo in the top 2 levels of the US Pyramid would be sort of easy, But I thought it would be fun to do a concept. I did the same crest shape, and put a ribbon around the logo. The original banner I had took about as much time to get wrong and delete it, than it did to do this whole logo. Puerto Rico has castles on the cliffs on the oceans, in which they have little areas like what I put in this concept overlooking the sea for enemy boats. So I made sort of a see scene with the castle, and the sea. The bottom is just a ball with a sun beam design coming out.

The jerseys are pretty simple, I kept to the template with some piping to make it slightly more original. They're in the MLS style with the font I wanted to use.

Go Rowdies!

Brooklyn Nets Rebrand

I was busy on vacation. 

 So in Brooklyn I saw my fair share of new Nets gear. I thought with the right LOGOS they could be super sweet. But their logos look rushed and generic, so I did the opposite and did something cool. 

 The cursive script was what I first wanted, I have that script, and cleaned it up and added a tail. Then I sketched a net, but the strings were interwoven with eachother as you can see below. I pieced the identity together with a circle logo and Brooklyn script. You guys better like it, inkscape crashed and I had to redo the whole concept.

Has the jerseys been released yet? Not even sure. I did a simple design similar to the last ones. The pattern up the side match the net design, and I put the design in the middle to see. Nothing special here!

WYC: Brazil

I may or may not threw this together, but I was playing with shapes like the USA basketball logo. I liked the front rounded part, with another shape behind it. I put some design, and a yakball under it. Pretty self explanatory. 

I did a "nike fabulous" uniform! It's pretty similar to my Dallas uniform. I did a band running diagnally across the chest, then a sublimated pattern running down to the end of the uniform. I tried to balance yellow, green, and blue just like the soccer team. The clash matches the home, and colorwise matches the soccer team's clash.

WYC: Argentina

I gave the South American champs a uniform that hopefully they would be proud of. I did a triangle with a drop shadow. I put AYA at the top, with the traditional light blue striping running vertical down under the sun from the flag. 

Like all the other Argentina teams, I did light blue stripes going down. I did a modern twist on them that I've toyed around with on an old soccer concept. The clash is a navy, traditional to the national teams.

South American Qualifying

The South American tournament host and favorite Brazil started their reign with an EASY win over Bolivia in Rio di Janiero 56-21. In reality, Brazil was going to advance from Goup A, but the second seed was wide open. Venezuela scored 6 points to end the game against Uruguay in Recife, to win by 3. Argentina was Brazil’s biggest rival, and also a tournament contender. They beat Ecuador by 13 in Curitiba. Chile and Peru was the last game in round 1, with the Peruvians prevailing 35-31 in Londrina.

Brazil had a match up against Venezuela, in which Brazil’s fans from Belo Horizonte came out in full force handing Venezuela their first loss in the group. Brasilia was the host of Uruguay-Bolivia, with Uruguay’s Suarez scoring 20 in route to a win. Peru was in over their head against Argentina in Manaus, Argentina’s 11th ranking in the world was on display beating Peru by 16. Chile and Ecuador was a good match up on paper, and Ecuador gave Chile their second loss in Sao Paulo.

Brazil and Uruguay had the two neighbors matched up, Brazil had already advanced, but a win by Uruguay and some help by Bolivia would send them to the knockouts. But the 10th best team in the world knocked the Uruguans out with a strong performance by Carvahlo in Recife. Venezuela sent Bolivia home officially with a defeat in Londrina. Argentina and Chile were playing for nothing, as their fates were decided. Argentina didn’t play their starters, and they beat the Chileans by 12 in Belo Horizonte. The real match up came with Peru and Ecuador with the winner going to the knockout round. Peru sent the fans in Curitiba mental with a shot at the buzzer from the 2 point line to win by 1 and advance.

Brazil’s first knockout game was in Brasilia against Peru. The Peruvian’s momentum didn’t last as Brazil won by 14. Argentina and Venezuela matched up in Rio di Janiero with the 11th ranked team prevailing to advance to the finals. The anticipated match up was realized in the finals. The Brazilians were the favorites in Sao Paulo, but the Argentine fans traveled well. The Brazilians led by 5, the largest of the game, heading into the half. Sergio Rodriguez led the Argentine team back, and scored 8 in the final frame leading the Argentine team to victory.

Qualified teams

WYC: Japan

So for these guys, I wanted to tie them into the soccer team, but tried my best to make them different. I was playing with an uneven crest, and after many tries finalized my logo. I put the initials of the Japanese Yakball Association, then the Japanese legend of the 3 legged bird, and a cherry blossom at the bottom. I ALMOST put a touch of pink in here, but didn't. 

I did a red band across the chest to balance the blue and the red which look really good together. I went for a simplistic look with adidas stripes. Nothing crazy.