Black, blue and curiously minty.

I was leafing through my copy of Four Four Two Magazine, and came across a couple of esoteric snippets that might be of use for the Earthquakes coaches – and right now we should be considering anything to boost the team’s performance. 

Bleed blue and black: I was concerned that we may have to reevaluate the Quakes kit when I read that “US research found that referees were more inclined to award decisions against a team wearing black when playing against opposition in a brightly colored kit.  The researchers concluded that the referee perceived the team in black as more aggressive“.  Uh-oh.  I looked up the research and found that the original data published by Frank (not Yallop) and Gilovich in 1988 was based on football (gridiron) and ice hockey uniforms, so I naturally wondered if it also applied to soccer.  Fortunately for the Quakes, in a subsequent study measuring the number of red and yellow cards and penalty kicks awarded, no significant differences were found between soccer teams wearing black uniforms or those who weren’t. Raider fans should still be worried though...

Minty fresh breath: “Using mouthwash can boost performance during heated exercise.  After swilling a mouthful of mint for 10-seconds athletes were able to exercise longer than those who swigged an orange colored placebo”.  There are obvious marketing possibilities with Amway oral care products here. It's a close call who has the brightest pearly whites on the team, but it’s unclear if Colgate would object to the use of the tag line “Brad Ring of confidence”.    

At least this week's road trip in Philadelphia we will probably be wearing the white away strip, but I might still recommend a quick sluice with Listerine before you go out there guys - every little thing helps, and the ref will thank you when you argue that call all up in his grill.