When the U.S. soccer team takes the field next week in the Copa América, it will be unrecognizable. No, not because of insipid play (the team has looked solid in reaching the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup) or a post-World Cup roster overhaul. Rather, it's because the U.S. National Team will have, once again, changed its uniform.

To be more precise, Nike has outfitted our boys with a "third" jersey—an alternate to the usual home and road togs. That would be OK if the team had an identifiable first or second outfit. It doesn't, nor has it ever. The United States is probably the only country in the soccer world that doesn't have a recognizable uniform.

The new shirt, seen here on Landon Donovan, is a white pinstripe over royal blue. This isn't the time or place to deride the pinstripe—to say that it only belongs on Wall Street, that there's a reason it rarely shows up on the soccer field. No, we're talking about this pinstriped shirt because it illustrates the National Team's extraordinary identity crisis. Isn't a uniform supposed to be, well, uniform?