Notes
These tournaments served as a trial run for
the host nation and the participating teams a year ahead of World Cup 1986.
As England manager Bobby Robson stated in the Football Association's
brochure for the "summer tour" to Mexico and the U.S.A., where
England met the host nation in Los Angeles immediately after the
tournament matches in Mexico:
"England's results in the World Cup qualifying
matches and other internationals during 1984-85 have been highly
encouraging, and the way the team has performed has given every reason for
confidence in the future.
"The matches in Mexico this summer will go a long
way to prepare us for the World Cup finals in which we sincerely hope we
will be participating and will enable us to renew old acquaintances with
our friends from Italy, the Federal Republic of Germany and, of course,
Mexico.
"None of the England squad has first-hand
knowledge of the strains of World Cup football in climactic conditions
very different to those we experience at home. Their education
begins now as we test ourselves at the World Cup venue against national
teams of the highest quality.
"This tour, including the match in Los Angeles, is
important because it gives me an opportunity to confirm my judgement of
the players whose skill, talent, imagination, physical shape, attitude and
character fit them for a World Cup place. All in all we couldn't
have a more useful series of international matches."
Some
confusion surrounded the status of the tournament matches in Mexico.
Mexico played against Italy, England
and West Germany at Estadio Azteca. England also played against the other three teams at
Estadio Azteca. Italy and West Germany, however, each played only Mexico and England; they
did not themselves meet.
Ron Hockings and Keir Radnedge,
in Nations of Europe,
vol. 1, pp. 198, 307, vol. 2, pp. 27-28 (1993), label all the matches "CITY TOURN." Mike Payne, in England: The Complete Post-War Record, pp. 262-64
(1993), says England's matches against Italy and Mexico were part of a three-team
tournament called "Aztec 2,000" and that England's match against West Germany
was a stand-alone friendly. Both the Green Flag Team England website results list and
Michael Heatley and Ian Welch, in England Football, p. 33 (1996), label
England’s matches against Italy and Mexico as part of an unnamed tournament and
indicate the West Germany match was a friendly. The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistical
Foundation Archive's Mexico results list states that Mexico’s match against Italy was
for the ciudad de México Cup and that Mexico's matches against England and West Germany were
part of the "Azteca 2000 Tourn."
A history of events at
Estadio Azteca appearing on the website of Mexican communications giant Televisa
makes the following clear: two tournaments were played, Mexico and England took part in both,
Italy took part only in the first and West Germany only in the second.
Apparently Mexico’s match with England was part of both.
Both England: The Complete Post-War Record,
p. 263, and the Deutscher
Fußball-Bund [German football association] website have the attendance at England's match with West Germany as 8,000, but Nations
of Europe, vol. 1, p. 198, puts it at 10,000.
Sources
Green Flag Team England official website
Heatley, Michael & Ian Welch, England
Football, p. 33 (Dial House, Shepperton, Surrey, England, 1996)
Hockings, Ron & Keir Radnedge, Nations
of Europe, vol. 1, pp. 198, 307, vol. 2, pp. 27-28 (Articulate, Ernsworth, Hampshire,
U.K., 1993)
Leatherdale, Clive, England: The Quest
for the World Cup—A Complete Record, pp. 232-33 (Two Heads Publishing/Desert
Island Books, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, U.K., 1994)
Payne, Mike, England: The Complete
Post-War Record, pp. 262-64 (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)
Televisa website
____________________
PY/CG
England
Football Online
