When Arsenal became “world champions” in the USA

Travelling to the USA as part of our pre-season preparation is commonplace now, but back in the late 1980s it was a practically new experience.

Just a few months after we clinched the league title in the most dramatic fashion at Anfield, beating Liverpool 2-0 in the last minute of the 1988/89 season thanks to Michael Thomas’s legendary goal, we flew off to Miami to take part in the Zenith Data Systems Challenge Trophy.

Not the most prestigious honour in our trophy cabinet, granted, but back then it was billed as an unofficial world title match – against Argentinian champions Independiente. George Graham’s side triumphed 2-1, thanks to a David Rocastle double in the searing Florida heat. But the result was only part of the story, as the game has gone down in club folklore as the fixture in which our physio was sent off – for trying to keep the players hydrated.

Now head of performance service for our women’s team, Gary Lewin was the men’s team head physiotherapist for 22 years, and quite improbably received his marching orders in this pre-match friendly in August 1989 – on the occasion of our first team’s second-ever visit Stateside, following on from a game in the same city back in 1972, when we beat Miami Gatos 3-2.

“It was one of the first times we’d ever played in America,” Lewin begins, “and it turned into a really horrible, nasty game.

“My main memory was of how hot it was, it was into the 40s, and so humid. So I went on to the pitch during a break in play and took the crate of drinks on. For whatever reason, the referee too offence to it, got his red card out and sent me off.

“I was surprised, because you are not allowed to do that. Under the rules, you can report medical staff for poor behaviour, but you can’t send them off. I tried to explain that, but the American referee obviously didn’t realise that, and I had no choice but to go off and leave the bench too.

“There was no point complaining, the game was live on TV back home. Anyway we had Vic Akers on the bench, who was kitman at the time, and through his work with the women’s team he had done the FA Diploma, so in theory he was qualified to take over from me. So he did that, and I had to stand behind the goal. 

“I remember calling my family afterwards, and they were just laughing their heads off!”

“It was certainly a first for me,” he continues, “I never got sent off as a player before I went into physiotherapy. I knew the referee was in the wrong, but he just wasn’t having it. We got a letter of apology from the US Football Federation acknowledging their mistake and that was the end of it. It was only a friendly, but it was definitely a talking point on the tour.

“I remember calling my family afterwards, they had watched it back home and they were just laughing their heads off!”

Lewin’s red card came in the first half, and his replacement Akers certainly had a busy evening. The game was littered with stoppages. The South American side had a very physical approach from the first whistle, and Graham’s side – featuring Tony Adams, David O’Leary, Kevin Richardson and Lee Dixon among others, would not back down either. 

The moustachioed referee Raul Dominguez brandished several yellow cards in a bad-tempered match, and sent off a player on each side late on. In the end though, we came out on top. 

Rocastle opened the scoring in the first half with a wonderful low shot into the corner from outside the area after Paul Merson laid the ball off to him. 

After Lewin had received his marching orders, the Argentine champions equalised in the second half through Alfaro Moreno. The yellow cards continued to flow from the official’s pocket – Dixon was one of those cautioned after he left a lively pre-season reducer on the left winger. 

Defender Gus Caesar was dismissed for a lunge from behind on the Indendiente goalscorer, but the 10-man Gunners clinched victory with four minutes remaining. Adams strode forward from the back, and was brought down inside the area with what was the umpteenth foul of the game. Pedro Monzon was, not surprisingly, also sent off for the challenge. 

Rocastle stepped up to take the spot-kick, and despite goalkeeper Vargas standing a good couple of yards off his line, our winger tucked into the bottom corner to win the game, and claim the ZDS Challenge Trophy.

The small pocket of travelling Arsenal supporters inside the virtually deserted 75,000-capacity Joe Robbie Stadium – the home of the Miami Dolphins NFL team – celebrated a satisfying win.

“It was a learning experience!” Lewin said. “Back then, we normally had our tours at the end of the season, but this was a couple of weeks before the new season started.

“I guess from a financial point of view the club couldn’t turn it down so we just got on with it. We weren’t there for a long time, we trained early in the mornings and then the boys would play golf for the rest of the day. 

“At that time our knowledge of travel, dealing with jet lag and acclimatisation was quite limited because that was a new thing to do. We didn’t have sports scientists back then, we were much more ignorant.

“I remember having conversations with the Formula One guys and also England rugby about how to deal with travelling, because in football we didn’t do it often. We hadn’t even been in European football for years at that point don’t forget. 

“Aside from the players, we travelled with just four full-time members of staff, so the concern I had was action plans for emergencies and injuries. Our vice-chairman David Dein had it all in hand though, he contacted the local hospital and arranged for all the senior consultants to meet me beforehand; professors of orthopaedic surgery, shoulder specialists, knee specialists – I met them all. Then the last one said: ‘I’m the consultant gynaecologist’! You could say they thought of everything!”

Fast forward 35 years and not only is touring USA now a regular part of our pre-season schedule, the women’s team are also heading to Washington later this summer to prepare for the WSL campaign. 

Lewin is currently in the process of planning the schedules around that trip, and it’s thanks to the sides of the past that led the way on such tours, that our current teams can travel with all the knowledge and templates in place to get the very best from these training camps.

“It’s completely different now,” Lewin confirms. “The men have been going for the past few years, and on the women’s side we are heading to where the men were last season, so we can use their experience to help us. 

“It’s exciting for us, I believe we’re the first women’s side in the country to have a significant pre-season tour of this kind. Just like it was new for us on the men’s side in the 1980s, it’s new for the women’s team now, but we have the benefit of all that experience as a club. Let’s just hope our physio doesn’t get sent off this time!”

Match details

August 6, 1989
Arsenal 2-1 Independiente
Zenith Data Systems Challenge Trophy
Joe Robbie Stadium

Arsenal: Lukic, Dixon, O’Leary, Adams, Caesar, Morrow, Thomas, Richardson, Rocastle, Merson, Smith.

Independiente: Vargas, Monzon, Rios, Altimirano, Luden, Delgado, Bianco, Giusti, Reggiardo, Bohini, Moreno