Estadio Nou Camp

This article covers the Estadio Nou Camp in León, Mexico. For the FC Barcelona stadium , see Camp Nou .

Estadio Nou Camp
The Estadio Nou Camp in León
Data
place	León , Guanajuato , Mexico
Coordinates	21 ° 6 '56 "  N , 101 ° 39' 27.5"  W Coordinates: 21 ° 6 '56 "  N , 101 ° 39' 27.5"  W.
owner	Club León
start of building	August 18, 1965
opening	March 1, 1967
First game	FC Santos - CA River Plate 2-1
surface	Natural grass
architect	Constructora ARVA SA de CV
capacity	33,943 seats
playing area	105 × 68 m
Societies)
Club León
Events
1968 Summer Olympics (football) Football World Cup 1970 Soccer World Cup 1986

The Estadio Nou Camp in León

The Estadio Nou Camp , according to some sources the official name Estadio León , is a football stadium in the Mexican city ​​of León in the state of Guanajuato . The stadium was a venue for the soccer tournament of the 1968 Summer Olympics as well as both soccer world championships held in Mexico , with it operating as Estadio Guanajuato in 1970 and as Estadio Nou Camp in 1986. It is the home ground of Club León , one of the most traditional Mexican football clubs.

Construction time and opening

Construction of the stadium began on August 18, 1965. It was officially opened on March 1, 1967 with the game of the two top South American teams, FC Santos from Brazil and CA River Plate from Argentina.

World Cup 1970

León was one of only five venues at the 1970 World Cup , in which seven of the 32 games were played. The Estadio Guanajuato was the venue for preliminary group D, which won the German national team , and also the quarter-final match between Germany and England on June 14, which Germany won 3-2 after extra time after falling 2-0 down.

The following meetings took place in the preliminary group:

• 0June 2, 1970: Peru - Bulgaria 3: 2 (0: 1)  
• 0June 3, 1970: Federal Republic of Germany - Morocco 2: 1 (0: 1)  
• 0June 6, 1970: Peru - Morocco 3: 0 (0: 0)  
• 0June 7, 1970: Federal Republic of Germany - Bulgaria 5: 2 (2: 1)  
• June 10, 1970: Federal Republic of Germany - Peru 3: 1 (3: 1)  
• June 11, 1970: Bulgaria - Morocco 1: 1 (1: 0)  

With a total of 24 goals, Group D was the group with the most goals in the preliminary round; ahead of Group C with 16 goals, Group A with 15 goals and Group B with only 6 goals, in which Italy managed to become group winners with a score of 1-0 goals and 4-2 points.

Germany's 5-2 win over Bulgaria was the first-round game with the highest number of goals and the highest-scoring game in the World Cup that was decided within 90 minutes.

Gerd Müller , top scorer of the World Cup 70, scored eight of his ten goals at the Estadio Guanajuato: first the important 2-1 winner against Morocco in the 80th minute, then three goals each against Bulgaria and Peru (in this game he scored between 19th and 39th minute a flawless hat trick) and finally the goal scored in the 108th minute to 3-2 against England paved the way for his team to the semi-finals of the so-called century game against Italy.

In addition to Müller, the Peruvian Teófilo Cubillas also scored a goal in all three games he played in León.

World Cup 1986

León was also the venue for the 1986 World Cup . Despite the expansion of the participating teams to 24 teams and thus a total of 52 games, only four games took place in the Estadio Nou Camp this time because this World Cup was held in a total of 12 stadiums.

León was the home ground of France's selection in preliminary group C (the other three group matches were held at the Estadio Irapuato ) and saw the following encounters:

• 01 June 1986: France - Canada 1: 0 (0: 0)  
• 0June 5, 1986: France - Soviet Union 1: 1 (0: 0)  
• 0June 9, 1986: France - Hungary 3: 0 (1: 0)  

Just as the Germans had trembled 16 years earlier in their first game against Morocco with a late Müller goal in the 80th minute for a 2-1 victory, this time the highly favored team of France tormented themselves in their first group game against the blatant underdog Canada to victory. The decisive goal to make it 1-0 was only achieved in the 79th minute by Jean-Pierre Papin .

And as in 1970, the most exciting game of the first knockout round took place here. In the last 16 match between the winners of Group C, the Soviet Union (which had thus banned the French from the Estadio Nou Camp), and Belgium on June 15, the Belgians managed to equalize the leadership of the Soviets twice, so that it was after 90 minutes 2: 2 and went into overtime. The Belgians decided this 4: 3 in their favor.

The most successful goalscorer at the Estadio Nou Camp was Igor Belanov , who scored all three goals in the 3: 4 against Belgium, despite the unexpected elimination of the Soviet team . No other player had scored more than one goal here, because the five goals by the French and the four goals by the Belgians were shared among as many players.

Mexican championship

The master's freestyle took place twice in the Estadio León, the decisive second final of the Mexican football championship.

At the end of the 1991/92 season, Club León secured the title to the delight of the local crowd by beating Puebla FC 2-0 after the first game at the Estadio Cuauhtémoc had ended goalless.

There was no reason for the local fans to be happy in the winter of 1997, however. After a 1-1 draw at the Estadio Azul, Club León lost 0-1 to the Cruz Azul CD in front of their own audience with a golden goal .

Web links

• Forum website with photos from the stadium

Individual evidence

1. ↑ fussballtempel.net: List of Mexican stadiums
2. ↑ According to some sources, which include the Spanish Wikipedia when choosing their article name, the stadium bears the official name Estadio León . Even the English Wikipedia, which categorized the article under the name Estadio Nou Camp , mentions in the description that the official name of the stadium is Estadio León , and the name Estadio Nou Camp is only unofficial. Following this point of view, the article in the German-language Wikipedia should also be listed under the keyword “Estadio León”. But since even the Mexican Football Association called the stadium on its official website ( [1] ) as Estadio Nou Camp (accessed on June 12, 2009), this apparently more common name was adopted for the categorization of the article, including the terms used therein.
3. ↑ Olympic Football Tournament 1968 (English)