{"id":738675,"date":"2026-07-02T09:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T09:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/738675\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T09:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T09:59:08","slug":"world-cup-how-england-v-mexico-will-be-impacted-by-altitude-at-azteca-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/738675\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup: How England v Mexico will be impacted by altitude at Azteca stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having reached the last 16 of the World Cup by scraping past DR Congo 2-1,<\/a> one of the biggest dangers facing England in their next match against Mexico is something they can’t control – altitude.<\/p>\n

The Three Lions will be playing at the iconic Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, 7,220ft (2,240m) above sea level.<\/p>\n

It will be England’s first game at the stadium since their controversial quarter-final defeat by Argentina at the 1986 World Cup.<\/a><\/p>\n

At that altitude, the Earth’s barometric pressure is lower, making the air thinner and meaning less oxygen is taken into the bloodstream with each breath.<\/p>\n

Even for professional footballers, that has a potentially significant impact – increased heart rate, shortness of breath, dehydration, quicker and more intense fatigue.<\/p>\n

By contrast, the stadium at the highest altitude in professional English football is West Bromwich Albion’s The Hawthorns, which at 551ft (168m) is 14 times closer to sea level than the Azteca.<\/p>\n

Opponents Mexico have played all of their matches so far on home soil, and the squad is clearly used to coping with the conditions – they have played 14 games at the Azteca so far in the 2020s, scoring 23 goals and conceding only four.<\/p>\n

Their competitive record at the Azteca is 70 wins from 89 games, with 17 draws and only two defeats. They are also unbeaten in 10 World Cup games there.<\/p>\n

“As an opponent, you know when you go there, you are going to suffer,” says Pavel Pardo, a former Mexico captain who also called the Azteca home when he played for domestic side Club America.<\/p>\n

So, what will the altitude feel like for players out on the pitch, how big a difference could it make, and are there any strategies to cope with it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having reached the last 16 of the World Cup by scraping past DR Congo 2-1, one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-738675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}