The Umbro Cup was a friendly international football competition that took place in England in June 1995. The trophy was sponsored by the sports equipment brand Umbro, the manufacturers of the England national team's kit.
Host nation England, Sweden, Japan and world championsBrazil participated in the tournament. Brazil were the eventual champions, after winning all three of their games.
England did not compete in the 1994 FIFA World Cup due to coming third in Group 2 in the qualifying round. This led to Graham Taylor resigning on 23 November 1993, six days after England's failure to qualify. England then appointed Terry Venables as manager on 28 January 1994.[1] This, combined with the fact that England qualified automatically for UEFA Euro 1996 as hosts, meant that by mid-1995 the team had not played competitive football for more than 18 months. In preparation for Euro 1996 a rehearsal tournament was organised and sponsored by Umbro.[2][3][4]
Venables named a 23 man squad for the competition, but was missing some choices due to injuries. Two players, Paul Ince and Andy Cole withdrew later and were replaced by Jamie Redknapp and Warren Barton.[2] Later in Venables 2014 book it was said that Ince was "frozen out" of the squad.[5]
Tournament
In the opening round of matches, England beat Japan,[6][7][8] and Brazil beat Sweden.[9]
Brazil comfortably beat Japan in their second game.[10][11] On 8 June, Sweden were leading 3–1 against England but their opponents scored twice in the last two minutes to snatch a draw.[12][13]
In the final match of the tournament, Brazil beat England.[14][15][16][17]
The first match of the tournament took place at Wembley and pitted England against Japan. Due to several injuries, four players made their England debuts, leading to a line-up which Veneables described as "a little disjointed".[6]Darren Anderton gave England the lead shortly after the half-time interval but Masami Ihara equalised for Japan. England's captain, David Platt, was fouled late in the game but the referee opted not to award a penalty kick. With only two minutes of the game remaining, Japan's captain, Tetsuji Hashiratani, used his hand to stop the ball going into the goal. He was sent off and a penalty awarded, which Platt scored to give England a 2–1 victory.[6]