Preparation isn’t everything at a World Cup – but it helps a lot

The 1970 World Cup contained several fascinating off-field stories.Composite: Guardian DesignThe heat and the altitude worried everybody. The 1970 World Cup in Mexico would not be a normal one. So the Bulgarian authorities sent their squad south of Sofia to get used to playing several thousand feet above sea level. Which seemed a great idea until somebody noticed that the temperature in the Pirin Mountains was not in the mid-20s celsius as it is in Mexico but somewhere near freezing. How then co