Minnesota United vs. Everton exhibition sends Loons coach Adrian Heath back to the '80s

Minnesota United's Adrian Heath and his beloved Everton Football Club will turn back time when the two teams meet in an international friendly at Allianz Field on Wednesday night.

The game brings back one of Everton's biggest stars during its 1980s glory, when Liverpool's other team won the 1984 FA Cup, first-division league championships in 1985 and 1987, and the 1985 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

Just don't bring back the fashions from those days gone by, when Heath and his "Boys in Blue" teammates wore the shortest of shorts.

And that wasn't the worst of it.

"It wasn't the clothing in them days," Heath said. "It was the haircuts that went with them as well. I think I pretty much covered all the bases from the mullet to curly to blond, you name it."

Today, those in the know at Everton and elsewhere in England still call the diminutive Heath "Inchy," so named after an American cartoon character of the time called Inch High, Private Eye.

Gone might be those boyish good looks, but not that boyish figure for a star in his 20s who has now passed 60.

He calls it a "real coup" for his Loons to land an English Premier club with such "magnitude" and history for a summer friendly.

It's an occasion as well for Heath, whose family has arrived in town for a game that will partly be a celebration of both a playing or coaching career with each club.

"It's always special when you have a club of that importance come and play," Heath said. "It's a great opportunity for us to show the support and ensure our game is growing here, which it is."

Signed by Everton in 1982 from his hometown Stoke City team for a then-record 750,000 English pounds, Heath scored 71 goals in 226 games. He scored goals in double figures in all eight seasons he played there.

Included was the winning goal that beat Southampton very late in a 1984 FA Cup semifinal for a trophy it won by beating Watford in the final at Wembley. "Obviously with my history with the club, it's going to be a special night for me and my family," Heath said. "I have such great memories with that club."

The Premier League season opens Aug. 5, with Everton opening at Chelsea the next day. The Loons resume MLS play on Saturday at Houston.

"The team is in such a particularly good rule of form at the moment, I could have done with giving them a rest," Heath said. "But when you've got the opportunity to play a Premier League team, you have to take it."

On Friday night, Heath shared a bottle of wine or two with former Premier League and England national-team star Wayne Rooney, the new D.C. United coach who once played for Everton, too.

On Monday night, Heath caught up with Everton director and former teammate Graeme Sharp.

To be sure, they sat and reminisced about their conquests nearly 40 years ago, if not the fashion.