Uruguay national football team Totally Explained

Everything about Uruguay National Football Team totally explained

The Uruguay national football team is controlled by the Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol. Uruguay is one of the most successful national football teams in the world. They have won two FIFA World Cups, including the first ever World Cup in 1930 as hosts, beating Argentina 4-2 in the final. They won their second title in 1950, upsetting hosts Brazil 2-1 in the final match. They also won the Gold Medals in football at the Summer Olympics twice, in 1924 and 1928, before the creation of the World Cup. They have also won the Copa América fourteen times, tied with Argentina, for most in America. They also won the 1980 Mundialito, a tournament among former World Cup champions Uruguay hosted in 1980 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first World Cup. Their success is amplified by the fact that the nation has a very small population. Uruguay is the only country in the world to win a World Cup with a general population of under 4 million inhabitants. The second smallest country to have won the World Cup is Argentina with a total population of over 41 million people.

History

Prior to 1916, Uruguay played more than 30 matches, of which all but one were against Argentina. The inaugural Copa America provided Uruguay with more varied opposition. Victories over Chile and Brazil along with a tie against Argentina enabled Uruguay to win the tournament. The following year Uruguay hosted the competition, and retained the title by winning every game. The 1919 Copa America saw Uruguay's first defeat in the tournament, a 1-0 defeat in a playoff with Brazil which went to two periods of extra time, the longest Copa America match in history.
   In 1924 the Uruguay team traveled to Paris to become the first South American team to compete in the Olympic Games. In contrast to the physical style of the European teams of the era, Uruguay played a style based around short passes, and won every game, defeating Switzerland 3-0 in the gold medal match. In the 1928 Summer Olympics Uruguay went to Amsterdam to defend their title, again winning the gold medal after defeating Argentina 2-1 in the final.
   Following the double Olympic triumph, Uruguay was chosen as the host nation for the first World Cup, held in 1930, the centenary of Uruguay's independence. During the World Cup, Uruguay won all its matches, and converted a 1-2 half-time deficit to a 4-2 victory against Argentina at the Estadio Centenario. Due to the refusal of some European teams to participate in the first World Cup, the Uruguayan Football Association urged other countries to reciprocate by boycotting the 1934 World Cup played in Italy. For the 1938 World Cup, France was chosen as host, contrary to a previous agreement to alternate the Championships between South America and Europe, so Uruguay again refused to participate.
   Uruguay again won the World Cup in 1950, beating hosts Brazil in a surprise result at the Maracanã Stadium, a match known as the Maracanazo.
   Since 1950, the national team has had mixed performances in the World Cup, achieving fourth place in 1954 and 1970, but failing to qualify on several occasions. A new generation headed by Francescoli emerged in the mid-1980s, which qualified for the 1986 and 1990 World Cups, reaching the second round. During the 2000s, the less successful generation of Recoba, Forlán and Montero among others qualified for the 2002 World Cup, but were unable to leave the group stage.
   Nevertheless, during the same time period from the 1950s, Uruguay won the Copa America six times, most recently in 1995, when Uruguay also hosted the tournament. Each of the seven occasions when the Copa America has been hosted in Uruguay has resulted in the Uruguayan team winning the tournament.

Stadium

Since 1930, Uruguay have played their home games at the Estadio Centenario in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo. The stadium was built as a celebration of Uruguay centenary of independence, and had a capacity of 100,000 when first opened. The stadium hosted several matches in the 1930 World Cup, including the final, which was watched by a crowd of 93,000. Crowds for Uruguay's home matches vary greatly depending on the importance of the match and the quality of the opposition. World Cup qualifying matches often attract crowds of between 60,000 and 70,000, but friendlies sometimes have attendances significantly below 20,000.

Kit

Current Uruguay kits were adopted in 1910 as an homage to the now defunct River Plate F.C. (the old Uruguayan River club, although the current CA River Plate use a similar red and white striped kit at home and often a light blue away jersey too).
The first international match ever for a Uruguayan team took place in Montevideo in 1889 against "Buenos Aires Team". The "Montevideo Team" was the still active Montevideo Cricket Club (now only at rugby). The first official international was played again in Montevideo in 1901. In that occasion the Uruguay national team used Albion F.C kit: Albion, in fact, had won the first game outside Uruguay, over Argentinean club Retiro in 1896 at Buenos Aires. After this game, between 1901-1910, several games between Uruguay and Argentina had Uruguay wearing striped blue and white and Argentina a plain turquoise jersey, the direct opposite to the kits from 1910 to the present day. The red kit was used in all the Copa América of Santa Beatriz in Peru in 1935 where Uruguay won the tourney. After that was never used again until 1991 when it was finally adopted as away jersey.
Four stars appear above the team logo on the jersey. Two represent Uruguay's 1930 and 1950 World Cup victories whereas the other two indicate the gold medal win at the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics, considered at that time the most important national teams world-wide football competition.

World Cup Record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1930	Champions	1	4	4	0	0	15	3
1934	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1938	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1950	Champions	1	4	3	1	0	15	5
1954	Semi-Finals	4	5	3	0	2	16	9
1958	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1962	Round 1	13	3	1	0	2	4	6
1966	Quarter-finals	7	4	1	2	1	2	5
1970	Semi-Finals	4	6	2	1	3	4	5
1974	Round 1	13	3	0	1	2	1	6
1978	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1982	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1986	Round 2	16	4	0	2	2	2	8
1990	Round 2	16	4	1	2	1	2	5
1994	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2002	Round 1	26	3	0	2	1	4	5
2006	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	10/18	2 Titles	40	16	10	14	65	57

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Copa América record

1916 - Winners
1917 - Winners
1919 - Runners-up
1920 - Winners
1921 - Third place
1922 - Third place
1923 - Winners
1924 - Winners
1925 - Withdrew
1926 - Winners
1927 - Runners-up
1929 - Third place
1935 - Winners
1937 - Third place
1939 - Runners-up
1941 - Runners-up
1942 - Winners
1945 - Fourth place
1946 - Fourth place
1947 - Third place
1949 - Sixth place
1953 - Third place
1955 - Fourth place
1956 - Winners
1957 - Third place
1959 - Sixth place
1959 - Winners
1963 - Withdrew
1967 - Winners
1975 - Semifinals
1979 - Round 1
1983 - Winners
1987 - Winners
1989 - Runners-up
1991 - Round 1
1993 - Quarterfinals
1995 - Winners
1997 - Round 1
1999 - Runners-up
2001 - Fourth place
2004 - Third place
2007 - Fourth place

Current players

Below is the squad for friendly match against Turkey and Norway in May 2008. caps and goals as of May 26 2008. |caps=70|goals=0|club=Real Murcia|clubnat=Spain}}
   |caps=19|goals=3|club=Villarreal|clubnat=Spain}} |caps=3|goals=0|club=Reggina|clubnat=Italy}} |caps=3|goals=0|club=Villarreal|clubnat=Spain}}
   |caps=|goals=|club=Peñarol|clubnat=Uruguay}} |caps=|goals=|club=Nacional|clubnat=Uruguay}} |caps=4|goals=0|club=Ajax|clubnat=Netherlands}} |caps=13|goals=0|club=Napoli|clubnat=Italy}} |caps=10|goals=0|club=Villarreal|clubnat=Spain}} |caps=38|goals=0|club=Benfica|clubnat=Portugal}} |caps=9|goals=0|club=AS Monaco|clubnat=France}} |caps=22|goals=3|club=Benfica|clubnat=Portugal}} |caps=1|goals=0|club=River Plate|clubnat=Uruguay}} |caps=8|goals=5|club=Ajax|clubnat=Netherlands}} |caps=46|goals=17|club=Atlético Madrid|clubnat=Spain}} |caps=2|goals=1|club=Palermo|clubnat=Italy}}
   |caps=1|goals=0|club=River Plate|clubnat=Uruguay}}

Recent Call Ups

The following players have also been called up to the Uruguay squad in 2008.

Goalkeepers

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Juan Guillermo Castillo	April 17 1978	Botafogo	1 (0)	v. Colombia, 6 February, 2008

Defenders

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Diego Lugano	November 2, 1980	Fenerbahçe	23 (0)	v. Colombia, 6 February, 2008
Jorge Fucile	November 19, 1984	FC Porto	17 (0)	v. Colombia, 6 February, 2008

Midfielders

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Álvaro González	October 29, 1984	Boca Juniors	? (?)	v. Colombia, 6 February, 2008
Diego Pérez	May 18 1980	AS Monaco	? (?)	v. Colombia, 6 February, 2008

Strikers

Name	Date of birth	Club	Caps (goals)	Most Recent Call up
Sebastián Abreu	October 17 1976	River Plate	36 (20)	v. Colombia, 6 February, 2008

Argentinos Juniors|clubnat=Argentina|other=Friendly v. Colombia, February 2008}} |caps=|goals=|club=Defensor Sporting|clubnat=Uruguay|other=Friendly v. Colombia, February 2008}} |caps=|goals=|club=Peñarol|clubnat=Uruguay|other=WCQ v. Brazil, December 2007}} |caps=|goals=|club=FC Schalke 04|clubnat=Germany|other=WCQ v. Brazil, December 2007}} |caps=|goals=|club=Monterrey|clubnat=Mexico|other=WCQ v. Brazil, December 2007}} |caps=|goals=|club=Real Murcia|clubnat=Spain|other=WCQ v. Paraguay, October 2007}} |caps=|goals=|club=Real Murcia|clubnat=Spain|other=WCQ v. Paraguay, October 2007}} |caps=|goals=|club=Zaragoza|clubnat=Spain|other=Copa America}} |caps=|goals=|club=Peñarol|clubnat=Uruguay|other=Copa America}} |caps=|goals=|club=Celta Vigo|clubnat=Spain|other=Copa America}} |caps=|goals=|club=Real Valladolid|clubnat=Spain|other=Copa America}} |caps=|goals=|club=Torino F.C.|clubnat=Italy|other=Copa America}}

Famous players

Carlos Aguilera

José Leandro Andrade

Víctor Rodríguez Andrade

Pablo Bengoechea

Julio Montero Castillo

Ladislao Mazurkiewicz

Juan Alberto Schiaffino

Sebastian Abreu

Trivia

Uruguay and Argentina hold the record for the most international matches played between two countries. The two teams have faced each other 161 times since 1901. The first match against Argentina was the first official international match to be played outside the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Footnotes

Further Information

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