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URUGUAY

Uruguay take an honoured place in the World Cup finals. Richard Williams, The Guardian, Wednesday Nov.28 2001

The place to be last Sunday was the Centenario stadium in Montevideo, when Uruguay, inspired by the divine left foot of Alvaro Recoba, beat Australia 3-0 and booked their passage to the World Cup finals for the first time since 1990. A capacity crowd of 60,000 went crazy in the spring sunshine, and the after-match party on the Avenida 18 Julio was something to behold. No offence intended to Australia, but anyone with a sense of football history would have been aching with the urge to plunge into the sea of sky-blue shirts and join the celebrations.

For Uruguay's success ensured that next June's competition will have an added dimension. All seven countries to have won the cup will be present for the first round of games in Japan and South Korea. The last time all previous winners appeared in the tournament was 1970.

Uruguay have, of course, won the cup twice, which puts them level with Argentina and ahead of England and France. They had already taken Gold in two previous Olympic football tournaments when the Centenario became the site of the first final in 1930. Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2 in the brand-new arena, sealing their victory in the 90th minute with a goal from the one-handed Hector Castro. They declined to defend their title four years later, possibly because of the failure of their European counterparts to send more than a meagre four teams to compete against the nine American representatives. Nor did they make it to France 1938 where Italy made it two in a row.

They returned in triumph, however, in Brazil 1950. In front of 205,000 crazed Brazilians in the Maracana, the home team seemed to justify their status as massive favourites when they opened the scoring through Albino Friaca just after half-time- one of 30 shots Brazil produced in the match. Schiaffino equalized from Ghiggia's cross, and soon after Ghiggia himself scored the winner with a bobbling shot from the right which crept in at the near post. The biggest crowd in history found itself enduring the most profound anti-climax in the annals of the game.

And that, sadly, was the last time that Uruguay distinguished themselves in the World Cup.

In his lovely book Football in Sun and Shadow, Eduardo Galeano lamented the decline but observed that "Nevertheless there is no Uruguayan who does not consider himself a PhD in football's tactics, and a scholar of its history. ...passion for football comes from those days long ago, and its deep roots are still visible. Every time the national team plays, no matter against whom, the country holds its breath. Politicians, singers and street vendors shut their mouths, lovers suspend their kisses, and flies stop flying."

At the last count, the population of Uruguay was about 3.3 million. The success of such a tiny country in the world's most popular game is one of sport's most overlooked and romantic stories, and this win ensures that it cannot yet be relegated to the archive.