Mini football figure - Uruguay

Uruguay

The Uruguayan national football team represents Uruguay in football matches at international level. It was one of the world's strongest national teams, especially in the early days of professional football, and after a few less successful decades, it is again today. It is the national football team with the most international titles.

From 1924 to 1930, it won five major titles in just six years: the Olympic football tournaments in Paris and Amsterdam, the first World Cup in history on home soil in 1930, and the Copa América in 1924 and 1926. In 1950, they won the World Cup a second time in Brazil. In 1954 and 1970 they finished fourth in the World Cup, but then failed to qualify for the World Cup several times or did not advance beyond the World Cup round of 16. It was not until 2010 that they managed to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup again and finish in fourth place. However, the Uruguayan national football team has won the Copa America several times in recent decades (1942, 1956, 1959, 1967, 1983, 1987, 1995, 2011). With a total of 15 titles, Uruguay has been the record winner of the Copa since 2011. In June 2012, Uruguay climbed to second place in the FIFA World Ranking. This ranking was the country's best to date, but it had to be relinquished to Germany in July 2012.

From the beginnings to 1930

English workers brought the game to Uruguay at the end of the 19th century and soon football developed into the national sport. It is largely thanks to the Uruguayans that the English kick-and-rush style began to take a back seat in favour of a modern combination and dribbling game.

The team from tiny Uruguay won the Copa América in 1916, 1917, 1920, 1923, 1924, 1926 and 1935. In 1919, 1922 and 1927 they came second. The class of Uruguay as a football country was already evident here.

In 1924, the Uruguayan style also led to overwhelming success over the continental European nations on the world stage: The team, made up of butchers, shoe shiners and vegetable sellers, travelled to the Olympic Games in France in 3rd class. The trip was financed by mortgages and spontaneously scheduled friendly matches. In the first match of a South American team in Europe in front of about 3,000 spectators, the "Urus" defeated Yugoslavia 7:0, the second match against the USA (3:0) was already attended by 10,455 spectators and the quarter-final match (5:1) against host France by 30,868 spectators. The 3-0 victory in the final against Switzerland was finally seen by 40,522 spectators.

Just how superior the South American style was to the European style was again demonstrated four years later at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam: the final was between Uruguay and Argentina. It was only in the replay that Uruguay defeated their neighbours after a goal by Hector Scarone made the final score 2-1. FIFA recognised the two Olympic victories as World Cup titles in 1950.

The rivals from the Río de la Plata also met two years later in the final of the first World Cup. In the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, 93,000 spectators saw the hosts win 4:2. The day of the victory was unceremoniously declared a public holiday.

Uruguay: Ballesteros; Mascheroni, Nasazzi; J. L. Andrade, Fernandez, Gestido; Dorado, Scarone, Castro, Cea, Iriarte. Argentina: Botasso; Della Torre, Paternoster; J. Evaristo, Monti, Juarez; Peucelle, Varallo, Stabile, Ferreira, M. Evaristo. SR Langenus (Belgium). - Goals: 12. Dorado 1:0. 20. Peucelle 1:1. 22. Stabile 1:2. 57. Cea 2:2. 68. Iriarte 3:2. 89. Castro 4:2.

The outstanding player of this golden period of Uruguayan football was the charismatic José Nasazzi. The stonemason was the team's captain and playmaker. The "black pearl" José Leandro Andrade, the great star of the 1924 tournament, was his congenial partner in midfield. Also not to be forgotten are the strikers Hector Scarone and Héctor Castro, who continued to score goals for Uruguay despite losing his right hand.

Matches against Germany

Germany and Uruguay have met eleven times so far. Uruguay's only victory came in their first meeting at the 1928 Olympic Games. For Germany, it was the first match against a non-European team. The future Olympic champions won 4-1 in the quarter-finals. Germany lost Richard Hofmann and Hans Kalb to sending-offs, Kalb being the first German to be sent off in an international match. As Uruguay's José Nasazzi also did not see the end of the match on the pitch, it is the international match with the most sending-offs in German football history. The 1966 World Cup quarter-final did not go off without a sending-off either. The two Uruguayans Héctor Silva and Horacio Troche were both sent off, after which the latter spent several years in the German leagues. At the match on 13 October 1993, Lothar Matthäus equalled Franz Beckenbauer's record of 103 international appearances. Both teams met twice in the match for third place at a World Cup. This makes it the most frequent pairing in a match for third place.

National shirt

From the first international match in 1901, Uruguay did not have an official national jersey until 1910. Thus, in the first match, they played in the jersey of the Montevidean club Albion Football Club. Subsequently, a large number of different jerseys were experimented with, until in 1910, in honour of the River Plate Football Club, which existed between 1897 and 1929, the alternative jersey and thus the sky-blue shirts were officially chosen.

The shape of the logo

The national football team wears four stars on its jersey: two for the World Cup titles of 1930 and 1950 and two for the victories at the Summer Olympics in Paris in 1924 and Amsterdam in 1928. The stars for the two victories in the Olympic football tournaments were added because no World Cup was held in 1924 and 1928 and, in the opinion of the Uruguayan Football Federation, the two Olympic victories have the same status as a World Cup title.