Brief history of the Uruguayan football

It would be great for the game if a once great footballing nation like Uruguay could re-establish itself again.

Sadly I think Uraguay has had it's moment in football history. I can't see them ever winning the world cup again as, like that report mentioned, it's population of 2 million is just to small to produce a team of world beaters.

“…it's population of 2 million is just to small to produce a team of world beaters.” -> I beg to differ. If population size was the only success factor, China and “our soccer-friends” from the US would be unbeatable national sides. Moreover, the Netherlands has a population of only about 5 Mio but has been among the best national sides for decades. In other words, it’s about “quality”, not “quantity”. In my opinion, Uruguay might as well emerge on the top-level again one day and the author of the article shouldn’t have been quick to judge.

That's a very good point Guermano however, as you know, China and the USA aren't the slightest bit interested in football.

Your right, population obviously isn't the key factor in football success however it does play a part when that specific country's main sport is football. Hence the success of nations like Holland.

Uruguay is a borderline third world country and simply doesn't have the capital to develop players and compete with richer countries in the modern game.

I'm sure you'd like to mention Brazil's finances at this point but once again that's a different example. Brazil export football players, that's their contribution to the worlds economy. They have nothing but football, hence their success.

I'd love to see the reemergence of nations like Hungary and Uruguay on the world stage but it's not gonna happen.

Uruguay won the first world cup when the tournament was in it's inafancy. I don't think that there were even any European sides playing and it wasn't even news worthy over here.

Nations like England didn't even bother competing seriously until 1962, before then it was an insignificant trophy fought out between South American teams.

I can think of teams as mediocre as Uraguy.
Good old England, they could easily beat us with our side.

I find comments like pwilliamson's pretty uninformed and thus offensive. European teams did participate in the first WC: Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia.

England may not want to remember their performance but they qualified and went to play in the 1950 WC in Brazil. They did not make it past the first round loosing to the USA 1-0 in an embarrasing defeat.

In the 1954 WC England also participated and actually had its worst WC defeat to the brilliant Hungarians 7-1!!!

So please check your facts before making such statements. Lack of success does not mena lack of interest.

It is undeniable that Uruguay has declined badly since 1954 and that is directly related to the economy, as it has gone from the "Switzerland" of South America to a pretty sad situation... But that does not mean that we would not have great passion for football!!!

I'll follow up to your reply with what I've already stated

''Nations like England didn't even bother competing seriously until 1962, before then it was an insignificant trophy fought out between South American teams.''

Arguing this point by mentioning the participation of then insignificant footballing teams such as Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia is laughable.

I'm fully aware of England's poor performances in the cups infancy and I reiterate, it was purley down to the fact that the competition wasn't taken seriously in Europe at that particular time.

We didn't train for the conditions, we didn't research the opposition, we never altered our tactics and I'm pretty sure we didn't even take a proper international side to the first tournament that we entered.

The World cup was nothing until European sides decided to take it seriously.

I thaught the population of Holland was closer to 15 million than 5 million as well as a large Off Shore & Imigrant Population also isent uruguay Population about 4 million also anyway.

Anyway thats beside the point the early World Cups Were Dogged by Bribery ect the italian world cup they won after uruguay the most noticeable.

As for winning the world cup i believe that any team with any quality espically Uruguay can win the world cup again most of the teams that go into the world cup can beat any other team.

Ok phil, respect your point of view. It's just that for a Uruguayan it's a very big deal since all we have in football is our (almost ancient) history... :)

Now that said I still feel pretty good then cause in the 66' WC England could not beat Uruguay (0-0) and by then we were in decline and you were well prepared and taking it seriously... ;)

There is also a famous controversy in Uruguay and Argentina about the quarterfinals in that 66' WC where England-Argentina (1-0) had a German referee while Germany-Uruguay (4-0) had an English referee... Still the fact is that England was the World Champ!!!

My point is that after all this time what really matters is that England won a WC and Uruguay also won a WC (2 actually) and they are not more valuable or worth more one than the other...

Just proud that only 7 countries in the World can say that they have won a WC.

I agree with you mate, it's a small but great club to be in.

As I said before I'd honestly love a proper footballing nation like Uruguay to win the world cup again, I really would. I think it's amazing that such a relatively small nation has won the cup twice, please don't think I'm trying to discredit Uruguay's achievements, they are and always will be world champions.

I truly hope you can get a third title one day, you're a great footballing nation and you're due another shot at glory.

The England football team had lost countless chances to reclaim the World cup, take last years tournament for example, we should have been genuine contender for the cup and were rated as one of the favourites, rightly so. We went in with possibly one of our best ever teams but still failed miserably.
I'm sure if Uruguay had the resourses that we do as a nation you would perform better than us on a world stage.

Amen phil!

Same sentiment about hoping England wins another one!

Thanks for your words, I do think we would do better if the economy was better but these days (and for a looong time) we can't expect politicians to fix anything... :(

Cheers!

We can't expect politicians to fix anything... :(

Now thats soemthing i totaly agree with ;)

u r gay unless u support chelsea

lol, well im not gay and i support SOUTHAMPTON

Cameron1 sounds like an 11 year old who's just realised that naughty words sound clever, just as long as he doesnt say them around mummy or he'll get a spank :D

but seriously, at the end of the day luck plays a major part in any sport. Just look at Liverpool winning the UEFA cup those times, and they were easily outclassed by other bigger clubs.

However, I've given up on England winning the world cup ever again...

Uruguay can have its day again!

Hey, first time posting here, read some of the posts a and would like to clear some things. I´m uruguayan by the way.

Firs of all, football it´s not all Uruguay as a country has to be proud of, as a matter of fact that couldn´t be further from the reality. Brief history on Uruguay, the smallest country in south america, by far, only 3 mil. people, first country in america, all the americas to abolish slavery, grant women vote, etc, etc, etc, regarding social issues. One of the most important, one that we uruguayans take huge pride in, is the universalisation of the education, 100ç% free, mandatory, and secular, way before it was done in the rest of the continent, our education and the uruguayan people literacy is something we take huge pride on, no just because, most of the population speaks at least 2 languages, that´s just for saying something you can relate too, but on personal experience it´s even embrassing how i can talk more about US history than a northamerican, it´s no the same with europeans, they are far more literated that yankees, but even so, i can have a very strong idea on the french revolution (for saying something, it could have been the assasination of the romanovs and the bolchevique revolution), enough to been able to to about it with a french.

I´m not stupid, i know where my country stands, but things can´t be taken out of perspective as much as they can´t be taken out of context, this is, and will be (unless the world order by miracle changes) a third world country, but, what is a third world country?, that concept it´s taken out of per capita income?, political stability?, social stability?, freedom of speech and thought?, etc, etc, etc., ´cause if for instance freedom of thought is a item to take into consideration we would have to make a deeper analysis, in the US you are free to say whatever you want, unfortunatelly you are not capable of saying what you want, why?, ´cause you are not been given the entire information, all the way back to kindergarden, the propaganda machine is so overwhelming it makes almost impossible to have a serious conversation with an american, their world doesn´t go further thant the bounderies of their country, so................is that first world?, if it is i rather live on the third.

Back to the thread in question, sorry, got carried away, i think it´s very difficult for the uruguayan football to recover it´s past glory, not because of population, like some people said before, but because of economics, wich of course it´s directly linked to popuplation, hence, market. This is an issue wich like before would need pages and pages of analysis, so i´m gonna leave it at that.

Greetings from Montevideo, Uruguay.