Uruguayan Football History
Stories from Uruguay’s footballing history
On August 15, 1910, Uruguay and Argentina contested the sixth edition of the Copa Lipton, the most important international fixture in Rioplatense football at the time. Uruguay were in one of their lowest moments. Just two months earlier in Buenos Aires, they suffered a humiliating 4-1 defeat to Argentina in the final of the Copa … Continue reading The Birth of La Celeste
In August 1913, Montevideo hosted a Brazilian football team for the first time when a combined São Paulo league side toured the Río de la Plata. While the first official Uruguay-Brazil international match took place in 1916, the Paulista visit was no less significant. Upon the arrival of the São Paulo delegation, a Montevideo daily was … Continue reading [Footballing] Blackness in a White Nation: Uruguay vs Brazil, 1913
Luis Suárez is just one goal away from equalling Uruguay’s all-time World Cup scoring record. If he isn’t already, he’ll soon be considered the greatest striker – if not footballer - in the country’s history. But most remain unaware of the player whose record Suárez is about to break, Óscar Míguez, who holds the record … Continue reading Óscar Míguez
Uruguay went into the 1916 Campeonato Sudamericano in Buenos Aires seeking not only redemption, but reaffirmation. Of course, they there to avenge the humiliating 4-1 defeat suffered against Argentina at the Revolución de Mayo tournament six years earlier. More importantly, however, the tournament was an opportunity for Uruguay to measure both their progress as a nation … Continue reading African professionals? Uruguay’s Black stars of the 1916 Copa America
In 1964, Mario Benedetti described football as anesthesia. It was a social drug, co-opted and exploited by governments who encouraged the people to forget their problems. If only for ninety minutes, football was an escape from social and economic uncertainties that would otherwise control one’s life. Five years later, Benedetti’s words still held true. May … Continue reading Football and Revolution
Carlos Scarone was born in barrio Peñarol, Montevideo, not long after his father arrived from Savona, Italy in 1887. The entire Scarone family, headed by Don Giuseppe, became immersed and enamoured in the local Central Uruguay Railway Cricket Club, known simply as Peñarol. It was in the streets of that barrio where Carlos adopted a love … Continue reading Manyas: the origin of a Peñarol nickname
You could hardly believe it. Arturo Vidal, one of Chile’s main men, involved in a serious car accident involving his wife, his Ferrari, and within minutes, an entire nation. He had been drinking, and was travelling at an extremely high speed. For Vidal, his wife, and others to survive such an accident was unbelievable. Even … Continue reading Chile 2015, Uruguay 1955
I trusted everything Eduardo Galeano wrote about football. I still do. His writing was as authoritative as it was beautiful. He told us about those crazy English, who brought their exclusive game to Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and those lowly Creoles, who seized the pastime of the elite and made it their own. The Creoles invented el toque, … Continue reading John Harley: the Scot who transformed Uruguayan football
