Uruguayan Football Blog
Stories from Uruguay’s footballing history
Uruguay entered 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 important though, as with previous international contests, 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. 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. 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. Continue reading “Chile 2015, Uruguay 1955”
They called him ‘the Poet’. It wasn’t a tribute to his personality, nor was it a celebration of his lyrical, joyful expressions on the pitch. It couldn’t have been, he was one of those lowly goalkeepers. The nickname owed to his love of poetry, and the many verses he wrote. A number of his poems opened with ‘Oh Peñarol, yo te saludo..’ Continue reading “Roberto Chery”
Last month, I wrote about the Clásico de la Fuga, the match where that dominant Peñarol team, La Máquina, came out an utterly dominated their lowly rivals. Well, for forty-five minutes. Nacional refused to play the second half, afraid of losing by 5 or 6, and they were to never hear the end of it. Continue reading “8 against 11”
It appears that an ongoing theme of this blog is Uruguay’s central role in almost every key moment in football history, whether it be in its own region, or worldwide. Such a role obviously includes the most prestigious South American tournament, the Copa Libertadores. Continue reading “April 19, 1960: the first match of the Copa Libertadores”
