Uruguayan Football 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
Uruguayans always looked to the British. Since those early days in the open spaces of Punta Carretas, the Uruguayan’s relationship with the game of the ‘crazy English’ evolved from curiosity, to admiration, to imitation. Given the opportunity, the Uruguayan took the game and made it their own. They say from there developed that famous, home-grown … Continue reading The 1909 Tottenham-Everton tour of the River Plate
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
Héctor Scarone, José Nasazzi, Obdulio Varela. Such names are synonymous with Uruguay's achievements from another time. Whether it were the skill and opportunism of Scarone, the brute force of Nasazzi, or the pure inspiration of Varela, each left an imprint in the collective memory of Uruguayan football lovers. Joining them is Diego Forlán. He carried … Continue reading Forlán
The first welfare state in the Americas. The first to field black players in international tournaments. The first South American champions, and the first world champions. They hosted the first World Cup. They invented the vuelta olimpica (the victory lap). They invented futsal. They were the first to recognize the Armenian genocide, the first to … Continue reading Gardel
"Those at FIFA are a bunch of old sons of bitches" To those familiar with contemporary debates surrounding the governance of world football, the statement above is not shocking. When muttered by a current head of state however... Indeed, these words were spoken by José 'Pepe' Mujica, president of Uruguay, as he described the treatment … Continue reading ‘Pepe’ and ‘La Celeste’: another re-think of the ‘garra Charrua’
