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Uruguay

Nickname(s)	Charrúas La Celeste Olímpica (The Olympic Sky Blue) La Celeste (The Sky Blue)
Association	Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol
Confederation	CONMEBOL (South America)
Head coach	Oscar Tabarez, 2006-
Captain	Diego Lugano
Most caps	Rodolfo Rodríguez (79)
Top scorer	Héctor Scarone (31)
Home stadium	Estadio Centenario
FIFA code	URU
FIFA ranking	23
Highest FIFA ranking	12 (May 1994)
Lowest FIFA ranking	57 (December 1998)
Elo ranking	14
Highest Elo ranking	1 (various dates 1920-31)
Lowest Elo ranking	46 (March 1980)
Home colours Away colours
First international
Uruguay 2 - 3 Argentina (Montevideo, Uruguay; 16 May 1901)
Biggest win
Uruguay 9 - 0 Bolivia (Lima, Peru; 9 November 1927)
Biggest defeat
Uruguay 0 - 6 Argentina (Montevideo, Uruguay; 20 July 1902)
World Cup
Appearances	10 (First in 1930)
Best result	Winners, 1930 and 1950.
Copa América
Appearances	40 (First in 1916)
Best result	Winners, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1923, 1924, 1926, 1935, 1942, 1956, 1959, 1967, 1983, 1987, 1995.
Confederations Cup
Appearances	1 (First in 1997)
Best result	4th, 1997

The Uruguay national football team is controlled by the Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol.

Uruguay is one of the most successful national football teams in the world. They have won two FIFA World Cups, including the first ever World Cup in 1930 as hosts, beating Argentina 4-2 in the final. They won their second title in 1950, upsetting hosts Brazil 2-1 in the final match. They also won the Gold Medals in football at the Summer Olympics twice, in 1924 and 1928, before the creation of the World Cup. They have also won the Copa América fourteen times, tied with Argentina, for most in America. They also won the 1980 Mundialito, a tournament among former World Cup champions Uruguay hosted in 1980 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first World Cup. Their success is amplified by the fact that the nation has a very small population. Uruguay is the only country in the world to win a World Cup with a general population of under 4 million inhabitants. The second smallest country to have won the World Cup is Argentina with a total population of over 37 million people. However, the level of the Uruguay national team has decreased lately as Uruguay has only qualified on one occasion in the last 4 World Cups, although it remains a strong team in South America, having reached third place and fourth place in the last two Copa América tournaments, respectively.

[edit] History

Prior to 1916, Uruguay played more than 30 matches, of which all but one were against Argentina. The inaugural Copa America provided Uruguay with more varied opposition. Victories over Chile and Brazil along with a tie against Argentina enabled Uruguay to win the tournament. The following year Uruguay hosted the competition, and retained the title by winning every game. The 1919 Copa America saw Uruguay's first defeat in the tournament, a 1-0 defeat in a playoff with Brazil which went to two periods of extra time, the longest Copa America match in history.

In 1924 the Uruguay team traveled to Paris to become the first South American team to compete in the Olympic Games. In contrast to the physical style of the European teams of the era, Uruguay played a style based around short passes,^[1] and won every game, defeating Switzerland 3-0 in the gold medal match. In the 1928 Summer Olympics Uruguay went to Amsterdam to defend their title, again winning the gold medal after defeating Argentina 2-1 in the final.

Following the double Olympic triumph, Uruguay was chosen as the host nation for the first World Cup, held in 1930, the centenary of Uruguay's independence. During the World Cup, Uruguay won all its matches, and converted a 1-2 half-time deficit to a 4-2 victory against Argentina at the Estadio Centenario. Due to the refusal of some European teams to participate in the first World Cup, the Uruguayan Football Association urged other countries to reciprocate by boycotting the 1934 World Cup played in Italy. For the 1938 World Cup, France was chosen as host, contrary to a previous agreement to alternate the Championships between South America and Europe, so Uruguay again refused to participate.

Uruguay again won the World Cup in 1950, beating hosts Brazil in a surprise result at the Maracanã Stadium, a match known as the Maracanazo.

Since 1950, the national team has had mixed performances in the World Cup, achieving fourth place in 1954 and 1970, but failing to qualify on several occasions. A new generation headed by Francescoli emerged in the mid-1980s, which qualified for the 1986 and 1990 World Cups, reaching the second round. During the 2000s, the less successful generation of Recoba, Forlán and Montero among others qualified for the 2002 World Cup, but were unable to leave the group stage.

Nevertheless, during the same time period from the 1950s, Uruguay won the Copa America six times, most recently in 1995, when Uruguay also hosted the tournament. Each of the seven occasions when the Copa America has been hosted in Uruguay has resulted in the Uruguayan team winning the tournament.

[edit] Stadium

Since 1930, Uruguay have played their home games at the Estadio Centenario in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo. The stadium was built as a celebration of Uruguay centenary of independence, and had a capacity of 100,000 when first opened. The stadium hosted several matches in the 1930 World Cup, including the final, which was watched by a crowd of 93,000.^[2] Crowds for Uruguay's home matches vary greatly depending on the importance of the match and the quality of the opposition. World Cup qualifying matches often attract crowds of between 60,000 and 70,000, but friendlies sometimes have attendances significantly below 20,000.

[edit] Kit

Current Uruguay kits were adopted in 1910 as an homage to the now defunct River Plate F.C. (the old Uruguayan River club, although the current CA River Plate use a similar red and white striped kit at home and often a light blue away jersey too).

The first international match ever for a Uruguayan team took place in Montevideo in 1889 against "Buenos Aires Team". The "Montevideo Team",playing as the first Uruguay national representative,was the still active Montevideo Cricket Club (now only at rugby). The first official international was played again in Montevideo in 1901. In that occasion the Uruguay national team used Albion F.C kit: Albion, in fact, had won the first game outside Uruguay, over Argentine club Retiro in 1896 at Buenos Aires. After this game, between 1901-1910, several games between Uruguay and Argentina had Uruguay wearing striped blue and white and Argentina a plain turquoise jersey, the direct opposite to the kits from 1910 to the present day. The red kit was used in all the Copa América of Santa Beatriz in Peru in 1935 where Uruguay won the tourney. After that was never used again until 1991 when it was finally adopted as away jersey.

Four stars appear above the team logo on the jersey. Two represent Uruguay's 1930 and 1950 World Cup victories whereas the other two indicate the gold medal win at the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics, considered at that time the most important national teams world-wide football competition.

1889 (Montevideo C.C kit)	1901 (Albion F.C kit)	1901 - 1910	1901 - 1910	1901 - 1910	1901 - 1910
1901 - 1910	1910 - 1990 and 1996 - 2008	1991 - 1996	1935

[edit] World Cup Record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1930	Champions	1	4	4	0	0	15	3
1934	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1938	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1950	Champions[3]	1	4	3	1	0	15	5
1954	Semi-Finals	4	5	3	0	2	16	9
1958	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1962	Round 1	13	3	1	0	2	4	6
1966	Quarter-finals	7	4	1	2	1	2	5
1970	Semi-Finals	4	6	2	1	3	4	5
1974	Round 1	13	3	0	1	2	1	6
1978	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1982	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1986	Round 2	16	4	0	2	2	2	8
1990	Round 2	16	4	1	2	1	2	5
1994	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2002	Round 1	26	3	0	2	1	4	5
2006	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	10/18	2 Titles	40	16	10	14	65	57

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

[edit] Copa América record

Main article: Copa América

[edit] Current team status

Uruguay is currently participating in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

Main article: 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)

[edit] 2010 FIFA World Cup
Qualification Standings

Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Paraguay 10 7 2 1 18 6 +12 23  Brazil 10 4 5 1 15 4 +11 17  Argentina 10 4 4 2 13 7 +6 16  Chile 10 5 1 4 14 13 +1 16  Uruguay 10 3 4 3 19 10 +9 13  Ecuador 10 3 3 4 12 17 −5 12  Colombia 10 2 5 3 4 8 −4 11  Venezuela 10 3 1 6 12 18 −6 10  Bolivia 10 2 3 5 13 22 −9 9  Peru 10 1 4 5 5 20 −15 7   Argentina  – 3–0 R15 2–0 R13 1–1 1–1 R17 2–1 R11 Bolivia  R12 – R17 0–2 0–0 R16 4–2 3–0 2–2 R13 Brazil  0–0 0–0 – R16 0–0 5–0 R14 R12 2–1 R18 Chile  1–0 R14 0–3 – 4–0 R18 0–3 2–0 R12 R15 Colombia  2–1 R11 0–0 R17 – R15 0–1 R14 0–1 1–0 Ecuador  R14 3–1 R11 1–0 0–0 – R12 5–1 R17 0–1 Paraguay  R16 R15 2–0 R13 R18 5–1 – 1–0 1–0 2–0 Peru  1–1 R18 1–1 R11 1–1 R13 0–0 – R15 1–0 Uruguay  R18 5–0 R13 2–2 R16 0–0 R11 6–0 – 1–1 Venezuela  0–2 5–3 0–4 2–3 R12 3–1 R17 R16 R14 –

[edit] Last and next games

• Last game:  Uruguay 0 - 0 France  - Paris, France - 19 November 2008 - F.
• Next game: TBA

KEY: F = Friendly match; WCQ2010 = 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

[edit] Current players

[edit] Current squad

Below is the squad for friendly against France on November 19 2008. caps and goals as of 20 November 2008.

No. Pos. Player DoB (Age) Caps Goals Club GK Fabián Carini 26 December 1979 (1979-12-26) (age 28) 72 0 Real Murcia GK Sebastián Viera 7 March 1983 (1983-03-07) (age 25) 27 0 Villarreal DF Martín Cáceres 7 April 1987 (1987-04-07) (age 21) 11 0 Barcelona DF Diego Godín 16 February 1986 (1986-02-16) (age 22) 26 3 Villarreal DF Bruno Silva 29 March 1980 (1980-03-29) (age 28) 11 0 Ajax DF Carlos Adrián Valdez 2 May 1983 (1983-05-02) (age 25) 15 0 Reggina DF Diego Lugano 2 November 1980 (1980-11-02) (age 28) 31 2 Fenerbahçe MF Mathías Cardacio 2 October 1987 (1987-10-02) (age 21) 1 0 AC Milan MF Sebastián Eguren 8 January 1981 (1981-01-08) (age 27) 15 2 Villarreal MF Walter Gargano 24 July 1984 (1984-07-24) (age 24) 21 0 Napoli MF Jorge Andrés Martínez 5 April 1983 (1983-04-05) (age 25) 12 0 Catania MF Maximiliano Pereira 8 June 1984 (1984-06-08) (age 24) 46 0 Benfica MF Alvaro Pereira 28 January 1985 (1985-01-28) (age 23) 1 0 Cluj MF Diego Pérez 18 May 1980 (1980-05-18) (age 28) 44 0 AS Monaco MF Cristian Rodríguez 30 September 1985 (1985-09-30) (age 23) 30 3 FC Porto FW Sebastián Abreu 17 October 1976 (1976-10-17) (age 32) 47 27 River Plate FW Edison Cavani 14 February 1987 (1987-02-14) (age 21) 4 1 Palermo FW Diego Forlán 19 May 1979 (1979-05-19) (age 29) 51 19 Atlético Madrid FW Vicente Sánchez 7 December 1979 (1979-12-07) (age 28) 31 5 Schalke 04 FW Luis Suárez 24 January 1987 (1987-01-24) (age 21) 18 6