Notes on Uruguay

This post will have a little bit about sports in it, well, a little about soccer anyway, and...well, it'll be a little more than a alittle, and maybe shoudl be up on my Sports blog, but this is about maybe more than that.

Besides, I have a post up over there that resembles regular posts, and this is a regular post, it just has a bit (actually a shit-ton) of sports in it.

During the last World Cup I picked the South American team Uruguay to root for, along with Mexico and our very own Yanks, right from the outset. I liked the tenacity and long soccer history in the small nation; roughly the size of Washington state with maybe 3.5 million residents. The small size helped the country get it's economy right, and smart moves have propelled Uruguay to the very top of the living standard for the continent.

Uruguay is the first country on the planet, in 2009, to be able to give--for free--both laptops and internet service to every single student in country. Every student.

So, a little note about soccer. When you think of national soccer powerhouses teams, countries like Spain, Germany, Italy and Brazil may come to mind. Maybe Mexico and England. Maybe you could give a shit about international soccer tournaments. I understand.

But, so if you're someone who doesn't care, or do care but don't know, let me tell you a little history of a tiny nation's love of the futbol.

The biggest international soccer tournament is the World Cup. Non-soccer fans may know about this. Before FIFA established the World Cup, the Olympics was the major international tournament and the most prestigious title.

In 1924, the first year South American teams were admitted to the Olympics, the Uruguayans won the gold medal, beating Yugoslavia, the US, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland by a aggregate score of 20-2.

In 1928, the Uruguayans won the gold again, beating the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and in the final, first tying Argentina, and then beating them, with the final aggregate score of 12-3.

South American soccer had arrived, for damn sure. FIFA realized that the Olympic games were not going to be the best place to see the best soccer, and decided to organize a global tournament. The Olympics, for one, didn't allow professional players to compete, and this may have hindered the "better" European national squads.

FIFA picked 1930 to be the inaugural year, and they needed to find a venue. The only backer? Capitol city of Montevideo, in Uruguay. The only country willing to front the bill and house the teams was the tine powerhouse, Uruguay. Not too many European teams could make the journey, but some did. The winners were the home team, Uruguay itself. It won three consecutive major international titles, a rarity that it took 82 years to duplicate with Spain this year.

1934 and 1938 saw World Cups in Europe, and Brazil was the only South American team to make it to both. The next World Cup wasn't until 1950, because of WWII, and Brazil was the host. Uruguay won that one, too, giving them four FIFA recognized championships. If you look at national team logos, they each are "allowed" by FIFA to display a star for each championship. This is usually reserved for World Cups. Brazil has five stars, Italy has four, Germany three, Argentina two, and a bunch with just one. Uruguay? They rock four stars.

It was the smallest country by population to ever a Cup, and the next smallest, Argentina, has 40 million, more than ten-times the size.

In 1980 Uruguay hosted what they called the Mundialito, or "Little World Cup". It was a tournament only for countries that had won World Cups. The reigning Euro champs, West Germany (1980) and reigning World Cup holders, Argentina, were there, and the winners? Uruguay. It was a major sporting coup. The national team with the most international titles is Uruguay, but that's likely the result of the fact that South America historically held their tournaments much more often than Europe did. But it does mean something that they've won more often than both Brazil and Argentina.

All this is still not as interesting as Jose Artigas, Jose San Martin, and Simon Bolivar. They need to make movies about them

Eh...sports...