A football crazy population of just three and a half million in a state only double the size of Bavaria provided the benchmark in the first half of the past decade. Not England, not Brazil, not Germany: no, Uruguay were considered to be the football’s greatest power in the early days. And the one that was feared the most.

The “Sky Blues” from the east coast of South America secured ten important titles between 1916 and 1935: they won the Copa America on seven occasions (1916, 1917, 1920, 1923, 1924, 1926 and 1935), won the 1924 and 1928 Olympic football tournaments in Paris and Amsterdam, which are considered to be the forerunners of the World Cup. On home soil in 1930, the South Americans also won history’s first World Cup. Twenty years later the Urus repeated the World Cup triumph in neighbouring Brazil.

The outstanding personalities of the golden era were the highly skilled captain José Nasazzi, a stone mason by trade, and his congenial midfield partner José Leandro Andrade, the “black pearl”, a lithe footballer with inimitable elegance. The goals were scored by, above all, Hector Scarone, whose 29 goals remains a Uruguayan record, the one-armed Hector Castro and Pedro Cea.

Facing each other in the 1930 World Cup final in front of 80,000 spectators in Montevideo’s “Estadio Centenario” on 30 July were the best football teams of that period: Uruguay and Argentina. Only four European teams took part. The others declined because of the long, difficult and expensive journey. After being behind 1-2 at half-time, the hosts eventually won 4-2 – which is why 30 July has remained a public holiday to this day.

As a retort for the minimal European interest, the Urus in turn declined the chance to participate in the 1934 and 1938 World Cup finals in Italy and France respectively. They only returned to the fray in Brazil in 1950 and they then proceeded to cause one of the biggest sensations in football history. As the World Cup was decided purely on a group basis, the hosts and favourites only needed to draw the final game against a previously disappointing Uruguay on 16 July to take the long desired title.

Up to the 66th minute (1-0) everything seemed to be pointing to a Selecao victory but then to the horror of the 174,000 spectators in the Maracana Stadium, Juan Schiaffino (66) and Alcides Ghiggia (79) turned the tables. Uruguay’s goalkeeper Gaston Maspoli was almost unbeatable on the day.

Since then the “Charrúas” have been waiting for a similar success. Though they qualified regularly – on eight occasions – for the World Cup finals, they weren’t able to do any better than fourth in 1954 and 1970. On the contrary, in the 80’s and 90’s the nation, which had once invented “combination football”, were only conspicuous as a result of their defensive football and excessively physical play.

Uruguay were the final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2002 ™ in Japan and South Korea after a two legged play-off against Oceania champions Australia. In Asia, the team remained without a win in the group matches and were soon eliminated.

Currently, when looking at the names, national coach Jorge Fossati again has a powerful array of players. But harmony and consistency are lacking. Most of Uruguay’s stars earn their living in Spain (Diego Forlan, Dario Silva, Walter Pandiani) and Italy (Alvaro Recoba, Marcelo Zalayeta, Paolo Montero). Ernesto Chevanton, in the meantime, plays up front for the Champions League finalists AS Monaco.