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| Lucifer38 |
on Sun 24 Jul 11, 10:48 PM to Lucifer38's blog.
Other countries have their history, goes the saying, and Uruguay has its football.....But until maybe tonight it has been a haunting for over 50 years. Tonight in Buenos Aires of all places, Uruguay went onto win their 15th Copa America with a resounding 3-0 win over Paraguay. This means that they have overtaken Argentina as the most successful South American country in their equivalent of the European Championships. Not a small thing for a country with a population less than 4 million where Ghosts are created as legends.
Anyway,why has it been a haunting? Its all about one game, the match was the World Cup Final of 1950.
In the newly-built Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro Brazil needed just a draw to claim their first world title. They failed thwarted by Obdulio Varela. He was Uruguay's inspirational captain. He held his men firm in the face of Brazil's furious assault, and then provided the midfield platform for his side's 2-1 win. Much has been written about 1950, but usually from the Brazilian perspective. It was indeed a crushing blow to Brazil's self-esteem. The defeat punctured a mood of crazed nationalism and scarred the lives of the players and many of those Brazilian fans who watched in the stadium or listened on the radio.
Eight years later many of the wounds were healed when Pele and Garrincha began establishing Brazil as the major force in world football. Furthermore Brazil's population has grown almost fourfold in the subsequent half century and the country has gone through huge changes. It would be entirely possible to stop 10 people in the streets of Rio and find that none of them are aware of what happened on that fateful afternoon in the Maracana. For Uruguay it is much harder to forget. Nowadays, when the national team play in Montevideo the crowd unfurl a giant banner with '1950' written in the middle. Uruguay's fans cling to the match in the Maracana because they have had little more to celebrate. In truth the result was not the shock that it might appear from today's vantage point. At the time Uruguay had never lost a World Cup game, and had beaten Brazil in Brazil a few weeks before the tournament began. Ever since the 1924 Olympics they had been the kings of world football, but their reign was coming to an end.
In 1954 they lost an epic semi-final to the great Hungarians,which most believe to still be the greatest ever World Cup Match,this was also the first time Uruguay had ever lost a world cup match....24 years!!!!!! That is a record that will never be bettered.....
In 3 years time, the World Cup will be held in Brazil........could lightning strike twice?
