nunes@utai.UUCP (Joe Nunes) (02/11/86)
*** Uruguay - The Little Big Reality of Today
*** (Return of the "Celeste", 12 years after the West German World Cup)
Twelve years after the dim and washed-out sadness of its performance in
World Cup-74 in West Germany, where it didn't win a single game in the first
round (against the then great Holland (0-2), Bulgaria (1-1), and Sweden (0-3)),
Uruguay which, from stumble to stumble, couldn't qualify for Argentina in 1978
nor for Spain in 1982, now returns to the final phase of the ultimate
competition in World Football. Returning to Mexico where, in 1970, with a team
that included Mazurkiewicz, Ubinas, Matosus, Cubilla, Maneiro, Morales and
company, it conquered the last "honourable" placing (4th place) of its
impressive history of FIFA competition.
It should be remembered that due to qualification scheduling Uruguay was the
first team to win its passport to Mexico, joining Mexico and Italy on April 7,
1985. To the fiercely nationalistic Uruguayan "aficion" [fandom], living in the
nostalgia of a glorious past, this qualification was viewed as a return to the
great feats of yesterday. It was not surprising that the day after the
hard-fought victory over Chile in the Estadio Centenario, where the well-awaited
advancement was guaranteed, a local newspaper ("La Manana") interpreted the
general euphoria with a page-wide banner: "VOLVIMOS" [we have returned].
This seemed to imply that every one of the 3 million Uruguayans which live in
their little South American "back-yard", suffering through one of the worse
socio-economic crises of its history, had kicked, ran, headed and otherwise
helped the conquest of the qualification, and the return of its team from
the mists of the Rio de la Plata. Forgetting this more or less mystical mood,
the question that must be asked is this: how was it possible for Uruguayan
football to return to a World Cup when, as a reflection of the environment in
which it lives, it is falling apart? No longer being kept alive by the
Penarol-Nacional rivalry around which everything revolved for so many years,
following the laws of an extreme football power concentration caused by the
demographics of a country that places half its population in the capital
city of Montevideo.
Well, what has happened is that we have in reality a Uruguayan team which
lives and works outside of Uruguay, a little like the case of Denmark but,
unfortunately for the South Americans, not for the same reasons. While the
more gifted Danish players leave their country, where the per-capita GNP
reaches 10,920 dollars(!), to fulfill their personal careers in high
competition, clearly not well developed in a country maintaining amateur
sporting conditions, in Uruguay, where the per-capita GNP is only 3,045
dollars, emigration becomes almost a necessity. So much so that 1 in 6
Uruguayans leave their nation in order to improve their quality of life.
Between 1957 and 1985, 1500 players have left Uruguay! At present, consider the
following top players now playing outside of Uruguay:
Brazil: Rodriguez(Santos), Diogo(Palmeiras), Pereyra(Sao Paulo)
Colombia: Gutierrez(A.N. de Medelin), Santin(A.N. de Medelin)
Argentina: Francescoli(River Plate), Batista(Deportivo Espanol)
Spain: Saralegui(Elche), Nadal(Sevilha), Cabrera(Valencia(,
da Silva(Atletico de Madrid)
France: Ramos(Lens)
Greece: Barrios(Olympiakos)
Of the top 11 players in the Uruguayan squad, 10 play outside Uruguay!
Don't ask us how, in technical terms, Omar Borras, the national coach, can
communicate with this Foreign Legion. Don't ask us either how, in technical
terms, this team conquered the South American championship in 1983.
What impresses us most about the Uruguayan team is that there is a
dynamic youth in this "New Uruguay" and that this youth, with its roots in a
tenacity that is already famous, made the Uruguayan national team return to
its origins; becoming not only the most European of South American teams
but a "Community of Nostalgia and Pride" which struggles for its nation with
near-fanaticism. There is a new edition of the "Celeste" which could only have
been realized by a profoundly nationalistic and self-sacrificial youth.
The youth of the Uruguayan team exists to an extent not found in any of the
other 23 teams in Mexico. Of the 21 players chosen for consideration, 7 are
25 and under, 13 are between 26 and 30, and only 1 is over 30.
We have a feeling that what Uruguay-86 lacks in experience and technical
mastery it makes up for in enthusiasm, tenacity, irreverence, courage, and
even a "suicidal" spirit which is worthy of the idiosyncrasies of the
historical ancestors of this Foreign Legion of today.
It was much more this old mystique than the excellence of an almost
"impossible" collective and mechanistic football that forged the needed
qualification against a Chile which, in Santiago, created a climate more
appropriate to roman gladiators than football players, and an Ecuador that
no longer plays with a square ball but rather fights for each minute of the
game. Will this be enough so that in a group composed of West Germany, Denmark
and Scotland, Uruguay will perform deeds which are out of this world? Maybe not.
But let no one be fooled by Uruguay's performance in Paris on July 28, 1985 to
contest the Artemio Franchi cup between the European and South American
champions. Uruguay is the only South American team in its group and in harmony
with the Continental Law [teams tend to not win away from their "home"
continent] will be worth double. Any team that doesn't realize that won't have
long to live.