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.