Uruguay National Soccer Team

Uruguay National Soccer Team

The Uruguay national football team represents Uruguay in international association football competition and it is controlled by the Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol.

Uruguay is currently number eighteen in the FIFA world rankings, and is considered to be one the strongest teams in South America. Along with Argentina, Uruguay has won the most Copa América tournaments, with 14 titles each one. The team has twice won the FIFA World Cup, including the first World Cup in 1930 as hosts, defeating Argentina 4–2 in the final. They won their second title in 1950, upsetting hosts Brazil 2–1 in the final match. They have won the Gold Medals in football at the Summer Olympics twice, in 1924 and 1928, before the creation of the World Cup. They also won the 1980 Mundialito, a tournament among former World Cup champions (except England, substituted by the Netherlands) held in 1980 in Uruguay to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first World Cup. In total they have won 19 official titles (the record shared with Argentina for the most international titles held by a country): two times the FIFA World Cup, two times the Olympic Games medals, 14 times the Copa América and the only Mundialito ever held.

Their success is amplified by the fact that the nation has a very small population of around 3.5 million inhabitants. Uruguay is by far the smallest country in the world to have won a World Cup. (The second smallest country, by population, to have won the World Cup is Argentina with a total population of over 40 million people.) Uruguay is also the smallest country ever to win any World Cup medals. In fact, only six nations with their current population smaller than Uruguay's have ever participated in any World Cup: Northern Ireland (3 times), Slovenia (twice), Wales, Kuwait, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Uruguay is also the smallest nation to win Olympic gold medals in any team sport.

The level of the Uruguay national team decreased in the seventies, as Uruguay has only qualified on four occasions in the last nine World Cups, although it has always remained a strong team in South America, having reached third place and fourth place in the last two Copa América tournaments respectively. However, the present generation of Uruguayan players is widely considered among the very best in their country in the last five decades and helped the National team finish fourth in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Source : Wikipedia.com