Where the world cup began

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It might not look all that historic but it is. Jules Rimet called it "a temple of football" - and he should know, the World Cup was named after him! The landmark imposing grey tower is right out of a communist architects textbook. Somehow out of place and yet defining at the same time. The legendary Estadio Centenario.

Eighty years ago, Uruguay hosted the first ever FIFA World Cup. Beating off competition from Italy, Sweden, Holland and Spain to host the event, Uruguay's bid included building a new centrepiece stadium, hence the Estadio Centenario was born. It held 10 of the 18 matches and all 13 countries played at least one match there. On 30th July 1930, the stadium hosted the first ever World Cup final when Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2 (even though Argentina led 2-1 at half time). The following day was a national holiday in Uruguay, which says as much about Uruguayan-Argentinian relations in 1930 as it does about the popularity of football in South America.

Given all that history, if we only did one thing in Uruguay, we had to see a match at the Estadio Centenario. A world cup final classic it wasn't, but an entertaining 90 minutes nontheless. The modest crowd were passionate, noisy and of course, completely biased.

Here's my match report: Penarol 2 - Cerro 1

The first half was mostly a scrappy affair with only a few periods of good play by either side. Penarol opened with a well worked goal but couldn't sustain the momentum and conceded ten minutes later. Overall it was a fair result going into the break after an evenly poor first half for both teams.

Whatever the manager said in the Penarol dressing room had a resounding effect and the home team came out of the tunnel on fire. This half they ran much harder, closed down the Cerro midfield and passed the ball with greater consistency. It paid off. Cerro were overwhelmed and looked lost. The winner a quarter of an hour before the final whistle was wildly celebrated and well deserved.

Man of the match: Penarol number 5.
Potential international transfer Mr Pulis?

From Jess

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Photos

The Penarol home support
Not to be mistaken for Hull City fans.

This guy recognised my Stoke shirt and gave me the thumbs up thanks to our Uruguayan player.
He shoved the meat in my face once he learned I was vegetarian. I could only laugh.