URUGUAY 1924-30 - courtesy Jonathan Wilson @ Guardian

URUGUAY 1924-30

1924 Olympic final Colombes, Paris

3-0 v Switzerland (Petrone, Cea, Romano)

Mazali; Nasazzi (c), Arispe; Andrade, Vidal, Ghierra; Urdinarán, Scarone, Petrone, Cea, Romano

1928 Olympic final Olympisch, Amsterdam

1-1 v Argentina (Petrone; Ferreyra)

Mazali; Nasazzi (c), Arispe; Andrade, Fernández, Gestido; Urdinarán, Castro, Petrone, Cea, Campolo

1928 Olympic final replay Olympisch, Amsterdam: 2-1 v Argentina (Figueroa, Scarone; Monti)

Mazali; Nasazzi (c), Arispe; Andrade, Piriz, Gestido; Arremon, Scarone, Borjas, Cea, Figueroa

1930 World Cup final Centenario, Montevideo: 4-2 v Argentina (Dorado, Cea, Iriarte, Castro; Peucelle, Stabile)

Ballestero; Mascheroni, Nasazzi (c); Andrade, Fernández, Gestido; Dorado, Scarone, Castro, Cea, Iriarte

Uruguay's success at the Paris Olympics is one of the great romantic tales. This was, first and foremost, a team of workers, including, among other professions, a meat-packer, a marble-cutter, a grocer and an ice salesman. They travelled to Europe in steerage and played to pay for their board, winning nine friendlies in Spain before they even reached France. Uruguay were the first Latin American side to tour Europe, but they attracted little attention – at least initially – only around 2,000 turning up to watch them eviscerate Yugoslavia 7-0 in their opening game in the Olympics.

Word soon got around. "Game after game," the poet Eduardo Galeano wrote, "the crowd jostled to see those men, slippery as squirrels, who played chess with a ball. The English squad had perfected the long pass and the high ball but these disinherited children from far-off America didn't walk in their father's footsteps. They chose to invent a game of close passes directly to the foot, with lightning changes in rhythm and high-speed dribbling."

In four games they scored 17 goals and conceded just two in their four matches, beating a Switzerland side co-managed by the remarkable trio of Jimmy Hogan, Teddy Duckworth and Dori Kurschner 3-0 in the final. Uruguay, wrote Gabriel Hanot, the editor of L'Equipe, showed "marvellous virtuosity in receiving the ball, controlling it and using it. They created a beautiful football, elegant but at the same time varied, rapid, powerful and effective". And British football? "It is like comparing Arab thoroughbreds to farm horses."

Argentina, who hadn't travelled to France, were furious and, on Uruguay's return, challenged them to a game, winning 3-2 on aggregate after crowd trouble curtailed the second leg in Buenos Aires. When they met in the finals of the 1928 Olympics and the 1940 World Cup, though, Uruguay emerged triumphant. "Argentina," wrote the great Italian journalist Gianni Brera, "play football with a lot of imagination and elegance, but technical superiority cannot compensate for the abandonment of tactics. Between the two Rioplatense national teams, the ants are the Uruguayans, the cicadas are the Argentinians."