Uruguay: The world's greatest underdogs

  3.3 million people isn't that many in the grand scheme of things.  It's slightly more than the population of Wales, and slightly less than that of Connecticut.  It certainly does not even begin to compare to the populations of countries such as England, the Netherlands, Portugal, or Russia.

  3.3 million is the population of the fourth smallest country in South America, Uruguay- and it has won more World Cups than every single nation listed above put together.  Add to that the 14 Copa Americas, the 2 Olympic titles, and the 4 fourth placed finishes at the World Cup, and perhaps you're looking at, pound for pound, the best footballing nation on the planet.

  What is it that makes this small piece of land in south-eastern South America so efficient when it comes to producing footballers?  After all, in the ten year period between 2000 and 2010, the country exported an astonishing 1,414 players to Europe.  To put that into some context, that's almost as many as neighbours Argentina and Brazil, who have roughly ten times and sixty times Uruguay's population respectively.

  They're not exactly poor footballers either; the winner of the Golden Ball at last year's World Cup was Atlético Madrid's Diego Forlán.  Luis Suárez, Álvaro Recoba, Diego Lugano and Martin Caceres are just a few other examples of Uruguayan players who have played for some of the biggest clubs on the planet in recent years.  With exciting young talent like Palermo's Abel Hernández and Ajax's Nicólas Lodeiro coming through, this is a talent line that doesn't look like stopping any time soon.  But why is this the case?

  Uruguay is fortunate in that, generally speaking, it has a very favourable footballing climate.  The weather tends to be warm throughout the year, with neither any significant regional variations, nor any wet season.  A byproduct of this is that the youth of Uruguay can go outside and play football quite comfortably almost any time in the year.  It's much easier to meet up with your mates down at the local park for a kickabout if it's not zero degrees celsius and raining cats and dogs.  Equally, coaches will be able to give more detailed tactical advice, and the players, in turn, will be a lot more reciprocative under a balmy blue sky, than if the coach was yelling his tactical ideas over gale force winds.

  Footballing climate does not just include the weather though.  Uruguay is one of the most developed countries in South America.  Young, prospective footballers will grow up with a good, meat based diet, and will receive a sound education, both of which help.  Also, the fact that the country has a relatively comfortable GDP of over $14,000 per capita means that the children do not have to work from a young age, giving plenty of time to have a kickabout with their friends.

  What else is there?  You could talk about the fact that the country has lots of flat land on which to play football, that it has imported knowledge from Europe (88% of the population are of European descent), or even that it has a long history of success on a footballing level, and success breeds success.  However, whilst these factors may be of some importance, none of them are really enough to justify just how successful the Uruguayans have been.  In my opinion, it's down to a good, old-fashioned siege mentality.


  Both José Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson swear by it.  'Nobody thinks we can do it, we'll show them!' could probably be the official Uruguayan motto.  To your north, you have the biggest footballing country on the planet in Brazil; to the south, it's La Albiceleste, Argentina, with its Boca and River Plate, its Maradona and Messi....and you're lumped right in the middle of the two.  It's like being the third Neville brother.

  The Argentina-Uruguay fixture, or the River Plate derby, in reference to the estuary which divides Montevideo and Buenos Aires, is special.  No matter that these two countries have played each other more times than anyone else in international football (219 times since 1900), each match is as hotly contested as the last.  Diplomatically, the two countries get on very well.  Commentator Victor Hugo Morales remarked that the match was like a 'board game between siblings', rather than a derby of Old Firm proportions.  Having said that, as anyone with a brother or sister will know, this hardly makes the game any less meaningful.  In 1930, a Uruguayan win in the derby saw a day of public holiday in Uruguay, while across the river, the Uruguayan embassy was stoned, and there were widespread riots throughout the country.  The Uruguayan FA broke off all ties with its Argentinian counterpart.  Since then, the two have made up, and are now hosting a joint bid for the World Cup in 2030.

  As for the Brazilian rivalry, it is a distinctly one sided affair, though not from the Uruguayans, as you might suspect.  Rewind to 1950.  The World Cup Final is being played in Brazil, in the newly opened Maracana, with over 200,000 spectators fully expecting to see their Brazilian heroes win the Jules Rimet trophy for the first time.  However, the Uruguayans didn't read the script, and had the temerity to record a 2-1 win, sending over 100 million Brazilians into a deep shock, to which, for various reasons, the country is still feeling the effects.  The defeat caused retirements within the media, fans committing suicide, players vowing never to play for the national team again....the shock result even caused the Brazilians to change their home top from the white they wore that day to the familiar yellow they still play in now.  Furthermore, the Brazilian national team have never once worn white again, for fear of bad luck.  All due to plucky little Uruguay.

  Perhaps the most important reason why Uruguay has been so successful is to do with its attitude.  The belief that, no matter what, it has just as much right to victory as anybody else.  Brazilians and Argentinians have long said that, unlike every other team they play, it is only the Uruguayans who can go toe to toe with them without fear, nor intimidation.  This is a state of mind that can be beautifully encompassed by the Uruguayan captain at the 1950 World Cup Final, Obdulio Varela.  After being given a team talk by their manager, urging a cautious approach, Varela waited until his boss had left the room, before warning his team mates of the dangers of such a defensive, reactionary plan to stifle their samba opponents, encouraging instead a cavalier, fearless style of play.  He then delivered a line which still reverberates throughout the streets of Montevideo to this day:

  "Boys, the underdog tag means nothing.  Let the show begin."

  And long may it continue.

The Ibrox samba

  Although my first post was predominantly about the Irish national football team, I am in fact both a Scotsman and a Rangers fan through and through.  Having said that, I try to watch as much football from other countries as I can.  One of my favourite leagues in the world to watch is the Brazilian championship.  The term 'carnival atmosphere' is often used to describe it when some bloke from Hartlepool decides to bring a drum along to a match, but to really experience the true sense of the phrase, if you can't afford the airfare to Rio, you should check out some YouTube videos from the Brazilian Série A.

  Mental, right?

  Sadly, in all my 18 years as a Rangers fan, I've only known two Brazilians to be associated with the royal blue.  Even worse, neither really managed to make any real impact at the club, and shuffled out through the back door.  Neither were particularly bad players, it just seemed a case of wrong time, wrong place.  

Brazilian Number 1: Paulo André Cren Benini

  
Paulo André arrived in Glasgow for a 3 day trial in 2005 from Guarani.  Upon completing his trial, the then 21 year old Brazilian was pretty optimistic of landing a permanent deal at Ibrox Stadium:


"I know Brazilian players have not had a good time in Scotland but I am different.  I am a very physical player and, at the same time, very technical.   I will not have a problem playing in Scotland.  Rangers have an outstanding set-up and I was impressed.  Any player in the world would dream of playing for them and I'm no exception."


  Sadly, any player in the world also dreams of more money.  So when Brazilian giants Atlético Paranaense offered him a bumper deal, Paulo decided to stay on the other side of the Atlantic, rejecting both Rangers and Fiorentina in the process.


  The player himself eventually did move to Europe, signing for the French West Brom, Le Mans 72.  Having shone for them on the pitch, he struggled to adapt to European life off it, and was loaned back to Brazil in the summer of 2009, signing for Sao Paulo giants, SC Corinthians Paulista.  He continued to excel as a footballer, becoming a regular fixture for Timão, as Ronaldo's final club reached a respectable 3rd in the Série A last year.  With Lucio and Juan falling out of favour with the Seleção, is it totally out of the question to see this former Rangers trialist run out in the canary yellow before a baying Maracana in the not too distant future?

Brazilian Number 2: Emerson Moisés Costa

  From the wholly unproven to the tried and tested.  Rangers' other Brazilian, Emerson, at least managed a whole season in Scotland.  Brought up in Rio de Janeiro, starting out with the country's biggest club Flamengo, the dreadlocked midfielder worked his way through an impressive eight clubs before signing on at Ibrox, including spells at respected European clubs, such as FC Porto and Atlético Madrid.


  Unfortunately for the Brazilian, his arrival at Ibrox wasn't perhaps timed to perfection.  With Barry Ferguson heading down south to sign for Blackburn Rovers, the fans were wary that the club's plan to replace their talisman was to bring in a 31 year old journeyman Brazilian, despite then manager Alex McLeish explicitly stating that this wasn't the case.  To all concerned though, this was just the manager trying to ease the pressure on his new recruit.  Rangers were experiencing awful financial troubles at the time, so it was a real case of cutting back that summer.  Despite bringing in upwards of £10m in transfer revenue, the club only spent £700k on new faces, with just one of the six signings being under the age of 30.  Emerson was up against it from the off.


  The South American's time in Scotland's footballing hotbed was decidedly mixed.  Although he struggled to gain a regular spot in the first team, he did manage a goal in the Champions League, and put on a masterclass against Livingston at Ibrox early in 2004.  Sadly, this was not enough to secure a longer stay at the club, and he departed home for Vasco da Gama at the end of the season.


  Vasco da Gama, who are similar to Rangers in the sense that both were founded by a group of teenage boys, was to prove a more hospitable environment, and he was soon back in Europe, earning himself a move to Greek giants AEK Athens in 2006 on the back of an impressive season with Skoda Xanthi.  He ended his career playing in the Rio State Championship for Madureira at the stately age of 38.  

The future

  At the time of writing, not a single Brazilian is on the books of a Scottish Premier League club.  In fact, Argentine Damian Casalinuovo is currently the sole South American plying his trade in Scotland, playing for relegation bound Hamilton Accies.  To show how rare this is, out of UEFA's top 30 leagues, Scotland (15th) is the only one not to have a single Brazilian in it.  


  It's difficult to put your finger on why this is the case.  Brazilians can't handle the weather?  Rubbish- if 18 of them can handle a Russian winter, then they can jolly well handle a cold night up in Aberdeen!  They're not good at integrating into British society?  The likes of Denilson, David Luiz and Rafael would beg to differ.  What about work permits?  This is slightly trickier, although there are plenty of Brazilians with dual Italian/Portuguese citizenship.  


  The truth is probably that, here in Scotland, experimenting is often dangerous.  The extent of Scottish tactical adventures in recent years would probably extend to that crazy old bean Jimmy Calderwood going 4-2-4 in the dying minutes of a game, when his Aberdeen needed a goal.  Other than that, it's very much relying on the tried and tested.  And unfortunately, Brazilian players have been both tried and tested here, with little success. Celtic's samba adventures could be summed up with the unfortunate last name of their £5m acquisition from Grêmio.  Rafael Scheidt made three appearances for the Hoops, before heading back to Brazil with Corinthians.


  Scottish clubs have had their fingers burned in the past with Brazilian players, but it would be a shame to give up on all of them because of the failures of a select few.  Let's hope we can see some samba light up these shores once again in the not too distant future.

Luck of the English?

  Yet again, international football has thrust its way back onto the scene, with the usual kerfuffle of last minute call offs, 'dream' last-minute call-ups and club managers generally getting their knickers in a twist about the players they usually order about being ordered about by other people instead.  Some people need to learn to share.

  Anyway, another favourite issue brought up during national service concerns how 'national' the national team is.  Before you think I'm about to go on some awkward BNP-esque political rant, I'm talking about naturalised footballers.  Stoke City's Liam Lawrence came out with some interesting comments today concerning this subject:

"We don't dislike these people, it's just some of the comments they come out with when they are saying they are juggling between Ireland and England- you just don't want it, do you?"

  Ah good old Liam Lawrence, promoting the traditional game, where you can only play for the country of your birth.  No time for part-timers like Amauri, Ozil, Senna, Evra, Lawrence....hang on....Lawrence?  That can't be right, can it?  Unfortunately, unless Nottingham is some rural village in County Donegal, then I'm afraid so.  The Irishman calling for tighter international qualification laws is a bit English underneath it all.

  In fact, of the 25 man squad called up by the Irish for this international break, an astonishing 13 were born outside the Republic.  Not very Irish at all.  It may be true that some of these 13 turned down their country of birth to play for Ireland, but how many of Lawrence's merry band of Irish cum Mancunian men honestly dreamed of pulling on the Irish green as a boy?

  International football is becoming more and more like a diluted version of club football.  Brazilians playing for Bulgaria, Uruguayans playing for Qatar, Argentines playing for Mexico....England looked to win the World Cup with an Italian at the helm while 8 of the other 32 employed foreign help too.  By all means, importing foreign knowledge can be a good thing, but it is getting to the point where you have to question the motives of these 'naturalised' footballers.

  The international game should about the love of your country.  It shouldn't be about boosting your CV. For every Liam Lawrence, there's a Stephen Hunt who misses out.  Of course, you could argue that Lawrence is the better player, but that's irrelevant.  The fact is that an Englishman is keeping an Irishman out of the Irish national team.  If you can't manage without being dependent on foreign help, then the country's football association must take a proper look at itself.

  The short term fix often harms the long term cure; instead of investing in better grassroots training for young Irish footballers, the FAI is paying Trapattoni over two million pounds per year to find out if Jermaine Pennant is allowed to play for the Emerald Isle.  Twenty odd years down the line, what will be the end result of all this?  Will the Irish squad have any Irishmen in it at all?  Most likely.  Although it'd have a heck of a lot more if the FAI decided to make the national team properly Irish.