World Cup History: Uruguay 1930
May 26, 2014
Held in July, shortly after the Wall Street Crash, the first finals in 1930 took place entirely in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo.
Held in July, shortly after the Wall Street Crash, the first finals in 1930 took place entirely in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo.
Because of travel difficulties, just 13 nations took part and only four from Europe — France, Belgium, Romania and Yugoslavia.
All except Yugoslavia took the liner Conte Verde at Villefranche-sur-Mer in France for the two week voyage across the Atlantic, training on the boat on the way.
The 13 competitors were split into four groups with the winners contesting the semi-finals.
Yugoslavia did the best of the Europeans nations by reaching the last four where they were beaten 6-1 by Uruguay.
In the other semi-final Argentina over- hwhelmed the United States by an identical scoreline.
Uruguay, backed by a partisan crowd of 93,000 in the Centenario Stadium, beat the Argentines 4-2 in the final. Uruguay declared a public holiday, but in Buenos Aires hostile fans attacked the Uruguayan embassy.
Final statistics
July 30, 1930
Uruguay 4 Argentina 2
1930 legend Pedro CEA
He played in Uruguayan teams that won the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games tournaments and the first World Cup in 1930.
He became known as the ‘Olympic equaliser’ by scoring equalising goals every time Uruguay were behind in these three tour- naments. Scored a hat-trick in the 1930 World Cup semi-final 6-1 win over Yugoslavia and the second, equalising goal against Argentina in the final.
One of the few great inside-lefts who was not left-footed.
1930 World Cup scorers
G.Stabile (ARG) 8
Pedro Cea (URU) 5
G.Subiabre (CHI) 4
P.Anselmo (URU) 3
C.Peucelle (ARG) 3
B.Patenaude (USA) 3
Peregrino (BRA) 3
Ivan Beck (YUG) 3
1930 World Cup trivia
Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Uruguay applied to stage the first World Cup. Uruguay won the decision, not least because they offered to pay the expenses of the competing countries.
Teams from Great Britain could not be consid- ered because they were not members of FIFA. They did not enter the competition until 1950.
The earlier matches were played on local club grounds as the main Centenario Stadium was still unfinished. This was not used until the final stages.
The first World Cup match France beat Mexico 4-1. Lucien Laurent had the distinction of scoring the first World Cup goal.
The first player to be sent off in the tournament was Peru captain Mario de las Casas in a group match against Romania. Peru were beaten 3-1 before the lowest ever World Cup crowd of just 300 spectators.
Argentina were the first nation to score six goals when they beat Mexico 6-3. Guillermo Stabile was the first player to score a hat- trick.
1930 World Cup winning squad Uruguay
Goalkeepers: Enrique Ballesteros, Miguel Capuccini Defenders: Ernesto Mascheroni, Jose Nasazzi (capt), Domingo Tejera Midfield: Jose Leandro Andrade, Fernandez Lorenzo, Alvaro Gestido Forwards: Peregrino Anselmo, Hector Castro, Pedro Cea, Pablo Dorado, Santos Iriarte, Pedro Petrone, Hector Scarone, Santos Urdinara
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