Jun 28, 2024, 11:50 ET
The Uruguayan national team will seek to revalidate its reputation as a ‘party pooper’ against the United States, given that this Monday it could eliminate the host team of the 2024 Copa América in the group stage. In ESPN we review When did Celeste get this nickname and how many times has she reaffirmed it?.
After two rounds of Group C of the Cup, Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay leads the group with six points (winning 3-1 against Panama, and 5-0 against Bolivia); the United States has three points (beating Bolivia 2-0 and losing 2-1 to Panama) as does Panama; Bolivia is last without any points. This Monday, the Celeste will play against the local team in Kansas, and Bolivia and Panama will face each other in Orlando.
Thus, Uruguay will have the opportunity to reaffirm its historical status as a ‘party pooper’, a reputation he gained when he won the first edition of the Copa América in Argentina in 1916, a country that was celebrating its centenary as a nation that year.
This title has even been transferred to various competitionseliminating in the 1920s the soccer teams that were local in the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games.
At the 1924 Paris Olympics, Uruguay defeated and eliminated France in the quarter-finals by 5-1; and in Amsterdam 1928, La Celeste beat the Netherlands in the round of 16 by 2-0.
The maximum peak in this sense was in the 1950 World Cup.where in the legendary Maracaná in Rio de Janeiro they beat Brazil 2-1 in the last match and were crowned world champions (even the home team had started off winning, and even with a draw they would have won the Jules Rimet Cup).
Being a spoilsport in World Cups continued in London in 1966, when they drew 0-0 against England in the opening match of the ’66 World Cup.
In the World Cup in Italy ’90 he played again against the host team, although on this occasion Uruguay lost 2 to 0 in Rome against the Azzurra and was eliminated in the round of 16. This was the only time that the Celeste lost to the local team in a World Cup.
Anyway, In the 1980s he had strongly fueled the rejection of the local public, regardless of their nationality: in 1983 he became champion of the Copa América in Salvador de Bahia, playing in the final against Brazil. (it was a 1-1 draw; in the first leg played in Montevideo the Celeste had won 2-1), and in the 1987 Copa América, Uruguay defeated Argentina (current world champion) 1-0 in the semifinal played at the Monumental de Núñez on July 9 (Uruguay would later win the Cup by beating Chile in the final).
Already in the XXI centuryyou can remember how Uruguay beat Venezuela 4 to 1 in the quarterfinals of the 2007 Copa América in San Cristóbal, and how four years later they eliminated Argentina on penalties in Santa Fe.
At the same time, in the World Cup South Africa 2010 beat the local team 3-0 in the group stage and eliminated the last African team still standing (Ghana in the quarter-finals) from that Cup. And in Russia 2018 defeated the host country 3-0 on the last date of Group A (although Russia still qualified for the round of 16 of the tournament it hosted).
To all this we could add several key victories as a visitor in the Qualifiers (for example against Ecuador in Quito in 2009, against Venezuela in Puerto Ordaz or against Peru in Lima in 2013, or even against Chile in Santiago in 2022), matches where the Celeste has been able to reaffirm that he is usually a ‘lousy guest’. The United States will have the challenge on Monday of being a better host against this ‘party-pooper’ team.
