Wedged between two regional giants, Uruguay has had little choice but to assert itself through the beautiful game. After hosting the inaugural football World Cup in 1930 and beating its western neighbour Argentina in the final, ‘La Celeste’ repeated the feat against Brazil 20 years later.
South America’s second-smallest state is thought to have been inhabited over 10,000 years ago. The native Charrúa, Guaná and Guenoa peoples had almost disappeared by the time of the country’s independence, as a result of diseases and extermination. The first European explorers were likely the Portuguese in 1512. Three years later, Spanish forces’ first, short-lived venture ashore inaugurated three centuries of competing conquests by imperial and neighbouring powers. Between 1807 and 1830 Montevideo was occupied in turn by British, Spanish, Argentine, Portuguese, and Brazilian forces. National hero José Artigas won a decisive victory against the Spanish in 1811, as well as warding off invasions by the above-mentioned neighbours, more than a century prior to their soccer clashes.
