Football World Cup 2014 / Uruguay

This article covers the Uruguayan national soccer team at the 2014 World Cup . Uruguay took part in the finals for the twelfth time and qualified as the last team in 2010. With 3,400,000 inhabitants, Uruguay has the fewest inhabitants of all the final round participants. Uruguay won the title for the last time at the last World Cup in Brazil. After that, the semi-finals were reached three more times, most recently in 2010.

qualification

Uruguay qualified for the World Cup in Brazil through the qualifiers of the South American Football Association CONMEBOL and the intercontinental playoff games .

All nine teams, which belong to the South American association CONMEBOL as well as hosts Brazil, played against each other in a single group stage with a return game, with a total of 16 matches for each team and one team free of play on every match day. The four best-placed teams qualified directly for the final round of the 2014 World Cup. Uruguay finished fifth in CONMEBOL against the Asian representative Jordan with an overall result of 5: 0 from the two legs and finished last in the World Cup.

After Uruguay won the Copa America 2011 , the team went into the qualification as one of the favorites, especially since Uruguay was the best South American team at the last World Cup and had the best player in the World Cup in Diego Forlán . In the first games Uruguay was able to build on the role of favorites - at least at home - and scored four goals in the first three home games, but then lost significantly to Colombia on matchday six and the next five games could not be won. With four wins in the last five games with only one defeat, it was possible to achieve equality of points with Ecuador, but only fifth place was achieved due to the worse goal difference. As a result, Uruguay had to qualify via the playoff game against Jordan and the foundation stone for qualification was laid in the first leg in Amman with the highest away win in an intercontinental playoff game. This was no longer gambled away in the second leg despite the goalless outcome.

Together with Mexico , Uruguay played the most qualifying matches of all qualified teams (18 each). Only the unqualified teams Jordan and Panama played more qualifying matches (20 each).

Group stage

table

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Argentina	16	9	5	2	035:150	+20	32
2.	Colombia	16	9	3	4th	027:130	+14	30th
3.	Chile	16	9	1	6th	029:250	+4	28
4th	Ecuador	16	7th	4th	5	020:160	+4	25th
5.	Uruguay	16	7th	4th	5	025:250	± 0	25th
6th	Venezuela	16	5	5	6th	014:200	−6	20th
7th	Peru	16	4th	3	9	017:260	−9	15th
8th.	Bolivia	16	2	6th	8th	017:300	−13	12
9.	Paraguay	16	3	3	10	017:310	−14	12

Game results

date	place	Home team	-	guest	Result	Goalscorers for Uruguay
07/10/2011	Montevideo	Uruguay	-	Bolivia	4: 2 (3: 1)	Suárez (3rd), Lugano (25th, 71st), Cavani (34th)
10/11/2011	Asunción	Paraguay	-	Uruguay	1: 1 (0: 0)	Forlán (68.)
11/11/2011	Montevideo	Uruguay	-	Chile	4: 0 (0: 0)	Suárez (42nd, 45th, 67th, 73rd)
06/02/2012	Montevideo	Uruguay	-	Venezuela	1: 1 (1: 0)	Forlán (38.)
06/10/2012	Montevideo	Uruguay	-	Peru	4: 2 (2: 1)	Suárez (15th), Pereira (29th), Rodríguez (62nd), Eguren (90th + 3)
07.09.2012	Barranquilla ( COL )	Colombia	-	Uruguay	4: 0 (1: 0)
09/11/2012	Montevideo	Uruguay	-	Ecuador	1: 1 (0: 1)	Cavani (66.)
October 12, 2012	Mendoza ( ARG )	Argentina	-	Uruguay	3: 0 (0: 0)
10/16/2012	La Paz ( BOL )	Bolivia	-	Uruguay	4: 1 (2: 0)	Suarez (80.)
03/22/2013	Montevideo	Uruguay	-	Paraguay	1: 1 (0: 0)	Suarez (81st)
03/26/2013	Santiago de Chile ( CHL )	Chile	-	Uruguay	2: 0 (1: 0)
06/11/2013	Puerto Ordaz ( VEN )	Venezuela	-	Uruguay	0: 1 (0: 1)	Cavani (27.)
06.09.2013	Lima ( PER )	Peru	-	Uruguay	1: 2 (0: 1)	Suárez (43./Elfm., 67.)
09/10/2013	Montevideo	Uruguay	-	Colombia	2: 0 (0: 0)	Cavani (77.), Stuani (80.)
10/11/2013	Quito ( ECU )	Ecuador	-	Uruguay	1: 0 (1: 0)
October 15, 2013	Montevideo	Uruguay	-	Argentina	3: 2 (2: 2)	Rodríguez (6th), Suárez (34th / Elf), Cavani (49th)

Relegation

November 13, 2013: Jordan 0-5 (0-2) Uruguay , goals: Pereira (22nd), Stuani (42nd), Lodeiro (70th), Rodríguez (78th), Cavani (90th + 1)

November 20, 2013: Uruguay 0-0 Jordan

Óscar Tabárez used 29 players in the 18 games. Only Edinson Cavani was used in all games. The top scorer was Luis Suárez with 11 goals, making him, along with Deon McCauley and Robin van Persie, top scorer of the qualification. On September 6, 2013, he became Uruguay's sole record scorer again with his two goals against Peru, after he had already replaced Diego Forlán during the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup , but was then overtaken and overtaken by him again.

preparation

Test matches:

• 0March 5, 2014 in Klagenfurt against Austria : 1: 1 (goalscorer for Uruguay: Pereira / 66.)
• May 30 in Montevideo against Northern Ireland : 1-0 (goalscorer: Stuani / 61.)
• 0June 4th in Montevideo against Slovenia : 2-0 (goalscorers: Cavani / 37th and Stuani / 76th)

Finals

Squad

On May 13, the preliminary roster of 25 players was named, which was later reduced to 23 players. The most experienced player in the squad was record international player Diego Forlán , who already played at the 2002 World Cup and was named best player in 2010. 15 other players were also in the 2010 World Cup squad when Uruguay finished 4th. On May 30, 2014 Tabárez announced his final line-up and deleted the two players Alejandro Silva and Sebastián Eguren from the list of the provisional squad .

No.	Surname	Club before the start of the World Cup	International matches	Länderspiel- gates	birthday	Games	Gates				World Cup participation	World Cup games (before 2014)	World Cup goals (before 2014)
goalkeeper
12	Rodrigo Muñoz	Club Libertad MA	000	00	January 22, 1982	0	0	0	0	0
01	Fernando Muslera	Galatasaray Istanbul P	058	00	June 16, 1986	4th	0	1	0	0	2010	7th	0
23	Martín Silva	Vasco da Gama *	004th	00	March 25, 1983	0	0	0	0	0	2010	0	0
Defense
22nd	Martín Cáceres	Juventus Turin M	057	01	April 7, 1987	4th	0	1	0	0	2010	2	0
19th	Sebastián Coates	Nacional Montevideo	015th	00	October 7, 1990	1	0	0	0	0
04th	Jorge Fucile	FC Porto	042	00	November 19, 1984	1	0	0	0	0	2010	5	0
13	José María Giménez	Atlético Madrid M	006th	00	January 20, 1995	3	0	1	0	0
03	Diego Godin	Atlético Madrid M	077	03	February 16, 1986	4th	1	1	0	0	2010	5	0
02	Diego Lugano	West Bromwich Albion	094	09	November 2, 1980	1	0	1	0	0	2010	6th	0
16	Maximiliano Pereira	Benfica Lisbon M, P	090	03	June 8, 1984	3	0	0	0	1	2010	7th	1
midfield
17th	Egidio Arévalo Ríos	Monarcas Morelia	055	00	January 1, 1982	4th	0	1	0	0	2010	7th	0
05	Walter Gargano	Parma FC	063	01	July 23, 1984	1	0	0	0	0	2010	3	0
20th	Álvaro González	Lazio Rome	043	02	October 29, 1984	4th	0	0	0	0
14th	Nicolás Lodeiro	Botafogo FR	026th	03	March 21, 1989	3	0	0	0	0	2010	3	0
06th	Álvaro Pereira	Sao Paulo FC	057	06th	November 28, 1985	3	0	0	0	0	2010	5	1
15th	Diego Perez	Bologna FC	089	02	May 18, 1980	0	0	0	0	0	2010	7th	0
18th	Gastón Ramírez	Southampton FC	029	00	2nd December 1990	2	0	0	0	0
07th	Cristian Rodríguez	Atlético Madrid M	073	08th	September 30, 1985	4th	0	0	0	0
attack
21st	Edinson Cavani	Paris Saint-Germain M.	062	21st	February 14, 1987	4th	1	0	0	0	2010	6th	1
10	Diego Forlan	Cerezo Osaka	110	36	May 19, 1979	2	0	0	0	0	2002, 2010	8th	6th
08th	Abel Hernández	US Palermo M2	012	07th	August 8, 1990	2	0	0	0	0
11	Christian Stuani	Espanyol Barcelona	010	04th	October 12, 1986	4th	0	0	0	0
09	Luis Suarez	Liverpool FC	077	39	January 24, 1987	2	2	0	0	0	2010	6th	3
Coaching staff
	Óscar Tabarez	Trainer			March 3, 1947	4th					1990, 2010	11
	Celso Otero	Assistant coach	1	0	February 1, 1958						1986	0	0
		Goalkeeping coach
		Fitness trainer

1. ↑ M = The club was champion in the 2013/14 season, MA = The club was champion of Apertura in the 2013 season, M2 = The club was champion of the second highest league in the country in the 2013/14 season and plays in the 2014 season / 15 in the highest league, * = The club plays in the second division of the country.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Only the games and goals that were played or scored before the start of the World Cup are given ( source (as of May 16, 2014) , updated after the games against Northern Ireland on May 30, 2014 and Slovenia on June 4, 2014 )
3. ↑ ^{a b c} As a player

Group stage

Fortaleza natal São Paulo Sete Lagoas Rio de Janeiro

Preliminary round venues (red), round of 16 venue (green) and quarters (blue)

In the draw for the final round on 6 December 2013, Uruguay was selected as one of eight teams based on their placement in the FIFA world rankings from October 2013 and drawn as the group head of Group D. Since two other former world champions, England and Italy, were drawn into the group, three former world champions met in a preliminary group for the first time at a World Cup finals. Costa Rica was drawn as the fourth team, against which Uruguay could prevail in the playoff games for the final finals. Uruguay last played against Italy in the third place match at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup , with Uruguay losing 3-2 on penalties after a 2-2 win after extra time. Of nine games against Italy before the World Cup, Uruguay won three, lost two and four ended in a draw. The last time they met at a World Cup was in 1990 in the round of 16, with Italy winning 2-0. In the preliminary round in 1970 the two separated 0-0 and together they reached the quarter-finals. Uruguay last played against England on March 1, 2006 in a friendly and lost 2-1 in Liverpool . The last victory against England came on May 22, 1990 in London . The last time they met at World Championships was in 1966 in the goalless opening game. As world champions, Uruguay met England in the quarter-finals in 1954 and kept the upper hand 4-2. Against England, the overall balance is still positive with four wins and three draws and three defeats. Uruguay have never played in a World Cup finals against Costa Rica, the pre-World Cup record is also positive with six wins and two draws.

All three preliminary round venues were on the Atlantic coast. In São Paulo , Uruguay played the two games of the final round against Sweden and Spain at the 1950 World Cup . In addition, there have already been several games against Brazil and other teams in the context of the Copa America . In Fortaleza, Uruguay only played a friendly against Brazil on August 27, 1980, which they lost 1-0. Uruguay had never played in Natal until the World Cup.

The team's quarters were the JN Resort in Sete Lagoas .

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Costa Rica	4: 1	7th
2	Uruguay	4: 4	6th
3	Italy	2: 2	3
4th	England	2: 4	1

• Sat., June 14, 2014, 4:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. CEST) in Fortaleza Uruguay - Costa Rica 1: 3 (1: 0)
  
• Thursday, June 19, 2014, 4:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. CEST) in São Paulo Uruguay - England 2: 1 (1: 0)
  
• Tue., June 24, 2014, 1:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. CEST) in Natal Italy - Uruguay 0: 1 (0: 1)
  

Knockout round

• Round of 16: Sat., June 28, 2014, 5:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. CEST) in Rio de Janeiro ( Maracanã ) Colombia - Uruguay 2: 0 (1: 0)
  

In the round of 16, Uruguay had to play without Luis Suárez , who was banned by FIFA for 9 games in the game against Italy because of his bite attack against Giorgio Chiellini .

It was the 38th game between the two teams. The record with 18 wins, 8 draws and 11 defeats was only slightly worsened by the defeat. But the record at world championships is now balanced, because in 1962 Uruguay won 2-1 in the preliminary round against Colombia.

Sports impact

Despite being eliminated in the round of 16, Uruguay was able to move up one place in the FIFA world rankings to 6th place and was initially the third-best South American team in the rankings, behind Argentina and Colombia.

References and footnotes

1. ↑ oefb.at: "International game against Uruguay"
2. ↑ kicker.de: "Suarez and Cavani lead the lineup - Tabarez is preparing for the World Cup with 25 players"
3. ↑ Lot 23 orientales (Spanish) on www.futbol.com.uy from May 30, 2014, accessed on May 30, 2014
4. ↑ fifa.com: team quarters
5. ↑ kicker.de: "Nine games suspension for Suarez"

Web links

• All matches of the preliminary round at a glance
• All Uruguayan qualifiers in the group stage