To Uruguay With Love
Uruguayan soccer has always had a deep and special place in my heart. Overshadowed by (and sandwiched between) Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay exceeds both in footballing majesty.
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Uruguay: Underrated Pace Setters
Despite its small size, especially compared to its more famous neighbors, Uruguay has been a heavyweight in international competition. Until last year, it was the most successful country in the Copa America. To this day, Uruguay is the smallest country to have won a World Cup. The nation of roughly 3.5 million boasts the honor of being the host and champions of the first-ever World Cup. Uruguay hosted the first international match ever played in this hemisphere, the first to be held outside Great Britain.
The three Latin giants share a joint second place in the number of gold medals in Olympic soccer, just behind its home nation of Great Britain. Uruguay has a deep and abiding love affair with the sport that spans three centuries. It is a love that has only intensified even as its international prestige has diminished somewhat over the years.
Furthering The Connection Through Expression
It hardly seems a coincidence that the greatest ever prose about the sport comes from Eduardo Galeano, a Montevideo native. Galeano’s Football in Sun and Shadow is the Bible of soccer lovers. Though he considers himself a world citizen, he waxes rhapsodic about the holy matrimony between his home nation and the sport it loves. The author describes Uruguay’s early international successes as dragging the country out of international obscurity, inaugurating the era of South American soccer.
He praises soccer for providing a sense of national identity that impoverished, war-torn Uruguay lacked when it arrived on its shores. Galeano credits Jose Leandro Andrade — the Salto-born “Black Marvel” — to being “the first international idol of football”, the first Black player that Europe ever saw play the game professionally. He acknowledges that Uruguay had perfected the secrets of futebol-arte decades before it became associated with Brazil. He laments that Uruguay’s illustrious history has not been matched by modern-day honors, even as the love of the game is stronger than ever in his country.
Uruguay’s status as a fallen giant is perhaps best symbolized by the national team being coached by Marcelo Bielsa, fresh of off his legendary stint of resurrecting Leeds United. There’s a sublime romanticism in supporting Uruguayan soccer that I couldn’t resist. Accordingly, you’ll find me delightfully supporting the Uruguayan national team in any international competition in which they take part.
That Other Liverpool
Supporting Liverpool, I have two additional points of connection to Uruguay. Montevideo is home to a Liverpool FC of its own, so named because of the strong cultural and economic ties between the two port towns. Our Montevidean cousins have struggled to break through in a national game dominated by Peñarol and Nacional, two of the most prestigious clubs in the world and the most successful clubs on the continent. However, Liverpool Montevideo enjoyed their first league title in 2023, dethroning the two giants of Uruguayan soccer for the first time in a decade. Liverpool represents the best of Uruguayan soccer, with its largely homegrown squad and its academy-reared manager.
Beyond the twinning, Uruguay has also supplied two of the most memorable players for the English Liverpool. Luis Suarez, arguably the greatest Uruguayan to ever play the game, spent three controversy-laden seasons wearing the red shirt. When he could avoid trouble, he served with distinction, managing to play beautiful and successful soccer at Anfield. Watching Suarez work his magic was the source of many a golden moment, and his move to Spain was a sore loss for me. Then, of course, is the much-maligned striker of our current squad: Darwin Nunez.
The People Vs. Darwin Nunez
Nunez has enough raw talent to fuel a squad of eleven on his own but struggles to consistently demonstrate it. I’ve argued previously that Nunez endures an unfair level of scrutiny. Due to both the record cost of his transfer and a failure to appreciate his unconventional way of playing the number 9 position, Darwin’s an easy target. Our ever-insightful Barak Engel has pointed out that Darwin also endures comparison to a striker who serves his club in the more typical manner: Erling Haaland. Looking at raw statistics alone, one might indeed conclude that Darwin is a flop compared to his Nordic counterpart. Pundits have been relentless in their opinion that Nunez is on his way out. Then, of course, Brentford happened.
What do you do when you’ve outplayed a team for nearly two-thirds of a match, take a frankly absurd number of shots, and are still not on the scoreboard because you can’t quite find the back of the net? If you’re Arne Slot, apparently the answer is to call in Captain Chaos himself. The media noise around Nunez would make you believe he can’t be counted on in must-win situations like this one. But when you’ve done everything right by the numbers and still can’t quite pull out a victory, it’s not a clinician you need. What you need is an artist. A brace scored within two minutes during injury time can be called nothing other than art. Our supposedly unreliable striker delivered us a much-needed three points to keep our title dreams afloat.
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Despite the many jokes I’ve made in person about the impending Darwin Nunez Apology Tour, I don’t really expect the journalistic narrative about Nunez to change substantially. It will take another night of missed chances to return to the status quo. Regardless, Brentford rather than Newcastle illustrates who Darwin Nunez is. He is a cult favorite of match-going Kopites for a very good reason. Nunez is often the bane of commentators who prize mechanical efficiency. On the flip side, he delivers joy to the fans who appreciate a good show. He is audacious, willing to take risks, and willing to get involved on every inch of the pitch.
You can never accuse Darwin Nunez of being invisible. Indeed Haaland has shown what his big numbers are worth amidst Man City’s massive slump. Without his overpriced midfield to feed him, he does little more than stand around and be bullied by opposing defenders. Galeano expressed this contrast incisively, decrying “the highly-praised efficiency of mediocrity…functionaries specialized in avoiding defeat.”
I fully cop to being biased in my appraisals of Nunez. I cheer for him more days out of the year than the average Liverpool supporter and will continue to cheer for him as long as he wears the sky blue jersey. Even so, if I had to choose between the mechanical efficiency of a Haaland or the inspired chaos of a Nunez, give me the latter any time. At his best, Nunez embodies the essence of Uruguayan soccer: courage, audacity, and brazen buffoonery. Some nights, that means inconsistency in front of the goal. Other nights, it means a game-saving brace and the adoration of fans the world over.
