July 30 - First World Cup Final

WHEN England won the World Cup at Wembley in 1966 their victory coincidentally fell on the same day as the first ever World Cup final in 1930.

On home soil Uruguay had made it all the way to the final thanks to victories over Peru, Romania and Yugoslavia. Their opponents were South American rivals Argentina, who defeated France, Mexico, Chile and the USA to reach the final. They had to play one more game that Uruguay because the odd number of entrants (13) meant Argentina’s group had four nations in it, rather than three.

The two finalists were set to resume hostilities after meeting each other in the 1928 Olympic Games football tournament final. The contest had been a close run thing with the first game ending in a 1-1 draw. Uruguay won the replay which helped them get the nod to host the first ever World Cup.

The final was held in the brand new Estadio Centenario in Montevideo and some 93,000 fans had filled the ground at least two hours before kick off in anticipation of the match.

Before the game could start there was a disagreement over who would provide the match ball with some sort of sense prevailing in the end, with the first half played with an Argentine ball, and the second half with a Uruguayan one.

The first player to score in a World Cup final was Pablo Dorado who nutmegged Botasso in the Argentine goal as Uruguay drew first blood. Argentina soon hit back through Carlos Peucelle and Guillermo Stábile (top scorer at the tournament) to lead 2-1 at the break.

After half time the Uruguayans seemed happier playing with their ball and a goal each from Santos Iriarte and Héctor Castro saw them cruise to a 4-2 win over their rivals and become the first ever World Champions. Their place at the summit of world football was secure as they were both Olympic and World Champions while Argentina were again the bridesmaids and had to settle for second place, just as they had at the Olympics two years earlier.

The following day was declared a national holiday in Uruguay as they celebrated their win. Four years later they became the only winners not to defend their title when they declined to take part in the tournament in Italy, as a mark of protest at the poor showing from European sides in the 1930 competition (only four, Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia, had bothered to make the trip).

Here is a film of the final with some curiously ill-fitting music, and come back tomorrow when we will bringing you some more skeletons from football’s collective closet.

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