Brazilian fans may turn on their own team but for the Centenario stadium to boo Uruguay in a

Brazilian fans may turn on their own team, but for the Centenario stadium to boo Uruguay in a match of this importance was unthinkable.Uruguay’s stunning 3-0 victory owed as much to their fans as to their team. The midfielder Alvaro Recoba, one of Uruguay’s best players, acknowledged as much after the match, when he sat on the crossbar to celebrate with the fans. The forward Dario Silva dedicated the triumph to the supporters who had gone to the airport to jeer and jostle the Australians on their arrival.Victory sent Montevideo into a frenzy of wild emotion, though the streets had regained their customary tranquillity within a few hours. The Uruguayans, it seemed, had used up so much nervous energy in the 90 minutes that the celebrations quickly burnt themselves out.Yesterday the city awoke with a temporary respite from the air of melancholy which normally hangs over it.

The TV stations were showing endless reruns of the Australia game and retrospectives of the marathon qualification campaign. One station broadcast a package of highlights from the past 20 months to the soundtrack from Mission Impossible. But now the mission has been accomplished, and the result is an incalculable boost to the nation’s self-esteem.Other countries have their history, it is said, and Uruguay has its football. Created in the 19th century as a buffer state between Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay has few claims on world attention. It was the first country to install a welfare state and a 40-hour working week.

Such advances, though, have been largely forgotten as economic problems take their toll. But on Spring afternoons such as Sunday’s, its proud footballing tradition shines brightly.The global game owes a huge debt to this country with a population of little more than three million. The men in the sky blue shirts changed the way the sport is both played and watched.No one had heard of Uruguay when they turned up for the Paris Olympics of 1924, but they swept to victory with a new style of play, based less on the hard running of the English, more on twists, turns, balletic feints and short passes. It was football ideal for those with a low centre of gravity, the small guy with little chance to shine in less subtle sports.Contemporary observers were enraptured Uruguay’s success set off a fever for the game. Indeed, it is reasonable to see 1924 as the birth of modern international football.Four years later Uruguay retained their title in Amsterdam. On the back of their success they were given the task of staging the first World Cup, and built the Centenario stadium for the purpose. They duly became the first winners of the Jules Rimet trophy.With their game torn by the transition to professionalism, Uruguay stayed away from 1934 and 1938, but they were back for the next World Cup, in Brazil in 1950.

They won that, too, inflicting a defeat on the hosts which is considered the biggest setback in Brazilian football’s collective memory. It remains the only time Brazil have lost a World Cup game, tournament or qualifying, on their own soil.Four years later the run finally came to an end. At last Uruguay lost a World Cup match – an epic semi-final against the great Hungarians which went to extra time. Many saw it as the greatest match ever played, but it marked the end of an era for Uruguay.They failed even to qualify for 1958 Their methods were no longer revolutionary. The physical development of the game had left them looking slow. But the honour of the country still had to be defended, so Uruguay took refuge in blanket defence.