Uruguay vs Costa Rica

Wednesday night, Uruguay played Costa Rica in their last attempt to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. Unfortunately, having personally not known about this game, earlier that same day I passed through Montevideo, the site of the night's World Cup qualifier. Had I known about the match in advance, I would have surely spent the night trying to scalp tickets or watch it in the capital city. In Punta del Diablo, a small fishing village (and over summer, an Argentine cottage escape town), nobody at the American owned hostel I went to had the slightest desires to venture over to one of the town's only two local bars to watch the game that every single Uruguayan in the country had anticipated all week. I made my way over to the local bar at the edge of a seaside rocky point. The bar itself was merely an extension of the owner's house, outfitted with some wooden stools and benches and some plastic tables. The owner, a large Uruguayan sporting a Phillies jersey, gave me a hard time about my Red Sox hat. We exchanged jabbing baseball comments. As it turned out, this guy actually knew baseball pretty well and had become a Phillies fan when he visited the States and temporarily worked in Philadelphia.

To the hooting and hollering of the fanatics in the now standing room only bar, with half the crowd pouring out the door and faces pressed against the windows to catch the televisions' projection on the bar's largest empty wall, the game commenced. From Costa Rica's teams, I was surprised to only recognize two or three players from when I had lived there three and a half years ago. Rolando Fonseco, an aging national hero when I studied abroad, still managed to gain some second half minutes. But from the Uruguayan side, I knew no one. Two substitutions were made for the home team after half time; players with the last names Abreu and Victorino. Of course, I proudly let the owner know that I refused to cheer for any player who brought to mind former or current Phillies players.

In this qualifying match, Uruguay only needed a tie to secure a World Cup birth. The two national teams played the previous week, Uruguay having come out on top 1-0, giving them a goal differential to allow for a tie in the second match. Midway through the second half, Abreu scored to give Uruguay the lead. The entire room rose to its feet and sang national fútbol songs. The bartender was too busy serving celebratory rounds that he didn't notice me cheering for the player I so adamantly rooted against earlier.

Uruguay qualified for the World Cup with a 1-1 tie, by winng the overall series against Costa Rica.

Uruguay vs Costa Rica