Restored Footage from the First World Cup: Uruguay, 1930

The 19th FIFA World Cup is now under­way in Brazil, and that gives us an excuse to revis­it the first World Cup, played in July, 1930 in Uruguay. Only 13 teams par­tic­i­pat­ed in the tour­na­ment, and all match­es were played in Mon­te­v­ideo, Uruguay’s cap­i­tal. In the semi-finals, the Unit­ed States lost to Argenti­na, 6–1. Uruguay crushed Yugoslavia by the same score. In the end, Uruguay, the favorites all along, tri­umphed over Argenti­na (4–2) before a home crowd of 93,000, to become the win­ner of the inau­gur­al FIFA World Cup.

Recent­ly restored by FIFA, the 13-minute video above lets you revis­it the action from the 1930 tour­na­ment, and par­tic­u­lar­ly from the cham­pi­onship game. Argenti­na led going into half­time, but then José Pedro Cea, Vic­to­ri­ano San­tos Iri­arte (aka “El Canario”), and Héc­tor Cas­tro went to work and sealed the deal for Uruguay. The footage is bit­ter­sweet to watch — sweet, because it’s fun to watch the moves of those his­toric foot­ballers; bit­ter, because it’s hard not to think wist­ful­ly about those ath­letes, then in their prime, who have long since passed.

via When Sat­ur­day Comes

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Ter­ry Gilliam, Guy Ritchie & Ale­jan­dro González Iñár­ritu Direct Soc­cer Ads for Nike

Stephen Hawk­ing Reveals the Con­di­tions That Could Lead to England’s Vic­to­ry at The World Cup

Rare Video Shows FDR Walk­ing: Filmed at the 1937 All-Star Game