soccer history was made at the estadio centenario on wednesday july 30th 1930, when host nation uruguay and south american neighbours, argentina met in the final of the very first world cup. uruguay left out anselmo and replaced him with the one-armed (!?) castro at center forward.
josé nasazzi and manuel ferreira captained the two sides, and the match was refereed by the experienced jean langenus from belgium. the opening minutes saw the two teams "discovering" eachother, but after 12 minutes, the home side took the lead when pablo dorado shot through the legs of goalkeeper botasso. eight minutes later, the scores were level when carlos peucelle picked up a pass from varallo and beat goalkeeper ballesteros with a powerful shot. argentina took the lead in the 37th minute after stábile scored, but it was to be one of the game's most controversial incidents. when he collected the ball, stábile looked offside - the uruguayan captain nsazzi later agreed with that - but despite appeals to the referee, langenus would not change his mind and the goal stood.
ın the second half uruguay got back into the game when pedro cea scored after 57 minutes. at 2-2 both teams had chances to score a decisive goal. the argentinians with attacking trio, peucelle, evaristo and stábile could spoil the party for the hosts. but uruguay eased any concern in the 68th minute when santos ıriarte scored a cracking goal from more than 25 yards. the stadium exploded in celebrations. ıt was a goal worth winning any world cup final.
topscorer stábile almost spoiled the party when hitting the crossbar a few minutes later, but then that crucial fourth goal came for the hosts. ıt was scored in the very last minute by castro, who headed home a dorado cross. the man who accidently lost parts of his left arm suddenly became a national hero. he had scored uruguay's only goal in their opening match against peru, but was then dropped. now he was recalled and scored the goal that secured uruguay the world cup. the final whistle went and uruguay could celebrate, and so they did! people danced in the streets of montevideo all night and the next days. the day after the final was actually declared a national holiday.
