Fifa World Cup 1930 - Host Nation Uruguay

Little did they know back in the 1930's what the World Cup was to become in later years. Through the World Cup football has reached star staus amongst sports and every kid around the World dreams of one day representing their country in a World Cup final and scoring the winning goal.

13 countries participated in the first ever World Cup in Uruguay and all these teams were invited. Because of the distance, only four European countries decided to take part in the cup. Most countries rejected to spend several weeks on a ship to cross the Atlantic ocean.

Uruguay built a beautiful stadium that could hold 95.000 and the work was not wasn't completed until 5 days into the tournament due to heavy rain.

Uruguay was a good choice as in July 1930 the country was celebrating the centenary of its independence. It was certainly going to be carnival time in Montevideo during the two weeks of the World Cup, because the entire tournament would be held in the capital of Uruguay.

France met Mexico in the first ever World Cup game, and the French won 4-1 with Lucien Laurent of France scoring the first ever World Cup goal. The two teams that dominated the first World Cup were Argentina and Uruguay. They both topped their groups easily.

In the semi finals saw Argentina trashed the United States by 6-1, and Uruguay won by the same score versus Yugoslavia. In the final Argentina were the better side in the first half, but the hosts came back in the second half to win the title 4-2 and start a trend of the hosts winning on home soil.