Uruguay's place in the world football's hall of fame is assured. Two time world cup winners, three times fourth, fourteen Copa America titles (South American continental competition for national teams), two Olympic gold medals, hosts of the first world cup, and eight Copa Libertadores titles (The premier South American continental club competition) and six World club cup titles between their big two teams: Peñarol and Nacional.
Now teams from the same city rarely get along well, but you might imagine this to be skewed by the nature of Uruguayan club football. For a nation of around 3 million, around half the inhabitants of Uruguay live in the capital Montevideo. This imbalance is even more pronounced with the country's football with all but one of the sixteen teams in the Uruguayan primera division being from Montevideo. You might think that this frequency of derby's would dampen the edge of the games but this is far from the case, the rivalry between Peñarol and Nacional is one of the most passionate and intense rivalries around.
On my visit to Montevideo football is immediately apparent. Less people walk the streets in football shirts then in the neighbouring countries Argentina and Brazil (Where its inevitable you will see a shirt or two on every street) but cultural references to football are everywhere. Everyone I met spoke to me about football and tried to win me over to which ever team of the Uruguayan big two they supported. The hostel WiFi password was 'uruguay1950' in homage to their against-the-odds World Cup triumph against Brazil in the Maracana in 1950. I'd travelled to Montevideo to watch Peñarol's Copa Libertadores game against Godoy Cruz of Argentina but immediately the hostel manager was convincing me to watch Nacional instead as they had a league game that very evening. Within an hour we were driving to the stadium to buy tickets and he was showing me around the club museum, filled to the brim with replica Libertadores and world club cups as well as pictures of old greats such as Hector Castro and Abdón Porte (See Postscript for more details). The club's stadium is small and severely showing its age but it is still a source of pride for the fans. The Estadio Gran Parque Central is the team's stadium and was also the venue of the very first World Cup game (USA v Belgium (3:0)) as the Centanario which was built for the competition wasn't quite finished in time. The ground is small, like that of a team in the Conference in England who used to be a big team back in the day, there is evidence of grandeur but also disrepair. There are signs of renovation but it is clearly slow progress, the club is selling plaques to fans at $100 a pop (eventually the plaque, with the fan's name inscribed, will be mounted in the new stand) as they've promised not to use funds from player sales or the footballing budget on stadium renovation. When you contrast this to Peñarol you start to get a feeling of the haves and the have nots. Peñarol are tenants at the Councils 70,000 seater Centanario stadium, the national stadium and the venue for the first ever world cup final (where Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2). Talking to Nacional fans they clearly have a chip on their shoulder about the stadium situation, showing pride in how their stadium is decorated in the red, white and blue of Nacional where as the Centanario is neutral in colour, showing no signs of the yellow and black of Peñarol. The real shoulder-chip becomes evident when they begin to talk about Peñarol's plans for a new stadium. A rich fan has bought some land and given it to the club, and Nacional fans see this as unfair as the scrape for every penny to update their home. It's admirable on Nacional's part but when you see the majestic Centanario stadium where Peñarol and the national team play (and Nacional for certain big games) you forget your sympathy for Nacional and you just begin to understand why Peñarol fans might be happy for their team to play there. The stadium was built for the first World Cup and used the amount of cement that would be sufficient for ten modern day stadiums, but it leaks history from every pore unlike Nacional's Parque Central stadium which just feels old. Fans are closer to the pitch at Nacional with its English style stands but in the Centenario you don't feel separated from the action despite the chasm (which includes a moat!) between the fans and the pitch. The Centanario is grander, situated in a vast park a walk from Montevideo centre, where as the Parque Central is weaved among lower class housing like a historic English inner city stadiums (Anfield or Goodison Park).
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| Nacional's Parque Central stadium during a domestic game... It's a long time since the first World Cup game |
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| The game heats up for Nacional |
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| The atmosphere builds at the Centanario for Peñarol's Copa Libertadores game against Godoy Cruz |
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| The sword-like centrepiece of the Centanario |
The match day images of the stadiums above cannot be directly compared in terms of fan base. The Nacional game was a domestic league match against bottom of the table El Tanque Sisley which they comfortably won 5-2. By contrast Peñarol were playing a vital Copa Libertadores match against Godoy Cruz of Mendoza, Argentina. The 2-1 win was vital for Peñarol, leaving them top of their group on 9 points with LDU Quito and Godoy Cruz still nipping at their heels with 7 points each and one game to go, so the Penarol game had a lot more riding on it. The Copa Libatadores has a similar aura to the European Champions League; the big stage, the night games, the new and exotic opposition teams. The Copa Libertadores is important, the measure of a South American side.
Despite the difference in game importance, the whole feeling of Penarol was of a club on a level above Nacional. The big screen at the Centanario showed a loop of footage from past Penarol victories in the build-up to the Libertadores game, it was slick and classy. At Nacional you felt you were sneaking in to a grimy rock concert by the back entrance where the roadies piss. At Nacional you feel like you could stroll on the pitch and give the team advice, everything seems more down to earth. Indeed, before a penalty the referee had the Nacional captain ask the young fans to stop climbing the perimeter fence before he could take a penalty.
The Penarol game was undoubtedly one of the best atmospheres I've ever experienced, only pipped by watching my beloved Bristol City beat Crystal Palace in the Championship play-off semi-final after extra time. The fireworks and flares by the ultras in the region of the Centanario known as 'Amsterdam' produced so much smoke the game was delayed for ten minutes. The team battled back from 1-0 down to secure the vital win. The fans were committed and firmly behind the team, only hesitating for a split second after conceding the opening goal before renewing their support for the team (a trait I've often seen in South America). Penarol feel grander, they feel like the "Man Utd" of the two. They have two more Copa Libertadores titles then Nacional but beyond the relative lists of titles their was something that Penarol lacked. Nacional just seemed more lovable, more down to earth, more a team of the people. This is, in part, affected by my local friend who took it upon himself to convert me to Nacional (his first words, after hearing I was going to watch Penarol were, "Are you sure it's safe? Have you had your rabies jab?"). He did his job well but in truth both teams have their beauty. Indeed, deciding between the two was like have two Miss World's batting their eye-lids at me. I've since met Penarol fans and they've tried to sway me to their side with textbook phrases like, "Nacional are the team of the rich, Penarol are the team of the people.". I have to stay with my instinct, and confusingly my instinct tells me to love both of these clubs; to love their passion, to love their history, to love their atmosphere. I can only do this as an outsider though, the question of, 'Penarol or Nacional?' is usually a first date question which could potentially end things before they started. I did meet one individual who was from a family of divided loyalties which is barely tolerable in the general public. They went to a "friendly" game between the clubs during the summer of 2010, the game meant nothing but the stadium was full with 70,000 people. The family were forced to sit apart with the Nacional-shirt clad children not allowed to stay with their Penarol following elders. With these teams the word "friendly" doesn't exist.
My experience of the big two of Montevideo really moved me. Uruguay is a hot bed in terms of footballing passion and the quality of player from this country is reaching a purple patch with the coming of age of players such as Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez and the modern day Uruguayan legend Diego Forlan. The fans care about their teams more then we can imagine, and even when supporting La Celeste (the national team, the sky blues) their heart is still the Red, White and Blue of Nacional or the Yellow and Black of Penarol. The current players are attached to these teams even if they never played in Uruguay, through family background or press quotes, with Suarez and Cavani labelled Nacional and Forlan with Penarol. For the derby fans must be breathalyzed with any alcohol prohibiting entrance to the game, the fans passion can escalate into violence and all things are an opportunity for one-up-man-ship between the fans. They recently had a competition to see which set of fans could produce the largest flag. I've been told by Penarol fans that Nacional get unfair help in this with the clubs kit manufacturer, Umbro, having its logo all across the fans flag showing the level of unfair support. Nacional fans have laughed smugly when they say how, in a similar flag competition years ago, upon Penarol unveiling their flag, a few Nacional fans rushed into the stadium wearing the team's red, white and blue, and set fire to the Penarol flag. These stories may be exaggerated and may not even be true, but they came from the mouths of passionate fans... it seems no team is allowed to get one up on the other, even in the flag department.
My experience of Uruguayan football has left me love struck and I have one dream which will torment me until it is realised... I need to see Penarol v Nacional!
Postscript - Hector Castro and Abdòn Porte
The Nacional club legends described to me by my Nacional sage were Hector Castro and Abdòn Porte. Hector Castro played his whole career with out a right hand. He was a striker so it wasn't a great issue but he lost his right arm, up to the elbow, at thirteen. He'd use his stump to poke goalkeepers and opponents at corners and throw ins. He's famous for scoring the final goal in Uruguay's 4-2 1930 World Cup final triumph against Argentina. I'm told by my Nacional guide, Nacho, that once during a final against Penarol, with the team 2-0 down at half time against Penarol he promised to score a hat-trick, which he did, bringing a 3-2 win. Abdón Porte was another legend for the club, he joined the club in 1911 and was the captain of the team for the rest of his life. I use this turn of phrase because as his use for the team neared its end and he was being edged out of the team by new blood from the youth team he snuck into the stadium in the middle of the night and committed suicide by shooting himself in the middle of the Parque Central pitch. In the note he wrote of his dismay at not being able to defend the Nacional team anymore... he was only 25 years old and was due to marry a month later. Abdòn Porte's story has been retold by the Uruguayan novelist Horacio Quiroga in his story, 'Juan Polti'.
Hector Castro BBC profile:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/fact/q_a_h_ctor_castro_1930s_disabled_football_star.shtml
- The Football Ramble - Dean Windass Hall of Fame
http://www.thefootballramble.com/index.php/dwhof/entrant/penarol-v-nacional
Hector Castro:
http://www.thefootballramble.com/index.php/dwhof/entrant/hector-castro
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