Uruguay, which locked up a direct quota in Qatar in the South American region in the world cup qualifiers, recently released the first big list for the World Cup.
In fact, Uruguay almost lost sight of Qatar. Uruguay started the world cup in the South American qualifiers, with the first seven rounds of the battle ending, with only two victories in Chile and Colombia.
By the 14th round, Uruguay lost 3-0 away to South American weak team Bolivia, ranking 7th out of 10 teams, and almost no one was optimistic that Uruguay could become the representative of South America in the Qatar World Cup.
The Uruguayan Football Association finally couldn't bear it anymore and sacked the former meritorious veteran Tavares, who led the national team with a poor record, and chose Diego Alonso as the head of the firefighting coach to complete the remaining four rounds of Uruguay's South American World Preliminary Round.
Watching Tavares walk away on crutches, even the most snarky Uruguayan fans could not bear to sneer at the faltering old man.
It is not so much that the Uruguayan Football Federation sent Alonso to fight the fire, but rather that he went through the cutscene. The Uruguayan Football Federation only signed a short-term working contract with Alonso for the duration of uruguay's World Preliminary Tournament. It is precisely because there is no hope for Uruguay's promotion that Alonso, who is not a big name, will be hastily chosen. In the eyes of many people, the remaining four rounds of Uruguay are a bit similar to the honors that Chinese football is accustomed to fighting for honor.
Alonso's 10-year coaching career has been spent in the Americas, coaching 7 teams in Uruguay, Paraguay, Mexico and the United States, of which only Penarol is a South American giant, but Alonso's short time there for more than 3 months is not pleasant. Alonso, who has no major European league coaching history and has never brought any national team, was driven to the shelves.
Perhaps, some Chinese fans with good memories still vaguely remember that Alonso once played for Shanghai Shenhua.
It was the 2007 season, Shanghai Shenhua's search for a gun was blocked, and then-coach Gimenez did not shy away from his relatives and recommended three compatriots to the boss Zhu Jun, all of whom were Uruguayan international players. Alonso is one of them, and the other two are Blanco and Correa.
Alonso, who was 31 years old at the time, was a bit unsatisfactory when he first appeared in the Chinese Super League, and was dismissed by Shenhua fans as a parallelist, and his other two compatriots did not perform much better, which caused Gimenez to be dismissed. After Wu Jingui took over the team, Alonso gradually got back on track, and he contributed a total of 12 goals to Shenhua that season. Unfortunately, Alonso was injured at the end of that season and returned to Uruguay for treatment, ending his relationship with Chinese football.
Hope sometimes comes inadvertently in times of despair.
Alonso, who has struggled to be outstanding in both his player and coaching career, did not play Uruguay's remaining four World Cups as a battle of honours.
He led his disciples to beat Paraguay 1-0, Venezuela 4-1, Peru 1-0, and completed the counterattack after 3 rounds, locking in a place for Qatar in advance.
In the last round, Uruguay beat Chile 2-0, and Alonso led the team to four consecutive wins, which was perfect.
After getting the ticket to the 2022 World Cup, Uruguay reveled in the country, and fans called on interim coach Alonso to stay in office.
Although the Uruguayan Football Association has not yet made a clear statement on this, Alonso recently announced Uruguay's first national team roster for Qatar, which reveals that it is natural for him to continue to lead the team.
goalie:
Muslera, 35, Galatasaray (Turkish Super)
Rochte, 29 years old, Uruguayan national (Uga)
De Amores, 27, Cali Sport (Brother 1)
Sousa, 35 years old, Independent Athletics (A Chao)
fullback:
Jimenez, 27, Atletico Madrid (La Liga)
Araujo, 23, Barcelona (La Liga)
Cabrera, 30, Spaniard (La Liga)
Damien Suarez, 33, Getafe (La Liga)
Oliveira, 24, Getafe (La Liga)
Cáceres, 35, Levante (La Liga)
Viña, 24, Roma (Serie A)
Coates, 31 years old, Portuguese sport (Portuguese Super League)
Godin, 36, Atlético Mineiro (Bajia)
midfielder:
Valverde, 23, Real Madrid (La Liga)
Bentancourt, 24, Tottenham Hotspur (Premier League)
Torreira, 26, Fiorentina (Serie A)
Ugarte, 21 years old, Portuguese Sport (Portuguese Super League)
Díaz, 19, Montevideo Liverpool (Uzq.)
De la Cruz, 24 years old, River Plate (A Chao)
De Alaskaeta, 27, flamenco (Bajia)
striker:
Suarez, 35, Atletico Madrid (La Liga)
Pelistri, 20, Alaves (La Liga)
Gomez, 25, Valencia (La Liga)
Edinson Cavani, 35, Manchester United (Premier League)
Núñez, 22, Benfica (Portuguese Super League)
Rossi, 24, Fenerbahce (Turkish Super)
Torres, 22, Orlando City (MLB)
In this 27-man roster, uruguay has only 2 Ukrainian league players, plus 5 South American league players from the Bajia, Brother Liga and The Argentine Super League, and 1 American League player who plays for Miami International, accounting for a total of 8 players in the American League.
The remaining 19 are Europa League players. Among them, there are 2 people in the European second-tier league, 3 people in the Portuguese Super League, and the remaining 14 people from the five major leagues.
La Liga has always been a haven for Uruguayan players, contributing as many as 10 players to the Uruguayan national team training roster this season, in addition to two each from the Premier League and Serie A.
Of these 27 players, Suarez, the first scorer in the history of the Uruguayan national team, is undoubtedly the leader. The 35-year-old will make 14 appearances in this World Cup of South America, scoring eight goals. Suarez has scored 13 goals for Atletico Madrid this season, topping the team's top scorers list.
In addition, Suarez's Manchester United veteran Cavani, who is the same age as Suarez, is also worth relying on. This World Cup will be the world stage for these two Uruguayan stars.
With a population of just over 3.5 million, Uruguay has always been one of the world's great powers, winning the World Cup in 1930 and 1950, but uruguayan football is now far less internationally than it was then.
In the World Cup honor roll, Uruguay is second only to five-star Brazil, four-time topping Germany and Italy, and tied for 4th place with france and Argentina, which have won the cup twice.
In addition, Uruguay has won three World Cup appearances, reaching the quarter-finals twice and reaching the round of 16 three times. In the last three editions, Uruguay have all been selected from the group.
In this World Cup in Qatar, Uruguay was selected as a second-gear team, and was divided into Group H together with Portugal, South Korea and Ghana, which can be described as a draw.
According to the strength comparison between the opponents in the same group, Alonso should be able to lead Uruguay out of the group and continue to write the heritage and history of Uruguayan football on the World Cup stage.