History
Uruguay hosted the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930 and went on to win the tournament after defeating Argentina 4-2 in the final. South Africa will be the country’s 11th World Cup appearance, and their most recent was in Korea and Japan in 2002, where the failed to progress past a group consisting of Denmark, Senegal and France.

Qualification
Qualifying from the South American zone is one of the tougher challenges in international football. Each team plays all nine other nations – including Brazil and Argentina – both home and away, with only the top four going through. Uruguay’s start to qualifying couldn’t have been better, with a 5-0 win over Bolivia, but they didn’t win again for another five games, finally getting back to winning ways in convincing style with a 6-0 hammering of Peru. Such results summed up Uruguay’s campaign – moments of brilliance interspersed with poor performances – and they also struggled away from home against some of the weaker teams. Despite this, they still had their destiny in their own hands in their final qualifying game, but could not get past Diego Maradona’s Argentina, who guaranteed their own qualification with a late goal to win 1-0. That set up a must-win play-off with Costa Rica, and Uruguay triumphed, winning the away leg thanks to a goal by captain Diego Lugano before securing a 1-1 draw in the second leg to add another chapter to their World Cup history.

Prospects
If the FIFA rankings are to be believed, then Uruguay have a great chance of making the knock-out stages, but unlike group opponents Mexico and France, the South Americans have little recent World Cup pedigree. South Africa will be only their second Finals since 1990, and in Japan and Korea 2002 they went home early having failed to win a game. They needed a play-off win against Costa Rica to even reach this tournament, having finished fifth in the CONMEBOL behind Brazil and Argentina, but the two-time champions have started to show snatches of real quality in the past 18-months. Their relatively inexperienced side is growing with every game and, aided by Atletico Madrid’s prolific striker Diego Forlan and skipper Diego Lugano, and they could easily beat an inconsistent France team on the opening day of the tournament. If they can get a result in that game they will be a good bet to make it out of one of the more straightforward groups.