Estadio Pocitos was a multi-use
stadium located in the
Pocitos :''Pocitos is also the colloquial name for the city of Salvador Mazza, Salta Province, Argentina''
Pocitos is an upscale beach '' barrio'' (neighbourhood or district) in Uruguay's capital city, Montevideo.
Location
This area is located along the ...
district of
Montevideo,
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
. The stadium, owned by
C.A. Peñarol, was mainly used for
football matches from 1921 to 1933. It was demolished later in the 1930s when Peñarol started to play in the
Estadio Centenario
Estadio Centenario is a stadium in the Parque Batlle of Montevideo, Uruguay, used primarily for football. The stadium was built between 1929 and 1930 to host the inaugural 1930 FIFA World Cup, as well as to commemorate the centenary of Ur ...
as its home field, and additionally due to the increasing urbanisation of Montevideo.
The stadium was one of the venues of the first
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
held in
1930
Events
January
* January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will b ...
, and site of the first goal in World Cup history, scored by
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
's player
Lucien Laurent
Lucien Laurent (10 December 1907 – 11 April 2005) was a French association football player who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Playing for France national football team, France, at the 1930 FIFA World Cup, 1930 World Cup he ...
against
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.
[La curiosa historia de la casa de Uruguay donde se marcó el primer gol en la historia de los Mundiales de fútbol]
on BBC, 25 Jun 2018 [ The match was one of the two games that opened the World Cup, the other being held at the same time in ]Estadio Gran Parque Central
The Estadio Gran Parque Central is the stadium of Club Nacional de Football. It is located in Montevideo, Uruguay, near Nacional headquarters (exactly between the streets Carlos Anaya, Jaime Cibils, General Urquiza and Comandante Braga), in the ...
.
This stadium was one of the first football stadiums to include elliptical stands, taken from the model of the ancient Greece theatre. It has been said that the Estadio Centenario was planned to be a "giant version" of this stadium. Pocitos Stadium was included in a German book of the 40 most influential stadiums in history.
History
The stadium was officially inaugurate on November 6, 1921 with a friendly match between Peñarol
Club Atlético Peñarol (; English: ''Peñarol Athletic Club'') —also known as ''Carboneros'', ''Aurinegros,'' and (familiarly) ''Manyas''— is a Uruguayan sports club from Montevideo. The name "Peñarol" comes from the Peñarol neigh ...
and Argentine River Plate with ended 1–1. It was located on Coronel Alegre, Charrúa, Silvestre Blanco, and Avenida Soca streets.["Estadio Pocitos" on Estadios de Uruguay (blog), 27 Apr 2011] The original idea was to inaugurate the venue with a Peñarol v Nacional match but due to relations between the two biggest clubs of Uruguay were increasingly tense on those days and Nacional did not want to participate, a new match was arranged inviting River Plate.
Peñarol used the Pocitos stadium as their home venue until 1933 when the team moved to Estadio Centenario
Estadio Centenario is a stadium in the Parque Batlle of Montevideo, Uruguay, used primarily for football. The stadium was built between 1929 and 1930 to host the inaugural 1930 FIFA World Cup, as well as to commemorate the centenary of Ur ...
that had been built for the 1930 FIFA World Cup.
Due to major road development projects in the city, the streets were laid out on the playing field in 1937 and the ticket offices were demolished along with the Pocitos tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
station of in 1946 when Doctor Francisco Soca Avenue was extended to José Batlle y Ordóñez Park. The field disappeared and became part of a middle-class neighborhood of Montevideo with high real estate value.[EL LIBRO "MONTEVIDEO, LA CIUDAD DEL FÚTBOL" DE LUIS PRATS]
on Montevideo website, 30 Nov 2007
Between 2002 and 2006, the Uruguayan architect Héctor Benech took on the challenge of conducting an investigation to determine the exact place where the first World Cup goal was scored. Without official records, he found in the archives of the Municipality of Montevideo an aerial photograph from 1926 which, by superimposing it with a current photo, made it possible to locate the playing field.[El primer gol en el olvido]
by David Soria, 29 May 2018 In June 2006, the discovery was made public at the Uruguayan Football Museum of the AUF.
The Uruguayan Football Museum, the Municipal Administration of Montevideo and "Montevideo Refrescos" (local bottler of Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...
) jointly organized the contest ''"In Search of the Lost Arch"'', to make two sculptures, one in the original location of the center of the pitch and the other in the location of the goal where the first goal in World Cup history was scored. The contest was won by Argentine architect Eduardo Di Mauro with his works ''Cero a cero y pelota al medio'' ("zero to zero and ball to the middle") and ''Donde duermen las arañas'' ("where the spiders sleep").[
]
Events
1930 FIFA World Cup
During the 1930 FIFA World Cup, the stadium hosted two group matches:
Other football matches
The stadium hosted some friendly matches during the British football clubs tours to South America
British football clubs tours over South America contributed to the spread and develop of football in the region during the first years of the 20th century. The first club to tour on the region was Southampton F.C. in 1904, followed by several te ...
in the 1920s. Matches held in Pocitos include:British Clubs in Argentina and Uruguay (1904-1929)
by Sergio Hernández on the RSSSF
References
{{S-end
Pocitos :''Pocitos is also the colloquial name for the city of Salvador Mazza, Salta Province, Argentina''
Pocitos is an upscale beach '' barrio'' (neighbourhood or district) in Uruguay's capital city, Montevideo.
Location
This area is located along the ...
Pocitos :''Pocitos is also the colloquial name for the city of Salvador Mazza, Salta Province, Argentina''
Pocitos is an upscale beach '' barrio'' (neighbourhood or district) in Uruguay's capital city, Montevideo.
Location
This area is located along the ...
1930 FIFA World Cup stadiums
Defunct football venues in Uruguay