Football Champions

Russian tennis player Marat Safin apparently harbors a desire to become a soccer pro and change his nationality to Brazilian. At least that is how it might appear judging by these photos supplied by our friends at InsideOut Sports Entertainment. The former U.S. Open champ recently joined former Brazilian great Zico for a kick-around at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

“It is an honor for me to meet Zico at the Maracana Stadium,” said Safin. “I would have liked to be at the stadium when it could host 200,000 people. Now it is only half, but it still big. It is very nice that the event did it for us and we had a lot of fun playing with him.”

If you think the Maracana will feature in a future episode of our Soccer Meccas series...you're absolutely right. Stay tuned.

For ranking methodology and other information about the series, see the original post. To read the about the No. 5-rated stadium, the Hampden Park in Glasgow, click here. To see all "soccer mecca" entries click here.

No. 4 Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay
Open since: 1930
Capacity: 100,000
Tenant: Uruguay national team
World Cup hosts: 1930

After our three stadium sojourn in Europe for spots 5 through 7 it's back to South America with No. 4. The Estadio Centenario was of course the host of the original World Cup in 1930. Unlike every other rendition of the tournament, in 1930 all games from group stage to final were played in Montevideo, with a majority at this one ground. It's therefore probably safe to say the Centenario hosted more World Cup matches (10) than any other stadium in the world--with the possible exception of the San Siro, the No. 10 soccer mecca in the world.

As host of the first World Cup final (and semifinal), the Centenario's status as a true "soccer mecca" is beyond reproach. But its ethereal qualities transcend this one event, important though it is to the modern history of the game.

A few words, then, about the ground itself. Not from us, because we've never been anywhere near there and anyway don't know the next thing about architecture or things of that nature. But a Princeton University-educated architect, Shona Black, wrote about the stadium for a Uruguay travel Web site. We took the liberty to reprint them here, because they give you a far better picture than we (or really anybody) could provide:

Work on the Estadio Centenario, so named to celebrate the nation’s centenary, was begun in central Montevideo’s Parque de los Aliados (also known as Parque Batlle) in 1929. Designed as a monumental football temple, Estadio Centenario is an early example of the classic concrete bowl-shaped stadium with up to a 100,000 capacity, a template replicated from Rio’s Maracana to Turin’s Stadio delle Alpi and from China to Africa in the spread of the global game.

Art Deco detailing and striking modernist touches, however, set Estadio Centenario apart from some of the more brutalist styles typical of the genre. Designed by architect Juan Scasso, the stadium’s most distinctive feature is a tower thrusting 100 metres into the sky from the Tribuna Olimpica stand. The Torre de los Homenajes rises in tribute to the independent nation, echoing the nine stripes of the Uruguayan flag in its nine moulded windows.

The stands are named to reflect the early Uruguayan team’s glories: America for their Copa America (South American championship) successes in 1923 and 1926, and the Olimpica, Colombes and Amsterdam marking their Olympic victories.

In a move perhaps not entirely a-typical for Latin America, different work sections were contracted out to various construction companies, according to FIFA.com's page on the Centenario. Three shifts were organized so construction could continue 24 hours a day.

Still, the ground would not be finished in time for the start of the tourney. The first World Cup match in history would take place July 13, 1930 in front of just 1,000 spectators at the Estadio Pocitos across town. By the time the home side took the field, July 18 versus Peru, the Centenario was at least ready for 70,000 spectators.

Why did FIFA choose Uruguay to host what would become the most popular sporting event on the planet? Two reasons: 1. It won the gold medal at the 1928 Olympics, which to that point had been recognized as the de-facto world championships and 2. The year 1930 was the 100 year anniversary of its independence. (Actually Uruguay won the 1924 Olympic tournament as well, which will give you an idea of how dominant they were at the time). Still, if the sport's governing body had any idea how popular (and lucrative) the quadrennial tournament would become they likely would have kept the maiden edition in Europe.

As it was, the choice of Uruguay did not sit well with European teams, who initially refused to enter the tournament. FIFA managed to force four of them--Belgium, France, Yugoslavia and Romania--to embark on the three-week journey and participate.

The 1930 World Cup was the U.S.' best finish ever--fourth. There has been some talk that the team was reinforced with British nationals, but this has now been largely discredited. Of the six supposed English and Scottish players on the USMNT, "in fact four of those players had moved to the States as teenagers and only one had played professionally in Britain (George Moorehouse), and that was two games at the 3rd division seven years earlier," according to the American Soccer History Archives.

To this day the stadium remains the home base and of the Uruguayan national team, los Charruas. The team boasts an impressive record at the Centenario; Brazil have recorded just two official victories there in 20 attempts and even mighty England have a negative record at Uruguay's national stadium--surely the only ground in the world with this distinction because as we all know England invented the sport and win every game they play, anywhere.

Uruguay has hosted the Copa America, the South American championships seven times, four since the construction of El Centenario. In all four they went undefeated at the ground.

Not all memories are good, however. It was here in 2004 that the Charrua were humiliated 3-0 by Venezuela in a World Cup qualifier, an event its then-coach Juan Ramon Carrasco called "a stain on the history of Uruguayan football." The game cost him his job and Uruguay would not qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Still, it is hard to understate Uruguay's impact on association football in the sport's (relatively) early days. The smallest country to ever win a World Cup very much put South American soccer on the map by triumphing in the Olympic Games of 1924 and 1928 and doing it in a way that dazzled. They were very much the original "Brazilians" as we know them, doing things with the ball hitherto thought impossible. Without Uruguay in the 1920s, who knows if Brazil of the postwar era would have even happened. One more reason to give its national ground the respect it deserves.

As much as Uruguay did for the sport, soccer arguably did even more for the nation's identity. At the time of the first World Cup, "Uruguay, a country of not even three million people, whose creation was the bizarre outcome of great power politics, had hitherto made no impact on the wider world," Daniel Goldblatt wrote in The ball is round: A global history of soccer. "It is difficult to underestimate the degree to which national identity and pride became tied to the fate of the national team" after the 1930 World Cup.

This legacy would be cemented 20 years later as we shall see in a future edition of the "soccer meccas" series.

For ranking methodology and other information about the series, see the original post. To read the about the No. 9-rated stadium, the Bombonera in Buenos Aires click here. To see all "soccer mecca" entries click here.

8. Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti (El Monumental), Buenos Aires
Open since: 1938 (renovated 1978)
Capacity: 66,000
Tenant(s): River Plate, Argentine national team
World Cup hosts: 1978
Closest U.S. stadium comparison: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, N.Y.

If the Bombonera is Argentina's version of Fenway Park--an odd-shaped, quirky, loud grounds in a residential neighborhood--then El Monumental is Yankee Stadium: big, grandiose, corporate, of "the establishment." Some of that of course stems from the identity of the stadium's main tenent; River Plate is very much the "establishment" club of Argentina (one of the club's nicknames is los millionarios, or the millionaires), and of the posh Nunez neighborhood where El Monumental was built. Just like the Yankees...if Yankee Stadium weren't in the Bronx, that is.

The Monumental is the national grounds of Argentina, where its storied albicelestes play (nearly all) their home games. Imagine if Wembley Stadium also hosted, say, Chelsea, or the Stade de France held Paris Saint Germain games, and you get a a bit of the idea.

Wait, so if the Bombonera was already featured, what is the Monumental doing here? Are there really two stadiums from one city in the list of top 10 soccer meccas? Yes there are. However, both are relatively far back in the rankings (at eight and nine there are seven stadia still ahead of them). Each is distinct and famous in its own right (and for different reasons at that). It would have been an injustice to leave out one or the other. So there you have it.

El Monumental was Argentina's first industrial, steel and concrete soccer stadium and consists of two tiers in the shape of a horse shoe. During its early years it contained a school and medical practice.

The Monumental edges the Bombonera in the standings for one simple reason: it hosted a World Cup. Not only that, but it was the scene of both the 1978 final and third-placed games (won by Argentina and Brazil, respectively).

That World Cup tournament is historically significant, but sadly for all the wrong reasons. It was a propaganda coup for the military junta that ruled Argentina at the time (indeed 1978 may have very well been the peak of its power--no coincidence there). In this respect, many have compared it to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. An LA Times article from last year deals with this theme at greater length.

In the three decades since the tournament, other nefarious allegations have surfaced. Did the Colombian mafia bribe the Peruvian national team to throw its second round game with the host nation, as this Daily Mail piece points out? Were the Argentine players doped for the final? (A urine sample that was supposed to have been taken from an Argentine player showed the individual in question to be pregnant, a strong indication that the samples were at least tampered with, if not doctored outright).

As for the Monumental, it hosted Argentina's first round games but not the infamous win over Peru (or the violent scoreless draw against Brazil; those matches were held in Rosario). It did host a preview of the 1982 final, between Italy and West Germany (the game ended scoreless) as well as Italy's first round upset of the hosts (a 1-nil game where a certain Paolo Rossi assisted on the winning goal) that kept Argentina from playing its second round games at El Monumental. It was also where Argentina narrowly defeated France (with a young Michel Platini) in its opener.

And of course the final, an overtime thriller the hosts won through a brace by their hero Mario Kempes, was held here. That match, undoubtedly the most famous in the stadium's history, and probably one of the most exciting World Cup finals of all time, was not without controversy either. The home side didn't like the Israeli referee assigned to the match so it lobbied (successfully) for an Italian one. Argentine players delayed the kickoff protesting a cast on the arm of a Dutch player. Once it finally started, the home side (through Kempes, natch) took a first half lead before Holland's Dick Nanninga equalized eight minutes from time. The Netherlands apparently had Argentina on the ropes at this point and were robbed of a clear penalty moments after the equalizer by the Italian referee. In stoppage time they came an inch or two from winning their only World Cup when Robbie Rensinbrink fired a shot off the post from point blank range. The Oranje have not come close since. The Argentines scored twice in overtime to clinch the victory.

Did the most famous Argentine player of all time ever play at El Monumental? Not in that World Cup he didn't. The then-17-year old Diego Armando Maradona was left off of Cesar Luis Menotti's squad. But there were many other appearances, including several for the Argentine national team. He scored several goals as well, both for the albicelestes and for club side Boca Juniors. His first appearance at the Monumental may have been as early as 1973 when his Argentinos Juniors' Cebollitas youth club beat River's juniors 5-4 in a city final, according to the Leandro Zannoni book Vivir en los medios: Maradona off the record (page 21). It appears Maradona played his last match as a professional at the Monumental, in a 1997 SuperClasico won by Boca Juniors to whom he had returned in 1995. Maradona also coached his first game for the Argentina national team here, a 4-0 victory over Venezuela this March.

Other than the '78 tournament, the stadium may unfortunately be best known for the Puerta 12 tragedy of June 23, 1968 (a decade and two days before the Holland-Argentina final). 71 fans were killed in a crush at the Monumental's Gate 12. There are various explanations of what happened in what was one of the worst incidents with soccer fans in the history of the sport (and the worst on Argentine territory, ever).

Of course there are happier memories as well. Many from the annual SuperClasico between Boca Juniors and River Plate. In October, 1972 the home side went up two-nil, was scored on four straight times, rallied to win 5-4 in the highest-scoring SuperClasico of all time. Another famous River comeback was in 1997, when the home side was down three goals but managed to eke out a 3-3 draw. Boca Juniors had their moments as well, the biggest (by score at least, not necessarily magnitude) in a 5-1 blowout victory in March 1982. More recently, in 2004 Boca won the return leg of a Copa Libertadores semifinal on penalties after the two sides traded goals in the final minutes (Carlos Tevez supplied one of the goals for Boca Juniors).

In 1986, River won their first Copa Libertadores final, winning the return leg at the Monumental over America of Colombia by 1-0 (they won the first leg 2-1). This event was repeated, with identical protagonists, in the 1996 version of the final, though this time River lost the first leg at Cali before coming through in the return at the Monumental.

The Argentine national team has played several historic matches here (beyond 1978 of course) and a few they'd rather forget. The biggest of the latter may be a 5-0 loss to Colombia in a 1993 World Cup qualifier, a scoreline made even more incredible by the fact that Argentina had a 33-game unbeaten run coming into the game. (Was this what caused Pele to famously predict Colombia would win the World Cup in 1994? Who knows). The albiceleste were forced to play a qualifier with Australia as a result.

Another bitter memory (from an Argentine point of view) came in the semifinals of the 1987 Copa America games, where Uruguay upset the hosts 1-0. Uruguay went on to win the tournament over Chile (also at the Monumental). Argentina didn't even win the game for third place, succumbing to Colombia.

More pleasant albiceleste memories are the 1946 South American championship. Argentina played several times at the Monumental, winning all games including the final against Brazil in another famous encounter marked by fighting on the pitch with police. In the 1959 iteration of the tourney, Argentina beat Brazil (with a 19-year old Pele) again in the final--again at the Monumental.

Speaking of Pele, he did quite well at the Monumental. In the aforementioned 1959 tourney, he scored an astonishing eight times in six games. Amazingly, those appear to have been the only times Pele ever played in Argentina as a member of the selecao (not sure about his appearances with his club side. Somebody else can research that).

Now is where all the Boca fans can cry about the injustice of putting the Monumental ahead of their beloved Bombonera. Have at it, Xeneizes!

Photo taken from 100x100millonario.blogspot.com

For ranking methodology and other information about the series, see the original post. To read the about the No. 10-rated stadium, the San Siro in Milan, go here. To see all "soccer mecca" entries click here or on the "topics covered here" link below right.

9. Estadio Alberto J. Armando (La Bombonera), Buenos Aires
Open since: 1940 (renovated 1995-96)
Capacity: 57,395
Tenant(s): Boca Juniors
World Cup hosts: Never
Closest U.S. stadium comparison: Fenway Park, Boston.

Okay, so how can a place make this list if it never even hosted a single World Cup match? Because it's the Bombonera, that's why. The Estadio Alberto J. Armando (it's official name since 2000) is preceded by its quasi-mystical reputation. It is said to be the most intimidating place to play, anywhere. The curious shape that gives the grounds its name (a "flat" stand on one side of the pitch and three steep stands around the rest resembles a candy box, or bombonera in Spanish) only adds to its mystique and contributes to the raucous acoustics. The place quite literally sways back and forth when its crazed fans are in full frenzy. Attending a match at the Bombonera, preferably for a Boca Juniors vs. River Plate superclasico, is arguably a requirement for anybody wishing to call themselves a true fan of the beautiful game.

If this makes the stadium sound like a veritable temple to the sport, that's because it is. So why then isn't it higher up in these rankings? Indeed, why isn't it No. 1? Simple. For all its (numerous) charms, the Bombonera has hosted few matches of historical significance. Perhaps because one of the times it did, in 1969, the home side (in this case the Argentine national team) managed just a 2-2 draw with Peru in a vital World Cup qualifier that kept the albiceleste out of the 1970 World Cup. It was not used in the 1978 World Cup. Unfortunately, this dearth of historic activity keeps the grounds from becoming the mecca of the sport.

Which is not to say La Bombonera hasn't hosted some important, if not groundbreaking events in world soccer. It was here that a certain Diego Armando Maradona received his first cap for the Argentine national team, entering as a second-half substitute in a 1977 friendly against Hungary. (Maradona did not play his first professional game here, as is often assumed because of his affiliation with Boca Juniors, a club he did not actually join until 1981, when he was 21 years old. Previously he played with Argentinos Juniors). Juan Riquelme got his full international debut at La Bombonera in a 1997 World Cup qualifier against Colombia (which ended in a 1-1 draw). In 1968, Manchester United played here (and lost, to Estudiantes) in the first leg of the Intercontinental Cup. In 1977, Boca Juniors hosted Borussia Moenchengladbach of Germany (after Liverpool passed on the invite) in the same tournament. England played a friendly here in 1977 (and drew, 1-1. Hard to believe there were once "friendly" matches between England and Argentina).

Then there are the Superclasico matches, between River Plate and Boca Juniors, about which an entire book can be (and probably has been) written. The U.K.'s Observer famously listed attending one of these matches as the very first of 50 "sporting events you must do before you die." About 220 such matches have been played, not including friendlies. Many of these have been held at La Bombonera, including several epic encounters: In 1962, Boca beat River 1-0 to move into first place (they captured the title in the next round). In 1974, Carlos Garcia Cambon scored four goals in his Boca Juniors debut as the home side won 5-2 (Gambon remains the only player of either team to have scored four times in the Superclasico). In 1996, Claudio Caniggia scored three as Boca defeated River 4-1. In 2000, Boca won the return leg of the Copa Libertadores quarterfinal by 3-0 to advance to the semis 4-2 on aggregate. They would eventually win the tournament. Of course, River had their share of triumphs at La Bombonera as well, perhaps most famously in 1977 when they scored a last minute winner on their way to the Metropolitano championship.

Photo taken from stadiumguide.com.