At around the turn of the century, Uruguayan side Club Nacional de Futbol started playing a strange but beautiful style of football not seen in that part of the world before. It was, of course, the English combination game, a less physical, more imaginative way to play that revolved around quick passes, good positional play, frequent dribbling runs and powerful shots. As a team comprised of smaller, faster players, Nacional came to rely upon this style of play, electing to abandon the physical, confrontational style that was allowed back then. Playing the combination game, Nacional won the 1912 Primera Division title, but they reached their zenith in 1915. That year, they claimed the Triple Crown which was composed of the three major domestic and international tournaments available to Nacional at that time: the Primera Division, the Tie Cup and the Copa de Honor Cousenier. By winning the 1916 and 1917 championships, Nacional were awarded the first Copa Uruguaya en Propiedad, a trophy given out for winning three Primera Division titles in a row.

 

Still more success followed during the amateur era for the club. They played their way to another five Primera Division championships through to the mid-1920’s, lifting the trophy in 1919, 1920, 1922, 1923 and 1924. But Nacional’s work was not just done domestically. Internationally, they also picked up three Copa Aldao (1916, 1919, 1920), three Copa de Honor Cousenier (1915, 1916, 1917) and two Tie Cup (1913, 1915). In addition to this, Nacional contributed a number of players to the Uruguayan national team that dominated the 1924 Olympic Games football tournament. Mazzali, Urdinarian, Scarone, Romano, Zibechi and Somma all travelled to Paris and returned to Uruguay with gold medals. Fans in Europe were keen to see more South American football, so in 1925 Nacional embarked on an extensive and successful tour of the continent. It’s this tour that the Nacional side from this era are most notable for. The team hopped on board the steamboat Re Vittorio on Feburary 7 and arrived in Genoa, Italy three weeks later.

 

In 6 months, they travelled by train to nine European countries, playing 38 matches. Of these, they won 26, drew 7, lost 5 and scored 130 goals. The first stop was France, where Nacional only conceded a single goal in 5 games while scoring 19, then it was on to Italy for a 3-0 win over the Italian champions Genoa in a game that was watched by tens of thousands of fans including more spectators from the slopes of the surrounding mountains. Spain was the next port of call, Nacional enjoying very good results. In Holland, they defeated the Dutch national team 7-0. They eventually dropped a game to Sparta Prague who had a brilliant team at the time, before visiting Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and Portugal, destroying anyone brave enough to take them on including the Belgian, French and Swiss national teams.  It’s estimated that 800,000 tickets were sold for the tour, which therefore makes it the largest tour in the entire history of world football. It was much larger that the Boca Juniors European tour with which it partly coincided. When Nacional disembarked back in Montevideo, they had travelled 15,000 nautical miles in addition to another 15,000 miles by road and rail. They were bestowed with an official congratulations for a successful tour from the government of Uruguay on their return.

Achievements: Uruguayan Primera Division – Champions x11
Copa Competencia  - Winners x8
Copa de Honor – Winners x7
Copa Aldao – Winners x3
Copa de Honor Cousenier – Winners x 4
Tie Cup – Winners x2

Star player: Hector Scarone DoB 26 November 1898, Montevideo, Uruguay, nickname: El Mago (The Magician)

Scarone was one of the key members of the Uruguayan national team which dominated football throughout the 1920’s. He won numerous major titles in a long career that included becoming one of the first South American players to make an impact in Europe at the club level, thanks to his spells in Spain and Italy. As a boy, he honed he skills by playing a ball through a hole in a fence near his home, before being picked up by local giants Nacional. They initially turned him down thinking he didn’t have the physique needed to become a footballer, but through hard work and perseverance to develop his strengh, they eventually signed him. This event led to non-stop success for Scarone at club and international level for almost a decade. He played in the Olympic Games and the World Cup as well as touring Europe with Nacional. He then signed for Barcelona, played for AC Milan and ended his career with Palermo. His national team goal scoring record of 31 remained for 81 years until it was broken by Diego Forlan in 2011.