A lot was made of the match location for the battle between Bolivia and Uruguay beforehand, as the stadium “Hernando Siles” lies over 3200 meters above sea level in the countries’ capital La Paz. It did not seem to bother the visitors the slightest. Uruguay came away with a 0-2 away win through goals from defenders Cáceres and Godín, their first ever win in aforementioned stadium.
Not only the environmental settings promised trouble, but missing star strikers Suárez and Cavani, as well as coach Tabárez, through suspension from the last World Cup and Copa América was an issue. In place of them, the likes of Stuani and Abel Hernandez started the game and were putting in a decent shift.
While Uruguay scored early through Cáceres with only his second international goal (10’), his team had to deal with even more adversity when Cristian Rodríguez had to be subbed off after injury. Still, the first ever world champion showed character and team spirit.
It paid off when Godín headed in the afternoon’s second goal in the 69th. The captain let out all his emotions after that strike together with his teammates and once more underlined one of the most significant strengths of this squad. Two minutes later, a high tackle from Jair Torrico resulted in a red card and Bolivia down to 10 men. It was effectively over right there.
The final stats tell us that Bolivia had more shots on goal, but Fernando Muslera was always up to his tasks and had a good game against the hosts.
Coach Tabárez, after having viewed the game from the stands, summed up the night: “We are very proud of these players.”
They made history and had a good opening game on the way to Russia in 2018.
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