World Cup Betting Odds For Uruguay

World Cup betting odds for Uruguay are already starting to pop up at leading legal sports wagering sites like Bet365.com – which we recommend for our international readers – and Bovada.lv – which enables Americans to legally bet on their favorite sports without running afoul of federal or state sports betting laws. Sweetening the deal for Uruguay’s fans and punters interested in wagering on la Celeste, the first-stage draw proved to be an extremely positive one in terms of the team’s initial pool of opponents. Uruguay finds itself at an incredible advantage in Group A, where the only real threat could likely be expected to face is from the national team of FWC2018 host country Russia, but that’s only a possibility.

Uruguay, with a population of just a shade more than 3.4 million people, holds one distinction that no other nation can ever hope to match: it won the first-ever World Cup in 1930. That feat is even more impressive when one considers that Uruguay had a population of less than 2 million people at the time of its historic win, and to this day it remains the smallest country in terms of population to have ever won a World Cup. Those facts alone makes Uruguay one of the more exciting and interesting entries into the 2018 edition of the prestigious international tournament. Though the Uruguayan national team (known as la Celeste for its brilliant sky blue kit) isn’t likely to win a third FIFA title at Russia 2018, no fan of the beautiful game and certainly no football bettor should overlook this South American side.

The Uruguayan national football team, also known as los Charruas was ranked 21st internationally by FIFA at the tail-end of November 2017. However, at the time the FIFA World Cup rankings were compiled for the purposes of establishing the seeding for the tournament itself, Uruguay was 17th best in the world, or close to mid-pack among the 32 qualifying nations. That puts la Celeste, led by successful head coach Oscar Tabarez and team captain Diego Godin, just behind a Mexican team that’s fallen on hard times of late and ahead of Croatia’s up-and-coming national side in the wide-open Pot 2, which includes some top-tier talent like Spain and Peru.

Uruguay’s Road To The World Cup

Unlike several of the other CONMEBOL teams to qualify for Russia 2018, Uruguay’s road to the World Cup didn’t include any real danger of not making the cut for the tournament. Of 18 qualification games played in the run up to Russia 2018, Uruguay amassed 9 wins, 4 draws and 5 losses, while scoring 32 goals for 31 total points. That put los Charruas 10 points behind CONMEBOL leader Brazil, but ahead of higher-ranked teams like Argentina, making Uruguay the second-seeded team to come from the South America region.

Uruguay crushed Bolivia (2-0) and Colombia (3-0) right after the end of the 2014 FWC, then played a tight 1-all draw against Chile toward the end of 2015 before blanking the Chileans (3-0) just a few days later, knocking their rivals out of a World Cup entry. With a Russia 2018 berth locked down, Uruguay needed only not to lose against No. 2-ranked Brazil, and that’s exactly what los Charruas did, tying 2-2 – from there it was just a matter of surviving the remainder of the qualification schedule. La Celeste downed Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Venezuela over the course of 2016 before tying in a rematch against Colombia that October and beat Ecuador a month later, before falling Chile toward the middle of November in side’s first qualification loss. Brazil handed Uruguay its second defeat in March 2017 to the tune of 1-4 at home, and Peru got revenge days later, handing la Celeste its third (2-1 away).

A scoreless tie to Argentina in August of ’17 and a 1-2 away victory over Paraguay in September all but sealed the deal on a berth to the 2018 edition of the World Cup, but Uruguay made it a sure thing with another draw against Venezuela and a dominant 4-2 showing against Bolivia. With a qualification run as relatively unmarred by defeat or even many rough patches as this one was, Uruguay, under the tutelage of the appropriately nicknamed El Maestro –the side’s longtime coach Oscar Washington Tabarez, a former defenseman and elementary school teacher – proved itself in one of the world’s toughest confederations. That combination of factors is driving a lot of the interest in World Cup betting odds for Uruguay

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