Uruguay 7-0 Escocia

Uruguay 7-0 Scotland: The defending champion's first lesson for the rookies

June 19, 1954. Basel, Switzerland. World Cup group stage. Uruguay vs. Scotland. Scotland was playing in the World Cup for the first time—they had previously turned down three invitations because the English FA was feuding with FIFA, forcing Scotland to boycott along with them. In 1954, they finally arrived, bringing a group of tough guys who played in the domestic British leagues, wearing dark blue jerseys, full of confidence. They lost their first group match 0-1 to Austria, but they didn't play badly. In the second match, they faced the defending champions, Uruguay.

That Uruguayan team had a name you should remember: Juan Alberto Schiaffino. He was one of the heroes of the 1950 Maracanã final—in that 2-1 victory over Brazil, he scored Uruguay's equalizer. He played for AC Milan in Italy and was one of the best midfielders in the world at the time. Another Uruguayan forward, Carlos Borges—not a writer, but a striker—scored a hat trick in this match.

Once the game started, Uruguay took about fifteen minutes to confirm that Scotland's defense couldn't stop them. Then they began to score. One. Two. Three. Scotland's goalkeeper, Fred Martin—a tough guy known as the "Iron Gate" back home—was pierced seven times in this match. He had never conceded so many goals in a World Cup—in fact, he never would again, because Scotland was eliminated in the group stage, and this was his only World Cup.

7-0. Uruguay didn't celebrate much after the match—for them, it was just a group stage game. They were the defending champions, and they came to Switzerland to defend their title. But for Scotland, it was a rite of passage—a match that taught them, in the cruelest way, that the World Cup and the domestic British leagues are two completely different things.