Unusual twists to the tale when old rivals square up

DERBY DAYS Nacional v Peñarol: There has never been anything remotely normal about the clashes between Uruguay's two big rival clubs

THIERRY HENRY is only in the halfpenny place compared to Héctor Castro. Club Nacional de Football play their home matches at Parque Central, a Montevideo stadium rich in history, but poor in space, and so for this weekend’s big derby the commanding Estadio Centenario will be utilised.

The gargantuan ground was built for the 1930 World Cup, with the hosts defeating their neighbours Argentina in the final game in front of almost 100,000 spectators. Among the goal-scorers that day were Nacional players José Pedro Cea, Uruguay’s leading goalscorer at the tournament, and Castro, whose rather un-pc nickname, due to a childhood accident, was El manco, “the one-armed”.

A few years after Castro’s heroics for his country, he would be the central character in one of the most bizarre goals ever scored in a top-level soccer game.

After 27 rounds of the 1933 Uruguayan Championship, Nacional and Club Atlético Peñarol were locked together on 46 points at the top of the first division. In the play-off game, Castro scored the only goal at Estadio Centenario, though Peñarol were understandably annoyed that, during the build-up, the ball went out of play, struck a medicine box at the side of the pitch, before rebounding back on the field. Nacional carried on as if nothing had happened, with the referee Telésforo Rodríguez believing nothing had happened.

Moments later, however, he would be in no doubt as to the seriousness of his mistake, and three Peñaro players would get their marching orders for arguing the legitimacy of the goal, before Rodriguez had to take himself off the pitch after suffering several blows. With the situation edging perilously close to a full-scale riot, assistant referee Luis Scandroglio stepped in and called a halt to the match after 70 minutes, laughably citing the reason as bad light.

It took almost two months for the Uruguayan league officials to decide what to do, with the goal disallowed (ending, of course, all comparison with France and Henry) and the last 20 minutes of the match to be played – behind closed doors, in order to minimise the risk of trouble.

Playing only 20 minutes also minimised the risk of a goal, and after full-time, the teams played two sessions of extra-time, with neither goal breached. Another play-off was ordered, which went ahead five weeks later, and again needed two sessions of extra-time, and once again did not feature a goal – controversial or otherwise.

And so it was on to November, when, finally, Castro put an end to the season by scoring a hat-trick. It sealed a 3-2 victory, along with the championship title – six months after the first play-off tie.

While certainly an extraordinary event, there has never been anything remotely normal about the clashes between Uruguay’s big two, with an extraordinary number marred by crowd trouble – leading, in recent years, to league points being deducted and, on more than one occasion, consequently, the league title being surrendered.

As recently as three years ago, a game involving the clubs – who have been duelling since the end of the 19th century, making it one of the oldest rivalries in the world – had to be abandoned due to the number of objects thrown on to the field from the stands.

Other times, though, it has been the players who’ve been at fault, most famously in a 1971 Copa Montevideo clash, when the referee called a halt to proceedings shortly after half-time when, due to early and late tackles, Nacional were left with only six players on the field.

While the country were recently united in their protracted, and ultimately successful, bid to reach the World Cup finals in South Africa, the nation is usually split down the middle when it comes to footballing matters.

While 16 teams compete in the highest professional soccer league in Uruguay – with no less than 13 based in Montevideo – Peñarol and Nacional compete on a different plane for the affections of the country’s football supporters.

They each claim support from roughly one-third of football fans in the country, placing them – along with Argentina’s Boca Juniors – as among the clubs which command the highest relative domestic support of any clubs in the world.

And so the meetings between the two can, literally, stop a nation. Their last league tie was a five-goal thriller last May, which Nacional won 3-2, and both teams warmed up for this Sunday’s crunch tie with wins at the weekend – Peñarol at home to Phoenix, and Nacional leaving Danubio with all the points.

A clear winner this weekend will surely go a long way to deciding this season’s champion.

For victory, Nacional will look to some of Uruguay’s stars of the future – including international squad members Sebastián Coates, who has just turned 19, as well as 20-year-old midfielder Nicolás Lodeiro, the league’s top scorer so far this season.

In contrast, Peñarol will turn to their experienced squad, which includes veteran Uruguayan internationals of the calibre of midfielder Antonio Pacheco currently enjoying his third stint with Peñarol, having first joined in 1993, and defender Darío Rodríguez, who has over 50 caps for his country.

Whatever happens this weekend, it’s unlikely to have the same result as their clash almost exactly 60 years ago.

In 1949, the teams were drawn together in the first round of the Uruguayan Cup. At half-time, with Peñarol leading 2-0, the Nacional players and officials decided to abandon the game, sneaking out the back door, while the Peñarol players and both sets of supporters waited on the field.

Known as the “Classic of the leak”, Nacional would later claim the referee’s first-half decisions had led them to walk, though Peñarol supporters have now spent 60 years taunting their fierce rivals for “running away”.

There will be nowhere to hide at the Estadio Centenario this Sunday evening.

Sunday – Estadio Centenario Kick-off: 5pm (local time), 7pm (Irish time)