Uruguay cruised through the group stage, beating Peru 1-0 and Romania 4-0. As hosts and Olympic champions, they were expected to dominate and they did. Their defensive solidity and attacking intelligence were a class above. Captain José Nasazzi marshalled a backline that conceded just three goals in the entire tournament.

Argentina took a 2-1 lead into half-time in front of 68,000 at the Centenary Stadium. Uruguay stormed back with three second-half goals, winning 4-2. Héctor Castro scored the fourth in the closing minutes. The streets of Montevideo erupted. A national holiday was declared the following day. Football had its first world champions.

The game had been an Olympic sport for decades, but a standalone world championship was a radical idea. FIFA president Jules Rimet spent years lobbying for it. Uruguay, reigning Olympic champions, offered to pay every team's travel expenses and build a new stadium from scratch. Only 13 nations entered.

Uruguay was celebrating its centenary of independence. The Great Depression had crippled European economies, and only four European nations made the two-week boat journey across the Atlantic. The tournament was as much a diplomatic experiment as a sporting one.

Every match was played in Montevideo. The Uruguayan capital, a port city of 650,000 on the Río de la Plata, served as the sole host. Teams were housed in hotels in the city centre and trained at local club grounds. The concentration gave the tournament an intimate, festival atmosphere that later editions, spread across entire nations, would never replicate.

Montevideo's economy received a significant boost from visiting delegations and the international press corps. The Centenario stadium became a permanent landmark and national symbol. The tournament put Uruguay on the global map far beyond South America and established football as a vehicle for national prestige. For a small country, the investment paid dividends in identity and pride for generations.

Guillermo Stábile scored eight goals in four matches to become the first Golden Boot winner despite not being selected for the opening game. José Nasazzi, Uruguay's captain, was a commanding defender who marshalled the backline with an authority that made him the tournament's natural leader.

Héctor Castro, who had lost part of his right forearm in a childhood accident, scored Uruguay's fourth goal in the final earning the nickname El Manco, the one-armed man. Lucien Laurent of France scored the very first World Cup goal in history. These men became myths before football had a language for stardom.