Uruguay mourns after national team loses World Cup place

Uruguayans mourned on Wednesday after the national soccer team lost a World Cup place in a penalty shootout with Australia, in a the second leg of the play-off game broadcast just after dawn in Montevideo.

Uruguay won 1-0 at home, but lost by the same score in Australia. The World Cup place was decided on penalties, which Australia won 4-2.

Austrialian media reported the win as a payback for 2001, when Uruguay had beaten Australia in play-offs for a place in the 2002 World Cup co-hosted by South Korea and Japan.

"The target was not reached and all we have left is a big hurt, " said Julio Cesar Maglione, head of the Uruguay Olympic Committee, who was also briefly head of the Uruguay Football Assocation (AUF) in 1990. "But we cannot ignore the great effort made by the team," he added.

Uruguayn media said that coach Jorge Fossati will probably lose his job due to the loss. The AUF hired him in April 2004 after a run of successful performances with South American teams including Liga Deportiva Universitaria in Ecuador, Penarol in Uruguay, Danubio in Uruguay, Cerro Porteno in Paraguay and Colon de Santa Fe in Argentina.

Fossati took over when Uruguay was in poor shape, but helped the team win third place in the Copa America in Peru.

Source: Xinhua