As Argentina begin their latest reign as UFWC champions, we look back at the very first of their 51 title match wins.

CLASSIC UFWC TITLE MATCH:
Paraguay 3-5 Argentina, 2 March 1955
South American Championships, Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile
Scorers: Rolon, Martinez, Villalba (Paraguay); Micheli (4), Borrello (Argentina)

The 1955 South American Championships took place in Chile over the course of a month. Paraguay had been UFWC champs since April 1954, taking the title from Uruguay ahead of the 1954 World Cup finals. Neither Paraguay nor Argentina participated in those finals, so they both had plenty of time to prepare for this UFWC clash. And the resultant match was a classic.

Both sides had great forward lines, so this was never going to be nil-nil. Paraguay boasted Maximo Rolon, just 5’2″, but top scorer in his domestic league with Libertad three seasons running. Argentina had the brilliant Rudolfo Micheli of Independiente, one of the greatest South American goalscorers of all time.

And it was Micheli who struck first – only for Rolon to grab an equaliser. Micheli then scored a penalty to give Argentina a 2-1 half-time lead.

But within seconds of the start of the second half, Paraguay were also awarded a penalty. Hermes Gonzalez’s spot kick hit the post, but Eulogio Martinez quickly stabbed in the equaliser. (Martinez would later play for Barcelona, scoring the first ever goal in the Nou Camp stadium, and, after gaining Spanish nationality, winning eight caps for Spain.)

The parity lasted less than 20 minutes. First Micheli netted a hat-trick goal, and then Boca Juniors forward Jose ‘Cucumber’ Borello added another to give Argentina a 4-2 lead. (The origin of Borello’s highly unusual nickname seems to have been lost to time…) Now Argentina were in control, and Micheli eventually scored his fourth – and Argentina’s fifth – in the 83rd minute. Paraguay never gave up, and Salvador Villalba pulled one back with a minute left to play. But in the end Argentina, and Micheli in particular, were too strong.

Argentina won 5-3 and won the UFWC title at the first time of asking. Argentina successfully held onto the title throughout the remainder of the South American Championships, coming up against Chile in the final decisive match. Chile had George Robledo and his brother Ted, who had both recently returned from England to Chile with club side Colo Colo, plus Carlos Espinoza and Rene Melendez, both signed to Everton. But Micheli was the man of the moment, and his single goal was enough to give Argentina the 1-0 victory that won them the 1955 South American Championships.

Micheli finished the tournament as top-scorer, yet he only scored two further goals in his entire international career, including one against England in 1953. Argentina eventually lost the UFWC title to Brazil in February 1956.

Classic Matches Argentina, paraguay

To celebrate Argentina’s return as unofficial champions, we’ve made some new additions to the UFWC T-shirt range. The new Argentina UFWC Mascot T-shirt shows Hughie the Dinosaur wearing the Argentina kit. It’s available in ash and white and, like all out T-shirts, is 100 percent cotton.

The Classic UFWC T-shirt is also available in Argentina’s colours in both men’s and women’s styles. If you’re not an Argentina fan, the Classic UFWC T-shirt is also available in a choice of 16 colours – just select your favourite.

We’ve also got a range of classic Ts featuring the UFWC trophy and Hughie the mascot. We also have special shirts for Spain, Netherlands, Scotland, England and Germany fans.

You can see the full range of T-shirts at the UFWC Spreadshirt shop.

UFWC News Argentina

New Unofficial Football World Champions Argentina have been awarded the UFWC trophy – the CW Alcock Cup. Or, at least, they’ve been sent a picture of it. As followers of the UFWC will know, the CW Alcock Cup – named after the English FA secretary who organised the first official international football match – only exists in virtual form here on the interweb.

But the UFWC has written to the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino to advise them of their nation’s triumph. We’ve written to them in English, because our Spanish is really bad. Argentina fans – please feel free to contact the Asociación in Spanish to let them know about their UFWC title.

Tuesday’s victory was Argentina’s 51st UFWC title match win. Placed third in the all-time rankings, they’re the highest-ranked non-British side in the competition, with only Scotland and England sitting above them in the table. This reign offer the chance to close the gap – although they have some way to go to catch second-placed England, who have won 74 title matches.

Argentina’s ranking position is remarkable considering they didn’t play a UFWC match until 1955 – some 83 years after Scotland and England kicked the competition off. Argentina won that first match – 5-3 against Paraguay, courtesy of a four-goal performance from the great Rudolfo Micheli. They went on to dominate the UFWC – alongside Brazil – for the next five or six years.

In 1978, Argentina beat UFWC title holders the Netherlands in the World Cup Final to win both official and unofficial titles. The country’s next period of UFWC dominance ran through 1992/3. Interestingly, this was achieved without Diego Maradona, who was serving a 15-month drugs ban at the time. Instead, the 16-match unbeaten run was led by Gabriel Batistuta – one of the greatest goalscorers in UFWC history, hitting 18 goals in 23 UFWC appearances.

Argentina’s last run as UFWC champions happened more than ten years ago. They beat Brazil to take the title in April 1998, and went on an eight-game run, only to lose out to the Netherlands during the World Cup tournament in France. Their last UFWC appearance before Tuesday was another defeat to the Netherlands, in February 2003.

Argentina’s first UFWC title defence of this reign will see them make a long trip to Tokyo to play Japan. During their last reign, in 1998, Argentina beat Japan 1-0. That was Japan’s first ever UFWC title match. They’ve since played four more, and have lost all of them.

We’ll be building up to Japan vs Argentina over the next few weeks. We’ll be celebrating Argentina’s return as champions with a look back at some classic UFWC title matches they’ve been involved in. And there’ll be some new Argentina UFWC T-shirts appearing in our shop within the next few days – including one featuring our mascot Hughie wearing the kit of La Albiceleste. You can keep up to date by following us on Twitter or joining us on Facebook.

UFWC News Argentina, japan