Uruguay mourns scoring hero

Alcides Edgardo Ghiggia, who scored the winning goal in the final game of the 1950 World Cup to give Uruguay a stunning 2-1 victory over Brazil - still recalled as Brazil's greatest defeat - died on Thursday. He was 88.

Ghiggia's son, Arcadio, said his father died of a heart attack.

Ghiggia scored the deciding goal 10 minutes from time with the game tied 1-1. It gave Uruguay its second World Cup title in a match Brazilians fully expected to win in front of 200,000 fans at Rio's Maracana stadium. Even a draw would have given Brazil the title.

The loss is still known in Brazil as the "Maracanazo."

Ghiggia also set up the tying goal by Juan Schiaffino earlier in the second half.

"Only three people have silenced the Maracana," Ghiggia once said of the goal. "The Pope, Frank Sinatra and me."

He was the last surviving Uruguayan player from the match and, poignantly, he died on Thursday, the 65th anniversary of the game.

When he turned 80 he was honored by the Uruguayan congress, still a national hero a half century later.

"It was a beautiful what happened" Ghiggia said. "It filled me with pride and was unforgettable. The biggest moment of my life was at the Maracana."

President Tabare Vazquez mourned the soccer star's passing in comments on local television, and offered his condolences to Ghiggia's family and to "all of Uruguay's people."

Oscar Tabarez, the manager of Uruguay's national team, said Ghiggia "meant a lot to Uruguayans."

"It is impressive what that man did. What he did in his life, his leadership and his personality," he said.

Though he was viewed as the nation's top soccer idol, Ghiggia played only 12 times for the national team and scored only four goals - all in the 1950 World Cup.

Ghiggia was born Dec 22, 1926, and quickly emerged as a right winger who could out-run defenses.

He started his professional career with the famous Uruguayan club Penarol and later played in Italy with Roma and AC Milan. Because of his Italian roots, he also played with the Italian national team.

Ghiggia was visibly overwhelmed when he was honored in 2009 at the Maracana, placing his footprints in a plastic mold along with other greats of the game like Pele, Eusebio and Franz Beckenbauer.

He was outspoken to the end. In the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, he criticized Uruguay forward Luis Suarez for biting a player during a World Cup match.

"Suarez plays well but he has done things that are not normal for a player, nor for a soccer game," Ghiggia said. "I think FIFA should sanction him."

(China Daily 07/18/2015 page11)