Uruguay: Social Media Keeps Fans Updated on La Celeste   · Global Voices
Silvia Vinas

With only a few days left until Uruguay makes its debut against France in the 2010 South Africa World Cup, Uruguayan bloggers and Twitter and Facebook users have been gearing up to write about “La Celeste,” the nickname given to the Uruguay national team which describes the team's color, light blue. Many have been covering the Uruguayan side for a long time, but even the most serious and analytic of bloggers are hopeful and ecstatic to see how La Celeste will perform. Fans of the Uruguayan national team have plenty of sources to keep up to date with the latest news and analysis on their team.
Uruguayans look on at soccer stadium Centenario (where the first World Cup was held) drinking mate, a traditional drink. Image by Flickr user Vince Alongi and used under a Creative Commons license.
Uruguay hosted the first World Cup in 1930, which it also won, and came victorious again in 1950. In Futbol Para Todos [es] (Soccer for Everyone), a blog and website that writes about various teams participating in the World Cup, they write about Uruguay in a post called “Uruguay: en busca de la Gloria de antaño” (Uruguay: Searching for the glory of the past). The post says:
Nadie puede negar que su marca registrada, la garra, sigue tan vigente como hace 80 años y que, como siempre, cuenta con futbolistas de reconocida calidad internacional, como los temibles Diego Forlán y Luis Suárez, una pareja de atacantes que es capaz de poner de rodillas a cualquier defensa rival.
No one can deny its registered brand, la garra [a term which describes the team’s strength and tenaciousness], which is as much in force today as it was 80 years ago and that, like always, has soccer players of recognized international quality, like the fearsome Diego Forlán and Luis Suárez, a couple of strikers capable of bringing any rival defense to their knees.
English speakers can consult a variety of blogs on Uruguay’s participation in the World Cup and on the national team in general. One of these blogs is La Celeste Blog. The bloggers describe the site as:
the only blog in the world where English-speaking fans of the Uruguayan National team can converge and discuss Uruguayan fútbol without pulling back any punches. […] We are a new website whose main goal is to show to everyone around the world the current state of Uruguayan football; which is why the majority of the articles are written in English.
The posts on this blog receive a lot of comments; their latest post analyzing France –Uruguay’s first opponent— has almost 50 comments. The blog also provides Spanish and Portuguese translations of its conent.
Andrew Aispuru from The Old 3 Magic Trick is an English-speaking blogger reporting from South Africa, who has come up with an extensive explanation of why Uruguay could win this year's World Cup. He is also Tweeting (@3cardmagictrick) about his experience in South Africa.
Sienzuf is also Tweeting (@Sienzuf) and blogging in English about La Celeste. When Uruguay qualified to the World Cup in a game against Costa Rica, he wrote:
Uruguay [has] qualified [to] South Africa 2010 and [has] the possibility of continuing their glorious history. Uruguay [is] the 32nd and last team to qualify and [is] now ranked 19th in the world.
For all the non believers, hello there and to all that hung in there, Congratulations and may the Celebrations Continue.
Fans can follow player Diego Forlán (@DiegoForlan7 [es]) on Twitter, where the striker frequently updates his status with pictures and commentary of his day-to-day activities as he prepares to play for La Celeste in South Africa.
Facebook is also a popular gathering point for fans of La Celeste, where they can voice their support for the team, share links, pictures and analysis. There are more than 100 pages dedicated to Uruguay in the World Cup, and about 500 groups with the same theme. Two of those pages are Uruguay al mundial [es] (Uruguay to the World Cup) with more than 50,000 fans and A muerte con Uruguay en el Mundial de Sudáfrica [es] (Till Death with Uruguay in the South Africa World Cup) with almost 30,000 fans.
Finally, the blog for the school Escuela 136 de Salinas-Canelones [es] reports that school-age children who own XO Laptop Computers can download a program that will allow them to watch the World Cup live, access 28 TV channels and listen to the radio.  Without a doubt, even the youngest of Uruguayans will be paying attention to see if La Celeste can take home its third title as soccer world champions.