URUGUAY PROFILE: The Uruguayan national squad keep Europe's top teams in quality players but they still won't go far next summer writes Paul Doyle

Thanks to Uruguay's play-off victory over Australia, the 2002 World Cup will feature all of the competition's previous winners. Out of those eight champions, Uruguay are undoubtedly the least likely to relive their most famous feats. Yes, they are even less likely than England to lift the trophy.

Most South American team managers moan about how hard it is to coax European clubs into regularly releasing players for their qualifiers, but Uruguay never uttered such gripes for fear of appearing hypocritical - they lost their Argentine coach Daniel Passarella half way through the qualifying campaign because he resigned, citing exasperation at the failure of Uruguayan clubs to let their players turn up. Then most Uruguayan fans dismissed that as a pretext, since there was only ever the smallest smattering of locally-based players in Passarella's squad, the huge majority of whom operate in Europe.

In came new boss Victor Pua who immediately led the nation to defeat in Paraguay. They rallied though and, despite embarrassment in Venezuela, squeezed into the finals, principally on the shirt-tails of Inter Milan's Alvaro Recoba, the country's undisputed leader even when he was suspended from Serie A for passport irregularties.

Almost every Uruguayan move flows through Recoba and, more often that is sensisble, concludes with him firing in a shot from 40 yards - quite where his confidence comes from is a mystery since, despite such shooting and taking every set-piece other than kick-outs, he only found the net once in 17 qualifiers. Strikers Dario Silva of Malaga (6 goals in 16 games) and Nicolas Oliveira of Sevilla (4 in 13) had much more respectable returns, suggesting Recoba would be wise to stick to creating chances for them rather than trying to flummox international 'keepers from the halfway line. Walter Pandiani of Deportivo only featured once in the qualifiers, but must surely be in contention for a place in the squad for the Finals.

It would be an error to believe Uruguay can't function without Recoba. True, they wouldn't conjure many chances without their 'little magician', but nor would they surrender many goals - their defence is formidable.

Young Juventus 'keeper Fabian Carini played in every single qualifier, where he justified his immense reputation. Carini, of course, is an understudy to Gianluca Buffon at Juve, just as one of his country's customary centre-backs, Alejandro Lembo, is a back-up player at Inter and left-full Dario Rodriguez, rarely sees first-team action at Bayern Munich. But these form a highly-efficient unit, all under the guidance of rugged Juve regular Paolo Montero. Washington Tais of Bundeliga leaders Leverkusen, is as staunch a right-back as required.

The midfield should also merit respect, even if their primary duty appears to be to simply give the ball to Recoba. Gianni Guigou regularly patrols the right-hand side at Roma, where he's charged with seeking and destroying all sign of enemy attacks. With his national side he receives enthusiastic assistance in this mission from Venezia's Pablo Garcia, while the most creative conspirator is he of the stereotypical Uruguayan surname, Fabian O'Neill of Juventus. Flickers of invention have also been detected from the boot of Racing Santander's Maro Rodriguez.

The Uruguayans have been thrust into one of the tournament's toughest groups. They certainly shouldn't be able to ruffle the French, so they will focus on scrambling with Denmark and Senegal for second place. If they'll have a fight on their hands just to get out of their group, they'll face certain elimination in the second round where they'll come up against Argentina, England, Nigeria, or Sweden.

Squad:

Goalkeepers
1-Fabian Carini (Juventus/Ita), 23-Federico Elduayen (Penarol), 12-Gustavo Munua (Nacional)

Defenders
19-Joe Bizera (Penarol), 3-Alejandro Lembo (Nacional), 2-Gustavo Mendez (Nacional), 14-Gonzalo Sorondo Inter Milan/Ita), 4-Paolo Montero (Juventus/Ita), 6-Dario Rodriguez (Penarol)

Midfielders
22-Gonzalo de los Santos (Valencia/Spa), 5-Pablo Garcia (Venezia/Ita), 7-Gianni Guigou (AS Roma/Ita), 10-Fabian O'Neill (Perugia/Ita), 15-Nicolas Olivera (Sevilla/Spa), 16-Marcelo Romero (Malaga/Spa)

Forwards
13-Sebastian Abreu (Cruz Azul/Mex), 11-Federico Magallanes (Venezia/Ita), 18-Richard Morales (Nacional), 21-Diego Forlan (Manchester United/Eng), 20-Alvaro Recoba (Inter Milan/Ita), 17-Mario Regueiro (Racing Santander/Spa), 8-Gustavo Varela (Nacional), 9-Dario Silva (Malaga/Spa)