Uruguay’s goalkeeping quandary

Uruguay’s progress to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ was far from smooth. One of the biggest problems coach Oscar Tabarez faced along the way was finding a goalkeeper he could rely on, with four men appearing between the Celeste sticks during the campaign. FIFA.com looks at the contribution each of them made to the side's qualification, and assesses their chances of being first-choice at the world finals.

Castillo usurps Carini
It was no surprise that Tabarez entrusted Fabian Carini with goalkeeping duties at the start of qualifying in October 2007. After all, the 28-year-old was the owner of over 60 caps in total, and had appeared at Korea/Japan 2002, in the Germany 2006 preliminaries and in two Copa Americas.

The only problem was that Carini was not a starter for Inter Milan, a situation he tried to remedy by moving to Spanish side Murcia, where he also failed to hold down a first-team place. His lack of match action perhaps impacted on his performances for his country, with Uruguay winning only one of their first five games, the opener against Bolivia, before drawing two and losing two, conceding six goals in the process.

Following the 1-1 draw against Brazil in June 2008, Carini lost his place to his understudy Juan Castillo. Occupying a place on the bench for the next five matches, all the indications were that he would be restored to the starting XI after Castillo picked up an injury that October. Yet, although Tabarez included him for the November friendly against France, he was out of the picture for the March 2009 game against Paraguay.

“He hasn’t played enough,” explained the coach at the time. “I think you can put it down to his circumstances.” Tabarez has never selected him since.

Having decided to make a change between the posts, it was entirely logical that Tabarez should turn to Castillo first of all, especially as he had given the Botafogo shot-stopper his international debut two years earlier. Known in the game as Muralla (The Wall), Castillo played in the next five matches, keeping a clean sheet in three of them and conceding four goals in all. Of those five outings, Uruguay won two, drew two and lost one, against Argentina in Buenos Aires.

After helping his side defeat Colombia in Bogota, Castillo drew praise from none other than Ubaldo Fillol, who kept goal for Argentina when they won the FIFA World Cup on home soil in 1978. “He has an unconventional style,” said Fillol. “He’s not your typical steady keeper. He likes to take risks and get involved and he’s not afraid to do things differently.”

Yet, just as Castillo was cementing his place in the side, and only a fortnight after the match with Bolivia in October 2008, he tore cruciate ligaments in his right knee while on club duty.