For nearly a century, Uruguay has been waiting for the chance to add to its two Olympic football titles. The time is nigh.
The two-time World Cup champions won back-to-back Olympic gold medals in 1924 and 1928, but have not managed to get back into the tournament until this year's London Games. And to prove just how much they want a third gold medal, the Uruguayans chose veteran Oscar Tabarez as coach.
"After the World Cup, the Olympic Games is the most important (tournament) there is," Tabarez said recently. "The games have exemplified sportsmanship and brotherhood since ancient times and have a very popular feel about them. To be able to experience them in the flesh is a gift of life."
FIFA considers the 1924 and 1928 Olympic football tournaments to be world championships because they predate the first World Cup in 1930. And with their titles at the inaugural World Cup and the 1950 edition, Uruguay wears four stars on its national team jersey.
Tabarez coaches both Uruguay's national team and its Olympic team. And since taking over the national team for the second time in 2006, he has overseen a rebirth of Uruguayan football.
The 65-year-old Tabarez guided the country to a fourth-place finish at the 2010 World Cup, a 2011 Copa America triumph and a No. 2 spot in the FIFA world ranking. Known as "El Maestro," or "The Teacher," he wants his pupils to learn from the Olympics and take that experience to other major tournaments.
In the early part of the last century, the Uruguayans were a potent force in international football. Although they have not been a major player in years, the country won its record 15th Copa America title last year.
Now, Tabarez is hoping the London Olympics will provide the same springboard for future success as the 1924 Paris Games and 1928 Amsterdam Games did for the country's football team back then.
"Don't forget that it was through the Olympics that Uruguay became the first South American country to compete in Europe," the coach said in an interview with FIFA. "They were world tournaments in their own right and they marked the start of a period of international dominance in which Uruguay went unbeaten in the first half of the 20th century.
"Some people disparagingly refer to that period as prehistory, but I think we've been able to build on and establish a link with those successes."
Tabarez has a solid crop of young players to choose from for the Olympics and also has several options to pick from for the three spots allowed in each squad for players over 23. Forwards Luis Suarez (Liverpool), Edinson Cavani (Napoli) and Abel Hernandez (Palermo) are on a preliminary list of players recently released by the Uruguayan football association. Inter Milan striker Diego Forlan was a notable omission.
The final 22-man Olympic squad will be announced on July 6.
"If we do pick an overage player, we might well do it to cover positions where we don't have everything we need to put together a truly competitive team," Tabarez said. "We know everyone wants to be there, and that's why they're on the preliminary list, but they know what I'm saying here."
Uruguay's first match of the tournament is against the United Arab Emirates, before taking on Senegal and then host nation Britain in Group A.
"It's a real challenge because in theory the hosts have always got a better chance of doing well," Tabarez said. "The responsibility of being the host nation of the Olympic Games is going to be a factor, and then there's their footballing heritage."
But Tabarez is just happy to be leading the team to the Olympics, a job he never dreamed he would have the opportunity to take.
"Reality is stranger than fiction a lot of the time," Tabarez said, "and that's the case here, and with the Uruguay team in general lately."