Unofficial Football World Championship – Bolivia 3 Nicaragua 2

You wait months for an Unofficial Football World Championship fixture and then two come along almost at once. That has certainly been the case across the past few days as Bolivia have had to face their first two defences of the UFWC crown and strangely enough they have been against the same time.

Last weekend saw Bolivia travel to Nicaragua and come away unscathed in their first defence with a 1-0 win, of which you can read about here and last night it was time for the return fixture in Yacuiba, Bolivia

The first encounter was something of a tepid one but this was not the case as the two sides played out a 5 goal thriller and at one point it looked as if Nicaragua were going to be the new holders of the UFWC crown.

Nicaragua took the lead after just six minutes, when Jorge Garcia rolled a low shot across the box and into the far corner of the net. And it was 2-0 after 37 minutes, when Carlos Chavarria intercepted a poor clearance and scored with another low shot.

However, within two minutes the Bolivian fightback was on, with Diego Bejarano scoring after Nicaragua failed to clear a corner. Bolivia made two substitutions at half-time, bringing on José Sagredo and José Luis Vargas. And, after Alvarez had equalised early in the second half, it was Vargas who was the hero, poking the ball home for a very late winner.

Although Bolivia cannot qualify for the World Cup next year they do at least have the honour of being the current UFWC champions. Their next title defense will be when they travel to Peru in August, can the Peruvians get a hold of this South American hot potato?

Here is all the action from last night

And here are the list of holders since we started tracking it back in 2011

North Korea
Sweden
Argentina
Uruguay
Costa Rica
Netherlands
Argentina (2)
Germany
Argentina (3)
Brazil
Colombia
Argentina (4)
Chile
Uruguay (2)
Mexico
Chile (2)
Paraguay
Uruguay (3)
Chile (3)
Argentina (5)
Bolivia