Qualifying in South America rarely offers easy routes, and Quito has long carried its own menace. The altitude, the pressure, the sense that one bad result can close the door - all of it made this feel bigger than an ordinary away game.
Forlan’s recollection captures that tension. After Ecuador reportedly went in front, Uruguay’s margin for error had all but vanished. He then helped create the equaliser for Luis Suarez, and suddenly the match became a test of nerve rather than just endurance.
When the decisive moment arrived, Forlan said: “I was the most experienced one, so I decided to take the ball.” That line says plenty about his standing in that side. He was not only a scorer; he was the player who seemed to carry responsibility comfortably when others might have shrunk from it.
He also recalled the finish with the kind of clarity footballers usually reserve for career-defining touches: “I don't remember feeling particularly nervous. I struck it perfectly into the top corner.” Whether remembered as survival or leadership, it was the kick that appears to have preserved Uruguay’s route to the finals.
Uruguay still had work to do after that, coming through a play-off to reach South Africa, but the tournament that followed gave the qualifier its full meaning. A group won, heavyweights handled, a place in the semi-finals - it became the country’s finest World Cup run in generations.
That is why the penalty still matters. The famous weeks in South Africa may define the memory, but the next time Uruguay chase another World Cup dream, this is the kind of night they will look back on: tense, messy, and absolutely decisive.