Cubas Maikel Reyes, left, celebrates along with teammate Alain Cervantes (22) after scoring a goal against Guatemala during the second half of a CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer match in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday, July 15, 2015. Cuba won 1-0
When it
comes to Cuba's soccer team, you can't even tell the players with a scorecard.
"I
think it's enough to play the game and to play the tournament," he said at
a news conference Friday, speaking through a translator.Coach Raul Gonzalez
said 19 of the 23 men on his roster will be available for Saturday's CONCACAF
Gold Cup quarterfinal against the United States.
Cuba's
sports teams have a history of defections, and Gonzalez avoided saying which
four players won't be suiting up.
The
Associated Press previously reported forward Keiler Garcia defected in Chicago
ahead of Cuba's opener against Mexico and backup goalkeeper Arael Arguellez
disappeared before the team traveled to Arizona for its second match, against
Trinidad and Tobago.
Midfielders
Dario Suarez and Aricheel Hernandez were listed as absent on Wednesday's lineup
sheet before the 1-0 win over Guatemala in North Carolina, which advanced the
Cubans to the knockout stage for the first time. Univision reported Friday that
midfielder Ariel Martinez was not with the team.
Gonzalez
said he wanted to focus on the players he had.
"Obviously,
we know what they're going through on and off the field, so it's huge
admiration with how they dealt with everything they went through," U.S.
coach Jurgen Klinsmann said.
The
defending champion U.S. is 8-1-1 against Cuba with eight consecutive victories
since 1947. The Americans won 5-0 in the 2003 quarterfinals and 4-1 in the
first round two years ago,
Cuba, ranked
104th, has not qualified for the World Cup since 1938. Like the U.S., Cuba is a
nation where soccer is not the No. 1 sport.
Gonzalez
said he sees more young players at home competing in soccer these days.
"I
don't like baseball. I don't watch baseball," he said, shaking his head
back and forth for emphasis.
The
34th-ranked Americans lacked flow during the group stage, when Clint Dempsey
scored three goals as they beat Honduras 2-1, defeated Haiti 1-0 and tied
Panama 1-1.
Defender
John Brooks is suspended for yellow-card accumulation, forcing Klinsmann to change
his back line. He added left back DaMarcus Beasley, midfielder Joe Corona and
forward Alan Gordon to his roster this week in place of defender Greg Garza,
midfielder Alfredo Morales and forward Jozy Altidore, who didn't appear at full
strength following a hamstring injury in mid-May.
Beasley, 33,
has 121 international appearances and is the only American to play in four
World Cups. If he starts at left back, Fabian Johnson could move to right back,
where Johnson played during last year's World Cup, or up to the midfield.
Beasley
announced his retirement from the national team in December and was persuaded
by Klinsmann to return. Teammates say he provided a spark just by showing up
ahead of the match against the Cubans.
"We're
going to prepare for them just like we prepare for Brazil," Beasley said.
Four
Caribbean nations are in the Gold Cup quarterfinals for the first time. Haiti
plays Jamaica in the second game of the doubleheader, and the winners meet in a
semifinal Wednesday at Atlanta. In Sunday's twinbill at East Rutherford, New
Jersey, Trinidad and Tobago takes on Panama, and Mexico faces Costa Rica.
"CONCACAF
is not easy," Beasley said. "The teams are stronger, they're faster.
Now they've got the organization part of it down."
The U.S. has
reached the semifinals of every Gold Cup except in 2000, when it lost to
Colombia on penalty kicks in a quarterfinal. A victory in the July 26 final at
Philadelphia would earn the Americans a place in the 2017 Confederations Cup in
Russia. If another nation wins, it would face the U.S. in a playoff for the
berth.
When the
U.S. and Cuba met two years ago in Utah in the first round, Ciprian Alfonso
gave the visitors a 36th-minute lead. Landon Donovan's penalty kick tied the
score in first-half injury time, and the Americans went on to a 4-1 win as
Corona scored the go-ahead goal and Chris Wondolowski added a pair.
Cuba comes
into the game with two days' rest while the U.S. has had four days off since
playing the group stage in a seven-day span. The Gold Cup can feature high
temperatures and difficult surfaces — grass was installed over the artificial
turf at M&T Bank Stadium for this weekend's game.
"It is
a very challenging competition because you don't know what to expect,"
Klinsmann said. "People in Europe or in South America, they have no idea
what these teams, all of them, are going through."
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