National Team of CUBA [R]

Discussion in 'Caribbean' started by MIGkiller, May 12, 2003.

  1. MIGkiller

    MIGkiller Member+

    Flamengo
    Brazil
    May 9, 2003
    Rio de Janeiro
    Club:
    Flamengo Rio Janeiro
    Nat'l Team:
    Brazil
    I don't understand why an olympic powerhouse in almost every sport like Cuba doesnt form a decent team to compete in the WCQs? Isn't it part of the communist propaganda to spread the socialism through sports also? They missed the oportunity to do it in the top stage of world football.
     
  2. Horizon

    Horizon New Member

    Nov 20, 2000
    New York City
    Re: Why doesn't Cuba have a decent team?


    Cuba is a baseball country. They don't play futbol.
     
  3. IASocFan

    IASocFan Moderator
    Staff Member

    Aug 13, 2000
    IOWA
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Fidel ama beisbol. Bastante!
     
  4. MIGkiller

    MIGkiller Member+

    Flamengo
    Brazil
    May 9, 2003
    Rio de Janeiro
    Club:
    Flamengo Rio Janeiro
    Nat'l Team:
    Brazil
    Re: Re: Why doesn't Cuba have a decent team?

    But they also have a successful history in other collective sports like volleyball and basketball. At least Olympics speaking.
     
  5. denver_mugwamp

    denver_mugwamp New Member

    Feb 9, 2003
    Denver, Colorado
    They haven't got the balls....

    No, really, they don't have even the most basic equipment, like soccer balls. I've traveled in Cuba and watched the kids play baseball with sticks and bottlecaps. Some people in our group brought in used baseballs and gloves from thrift stores and it was a huge hit. A soccer ball in a Cuban town would kicked into oblivion within a few months at most. They could change. All they'd have to do is have Castro issue some edict that soccer is important, pony up for some balls and build some rude fields, and I guarantee you that they'd be the class of the Caribbean in a few years. But unfortunately Castro was raised on baseball, had asperations to play in the US major leagues, and now that's the national (only) sport.
     
  6. Horizon

    Horizon New Member

    Nov 20, 2000
    New York City
    Cuba has a national team, and have participated
    in the Gold Cup with poor results. I guess that
    for a country to be good at soccer, people need
    to be interested in the sport, which they are not.

    I am sure that kids play baseball, basketball and volleyball in school and in the streets. Being
    baseball their national sport. Soccer is just not
    part of their traditions.

    Maybe that is changing. Baseball countries like
    Panama, USA and Japan are slowly building a
    soccer tradition. I am sure Nicaragua, Puerto
    Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic will someday
    embrace soccer. Heck, Puerto Rico had FSWE
    before Miami did.
     
  7. DaMunk

    DaMunk Member

    Feb 7, 2003
    Philadelphia/STX
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    US Virgin Islands
    Re: Why doesn't Cuba have a decent team?

    Cuba went to the Futsal World Cup in 2000 and as someone else posted they were in the Gold Cup through the Caribbean zone qualifiers. Also, within the last year, FIFA's Goal Program built (is building?)a new training center.

    Alas, baseball is the dominant sport in Cuba, DR and PR. I was recently in the Virgin ISlands and soccer is a distant third in preference behind baseball and basketball with pointyball in a close fourth. Almost made me sick...until I realized it was Christmas Eve, 82 degrees and I was on a beach. I got over it :)

    Give it a while, I think Caribbean football is onthe rise, especially since the new WCQ gives everyone a chance.
     
  8. Rafael Hernandez

    Rafael Hernandez Moderator
    Staff Member

    Mar 6, 2002
    Re: Re: Why doesn't Cuba have a decent team?

    Actually Basketball is more popular here in PR although its stupid since they are a bunch of players in the Major League and historic players and in Basketball all the PR players that have been in the NBA have been pathethic.
     
  9. Postmaster

    Postmaster Member

    Jan 10, 2002
    Poolesville, MD USA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Cuba's Results Look Very "Decent"

    2002 Gold Cup
    USA 1-0 Cuba
    Korea 0-0 Cuba

    I suppose you can call 2 losses "poor results," but it appears that these games were pretty close. As I recall USA/Korea did pretty well a few months later in the World Cup.

    2003 Record (per http://www.eloratings.net/Cuba.htm)
    4W - 0L - 1D including:
    Cuba 3-1 Trinidad & Tobago
    Cuba 1-0 Jamaica

    For what they are worth, ELO has them @64 and FIFA noted them as a big mover this month @55 (tied with Guatemala for 7th in CONCACAF), 19 above Canada, and 27 above El Salvador.

    Perhaps CONCACAF should watch out for Cuba in the next round of WC qualifiers.
     
  10. costarica

    costarica New Member

    Aug 5, 2000
    Costa Rica
    repression leads to aggression....

    They've been repressed for so long that they prefer more agressive sports, like baseball where you beat a ball with a bat, and boxing, where you beat a fellow human with your hands. :p
     
  11. efernandez9

    efernandez9 Member

    Jun 6, 1999
    Joe Pool Lake

    tico what about dominos?
     
  12. condor11

    condor11 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 2, 2002
    New Zealand
    why doesn't cuba have a decent team?

    easy

    because they have a peruvian coach
     
  13. Postmaster

    Postmaster Member

    Jan 10, 2002
    Poolesville, MD USA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    FIFA Website Highlights Cuba's Rise

    http://www.fifa.com/en/display/article,69063.html

    "In Cuba, the land of magical Caribbean music, football has traditionally played second fiddle to the national sport of baseball. Until now that is - because the beautiful game is finally making inroads on the island, and the Cuban national team is making massive strides up the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
    ...
    Cuba suddenly find themselves ranked 7th in the CONCACAF region, ahead of Guatemala (world ranking: 55th) and Canada (74th), and breathing down the necks of Trinidad and Tobago (51st) and Jamaica (50th). The islanders have undoubtedly benefited from the arrival of their highly experienced coach, who has enjoyed stints as Peruvian and Honduras national team manager as well as at club sides Deportivo Cali (Colombia) and Vera Cruz (Mexico)."
     
  14. Titan 7

    Titan 7 Member

    Feb 17, 2003
    Tres Rios, CR
    FYI

    Cuba participated in WC in France 1938, they tied Romania 3:3 a.e.t. in the 1st game and won the second game 2:1, lost 8:0 against Sweaden in the 2nd round.
     
  15. worldsoccer-Jeff

    Mar 4, 2000
    Atlanta
    Havent you seen then pound the crap our of the table after they win a game?
     
  16. champmanager

    champmanager Member

    Dec 13, 2001
    Alexandria, VA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Kazakhstan
    Re: Why doesn't Cuba have a decent team?

    Its a lot easier to spend some money and energy to build a program in an olympic sport like volleyball than it is to develop a viable soccer program. In a sport like fencing (which Cuba's won medals in), they can import some coaches, find some talented kids (preferably left-handed ones), and within ten years have a world class team. That can't happen in soccer. Several years ago one of their best players was playing overseas -- in a Canadian indoor league.
     
  17. beineke

    beineke New Member

    Sep 13, 2000
    Re: Cuba's Results Look Very "Decent"

    ... and the US goal was a soft penalty kick. After fielding a pathetic team in 1998, Cuba really stepped up in 2002. Then their two best players defected.
     
  18. Dave Marino-Nachison

    Jun 9, 1999
    Re: Re: Cuba's Results Look Very "Decent"

    I thought that '98 team showed a bit of promise. Didn't they farm out their entire team to a German lower-division club at some point? Whatever happened with that?
     
  19. BorrachoNJ

    BorrachoNJ New Member

    Apr 8, 2001
    NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ
    and with maradona getting help for his crack habits, he amped up the football scene out there.
    fidel's a huge fan of fat ass
    they even watched last year's copa libertadores at fidel's house, both stogying up...
     
  20. DoyleG

    DoyleG Member+

    CanPL
    Canada
    Jan 11, 2002
    YEG-->YYJ-->YWG-->YYB
    Club:
    FC Edmonton
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    Re: Re: Why doesn't Cuba have a decent team?

    Eduardo Sebrango who plays outdoor with the Montreal Impact. Played with Rochester and Vancouver as well.

    He was forced off the Cuban team because he married a Canadian citizen and moved. Because his dismissal from the team was political, he tried to switch his alligance to Canada (Which is allowed by FIFA in such cases). It was stopped largely by the out-of-touch immigration department.
     
  21. Kaiser

    Kaiser New Member

    Nov 12, 2000
    dark side of the moo
    Geez you guys are all over the map on this one, and way off base. Baseball is popular in Cuba because pre-Castro the United States was Cubas biggest trade partner. Major League clubs would go their for spring training and also some players would play there in the winter leagues. Cuba was at one time the most popular carribean vacation destination for Americans.
     
  22. MIGkiller

    MIGkiller Member+

    Flamengo
    Brazil
    May 9, 2003
    Rio de Janeiro
    Club:
    Flamengo Rio Janeiro
    Nat'l Team:
    Brazil
    That's understandable. Any country (like Cuba, Venezuela, Panamá and the US) that prefers such a boring sport like baseball over football cannot be successfull as a footballer nation anyway.
     
  23. Ricky_DCU

    Ricky_DCU New Member

    Feb 1, 2001
    Somerville, MA
    You just lumped the US in with Cuba, Venezuela, and Panama...what brilliantly accurate analysis! Yes, MIGkiller you have just proved that truly you know much more about soccer than us ignorant Americans.
     
  24. MIGkiller

    MIGkiller Member+

    Flamengo
    Brazil
    May 9, 2003
    Rio de Janeiro
    Club:
    Flamengo Rio Janeiro
    Nat'l Team:
    Brazil
    You've got me wrong. I said the US is not a successfull footballer nation. That's different from having a successfull football (which the US is already on progress).

    Can you safely state that the US as a nation is already taken by football, or will be in the future?
     
  25. Ricky_DCU

    Ricky_DCU New Member

    Feb 1, 2001
    Somerville, MA
    Of course the US will never be a "football nation" on par with the likes of the European or South American nations- it will never been a nationwide obsession here. No sport, even basketball or American football is that big here in the States.

    But I think it is folly to compare our potential or even current "football nation" status to Cuba or Venezuela or Panama. The fact is, we have a professional league that is far better than anything those countries can offer in any aspect. And it will only get better- in quality of football and popularity.
     

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