HAVANA -- The visitors may have come out the winners, 2-0, after Friday’s friendly match between the US and Cuba, the first on Cuban soil since 1947. But the home side at Havana’s Pedro Marrero Stadium boasted enough to be proud of.
First, naturally, there was the fact that a crowd of thousands – though they didn’t fill up the stadium – turned out at all in what’s historically a baseball country. (One reason for some empty seats in the stands, naturally, was a 4 pm start time on a workday.)
But despite that sporting history, anyone looking for the growth of Cuban soccer culture had only to glance at the crowds buying paper tubes of peanuts outside the stadium, or crowding through its rusting metal entry gates. Messi, Ronaldo, and Neymar Jr. jerseys abounded, naturally. But in the stands, too, there was at least one Mario Gotze Germany jersey, and, yes, a David Villa one too – the NYCFC version.
This guy just called his snack-selling enterprise “Real Madrid,” because sure, why not?
The Cuban side didn’t make it a cakewalk for the USMNT either. Forget recent scorelines like the 7-0 World Cup qualifying match in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for instance. Instead, the Cubans played a tough and physical game from the start, holding the US to a 0-0 for a good 62 minutes, when Chris Wondolowski finally opened the scoring.
That first half, especially, proved hopeful for Raul Mederos, the Cuban national team’s head coach, who addressed press with a stoic face, and in lightning-speed Spanish, after the match. “I told the guys this morning, the most important thing was for us to get out there,” he said. “It’s a football friendly.… and if the greater result is that we have a stronger relationship [between the countries], then all the better.”
The day’s fairly brutal physical conditions may have given the Cubans an advantage in the first half, Mederos acknowledged. The day brought “real-feel” temperatures of more than 90 degrees, with a humidity index of around 67 percent. Direct sunlight could basically poach exposed skin, and scattered showers punctuated the proceedings.
And both the USMNT’s Chris Wondolowski and Julian Green noted the condition of the pitch in their post-game remarks. Head coach Jurgen Klinsmann put it more bluntly, calling it “unplayable” in his own press conference.
“The large majority of fields they have in their country are of much higher quality than ours,” Mederos said. “In reality, we’re used to this kind of field. Obviously it was a factor.”
Beyond that, though, Mederos said he felt comfortable he had presented a squad stronger than one the world might have seen during the 2015 Gold Cup. “The state of our football is improving,” he said. “I think that yes, we can do important things. I think if we keep getting out there, then our players can get in even better condition. That’s how we’re going to keep moving forward.”
Perhaps part of that moving forward could include their own visit to the US for a friendly. “For us, there’s no question. We’d love to go there for a match,” he said. “Everything depends on the mood between our countries, and then we’ll see.”
