Cuban Soccer Players 'Vanish' in Canada

The Global and Mail

Even so far as coaching figures go, the man in blue cast a lonely shadow during Canada’s 3-0 win on Friday night.

Already out of the World Cup, having failed to score a single goal in its first four games in this round of qualifying, Alexander Gonzalez had brought his Cuban team to Canada to fulfill its penultimate fixture before bowing out of the tournament for another four years.

But while they landed in Toronto with a complement of 15 players, by the time Friday’s game rolled around their numbers had diminished by four, leaving Gonzalez with just enough players to send a full team onto the pitch. So much for the idea of a first 11.

Rumours of defections to the United States swirled, with Twitter reports claiming that six or seven players had been stopped at the Niagara crossing on Thursday night “fleeing for their lives.”

The former Cuban national team player wanted to focus on the game rather that the whereabouts of the missing players, but when pressed after the defeat blamed world governing body FIFA for his predicament.

“As with any Cuban sports team that travels around the world, they’re all chasing the American dream and for the team to try to keep the team together it’s difficult,” he said afterwards through a translator. “If FIFA would allow these players to play in other leagues perhaps this wouldn’t happen in the future.”

Whether that ever happens remains to be seen. But on Friday night at Toronto’s BMO Field, Gonzalez was left in the embarrassing position of having to leave his substitutes list blank when he handed in his team sheet, praying that injuries or ejections wouldn’t leave his side shorthanded, and closer to the limit of a seven-player minimum for a match to go ahead. More >>