The Cuban soccer team they fell this Sunday by a 3-0 win against their similar team from Chile, in a match in which the island’s eleven could do little against a much superior rival on the pitch.
Although without its main figures, La Roja largely dominated the island and revealed the footballing limitations of the Antillean team that, moreover, also had several important absences due to injury.
Playing as a local at the Ester Roa Rebolledo stadium, in the city of Concepción, Chile opted mainly for young figures and the local league to face the Cubans, as part of the renovation process carried out by coach Eduardo “el Toto” Berizzo .
And although the host team did not exactly have a brilliant game, it was enough to comfortably overcome a Cuba that hardly disturbed the goal defended by Cristóbal Campos.
Marcelino Núñez, English Norwich City teammate of Onel Hernández now absent in Cuba, opened the scoring at minute 13 with a powerful right foot, after taking a corner kick naively defended by the Cubans.
The Chileans doubled the advantage at 29′, thanks to a header from defender Rodrigo Echevarría, in another set piece play. And already in the second half, they put definitive figures with the second goal by Núñez, at minute 69, after several touches by the Chileans in the Cuban area.
In general, it was a poor staging of the Cuban team, in which the shortcomings of their game and the inexperience of their players against important rivals came to light.
“This result forces us to make specific assessments of the direction in which work should be done. But we take advantage of it for the Gold Cup, which is our main objective”, Cuban coach Pablo Elier Sánchez commented at the end of the game.
“We have made readings, not only of the collective functioning, but of the individual performance of some players of whom we needed to have an evaluation,” added the island’s strategist, aforementioned by the digital site Hit.
For his part, Berizzo pointed out: “We set out to touch the ball and arrive with clear options, in addition, our recoverers had the job of not letting the opponent touch, because we know that on the counters they could do damage and I think we achieved it”.
“In the second half we had fewer chances to touch, but we still generated chances. Beyond the rival and the result, I think the cap was very productive”, added the Argentine coach of La Roja.
After this defeat, Cuba will face another rival with a lot of history and quality on the 20th: Uruguay. It will do so in Montevideo, as part of the preparation of the island’s senior team for the Gold Cup.
This event will begin on June 24 in the United States and Cuba will be part of group D, along with Canada, Guatemala and a team yet to be defined. However, as confirmed days ago by executives of this sport on the island, They still don’t have the visas to participate in the maximum tournament of the Confederation of North America, Central America and the Caribbean of Soccer (Concacaf).
