The Cuban Football Association announced this Sunday the call for 23 players for the matches that the senior team will play against Chile and Uruguay on the upcoming FIFA date, prior to the 2023 Gold Cup in the United States.
The squad led by Pablo Elier Sánchez is made up of 19 soccer players hired abroad and 4 players who are playing in the National Championship, who will have a great opportunity to get started against two of the highest level and most traditional squads in South America.
official call#Let’s go Lions pic.twitter.com/GZZmHKdhUb
— Cuban Football Association (@AFCuba_Official) June 4, 2023
Sandy Sánchez (Atlético Pantoja/Dominican Republic), Raiko Arozarena (Tampa Bay Rowdies/United States) and Nelson Johnston (Jicaral/Costa Rica) will be the goalkeepers of the team, which in defense will have the return of the experienced left back Jorge Luis Corrales ( FC Tulsa/United States), absent from the last calls.
Corrales will be accompanied in the rear by fellow internationals Yosel Piedra (San Carlos/Costa Rica), Cavafe (FC Dornbirn/Austria), Modesto Méndez (Inter Miami II/United States), Dariel Morejón (Santa Ana/Costa Rica), Mario Peñalver (Deportivo Mixco/Guatemala) and Greibel Palma (Cienfuegos).
The midfielders will be Yunior Pérez (Santa Lucía/Guatemala), William Pozo (KTP Kotka/Finland), Romario Torres (Nacional/Uruguay), Denilson Milanés (Consultants/Costa Rica), Eduardo Hernández (Santiago de Cuba), Neisser Sandó (Cienfuegos ), Roberney Caballero (Havana) and captain Aricheell Hernández (Deportivo Mixco/Guatemala).
This is one of the lines that generates the most uncertainty for Cuba towards the Gold Cup, since they lost 2 important pillars due to injury, such as Dairon Reyes and Karel Espino, regular starters in Pablo Elier’s schemes.
As for the attack, the Cuban high command opted for 5 men with experience in professional circuits: Luis Paradela (Saprissa (Costa Rica), Yasnier Matos (Municipal/Guatemala), Maykel Reyes (Jalapa/Nicaragua), Daniel Díaz (San Carlos /Costa Rica) and rookie Aldair Ruiz (Lynx FC/Gibraltar).
In their South American mini tour, Cuba will face Chile on June 11 at the Ester Roa Rebolledo stadium in Concepción, and on the 20th they will collide with Uruguay at the Montevideo Centennial.
⚽ ́ DE #The Red for matches against Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia
This is the list of players who will work for Juan Pinto Durán under the command of the coaching staff led by Eduardo Berizzo, ahead of the preparatory matches in June.#VamosLaRoja pic.twitter.com/fR8jd8HHSd
– Chilean National Team (@LaRoja) June 2, 2023
The Chileans, led by the Argentine coach Eduardo Berizzo, present on their roster the highly experienced Arturo Vidal, Alexis Sánchez and Gary Medel, 3 of the pillars of La Roja, two-time Copa América champions.
For its part, the Uruguayan team has many new faces in the first call of the stellar coach Marcelo Bielsa, who will live his debut with the sky-blue. However, the Argentine coach has called up some Qatar 2022 World Cup players such as goalkeeper Sergio Rochet, defenders Guillermo Varela, José Luis Rodríguez and Matías Viña, midfielder Matías Vecino and attackers Facundo Torres and Facundo Pellistri.
