Cuba running low on soccer players

[rpannier]

Cuba's under-23 soccer team was left with only 10 players on the field this week (for American readers: that's one less than normal) after seven defected during an Olympic qualifying tournament in Tampa, Florida. Five players initially made a run for it during a team meal on Tuesday night, telling a Spanish-language TV station that they hoped to play professional soccer in the United States. Then two more players defected before a game against Honduras yesterday, leaving Cuba with a team of 10 and no substitutes. While I'm certainly happy for the defectors and wish them luck, you've got to give the remaining team some credit for soldiering on shorthanded and holding Honduras scoreless for the first half before going down 2-0 in the second. They play again against Panama on Saturday. If Kevin Costner wanted to start a second career in communist propaganda films, he could find worse material.

link:
http://www.reuters.com/article/blogBurst/topNews?type=topNews&w1=B7ovpm21IaDoL40ZFnNfGe&w2=B9KobpniDQffCOR77fHrDXw&src=blogBurst_topNews&bbPostId=CzCddheCZ2nE3AOaGPwjmKjOB3mrkfoTHrkCB8BZJM3xneSL&bbParentWidgetId=B7qp5dlHYnIr2YRoUoOjnxK

[BlooInBloo]

1. Wow. I thought they threatened their families and stuff to prevent that.

[palomitto]

2. Caribbean countries are not known for their love of soccer

The king sport in the islands is baseball. Basketball is very popular in the Dominican Republican and Puerto Rico as well.