It will face the first leg of the 2025 Gold Cup preliminaries there.
The players and coaching staff of the Cuban senior national football team arrived on Tuesday afternoon in St. Kitts and Nevis, the venue for the first of two matches in which they will face the local national team as part of the preliminaries for the 2025 Gold Cup.
They were met at the Vance W. Amory International Airport by the ambassador of the Republic of Cuba in this country, David Rivero Perez, who offered a warm welcome and was attentive to the needs of the team from the Greater Antilles.
After settling into the hotel that will host them during their stay on the small Caribbean island, they began to recover from their journey here, and once settled, the hard work of the doctor and physiotherapist began in order to lighten the load so that the players would be ready for training on Wednesday.
The optimism with which they face the play-in phase in their quest to qualify for CONCACAF’s elite tournament is evident: in the context of the reunion of the selected players, there was a good atmosphere and the joy of having players such as Yosel Piedra and Luis Javier Paradela back from injury.
However, it also transpired that the team’s technical director will not be able to count on the services of goalkeeper Raico Arozarena, who preferred to remain with his club, Las Vegas Lights, who play in the USL Championship, the second division of US football, and not attend this important match with the Tricolour. The decision was communicated at the last minute, with no time to make up for his absence, but the high command of the Lions of the Caribbean showed confidence in the other two goalkeepers called up.
«We know he is ready to do the job and we have no doubt that he can do it at a good level,» Yunielys Castillo told JIT. The first leg between the two sides will take place on Thursday 14 and the second leg on Monday 18 at the Antonio Maceo stadium in Santiago de Cuba, where the hosts are unbeaten since it became their home for international matches.
