The Cuban men’s basketball team will make its debut today against the United States in the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) qualifying tournament for the AmeriCup 2025, to be held at the Alexis Argüello Sports Center in Managua, Nicaragua, from August 23 to 31.

The Cuban team will make its debut as a visitor against the Americans at the Silver Spur Arena, located in Osceola County, Florida, in a game that will start at 7:10 p.m. local time, the same time here on the island.

For that duel, the Caribbean nation’s team will only have eight players, due to the absence of Howard Sant Roos and Yoanki Mencia, for situations related to their documentation, together with those of Pedro Bombino and Marcos Chacon, as confirmed by Dalia Henry, president of the Cuban Federation of that sport.

In the case of the latter two athletes, contracted in the Argentine league, they were denied visas to enter the US.

Cuba is part of Group D along with their similar teams from the United States, Puerto Rico and Bahamas, which they will face twice under the home-and-away format during three windows, to be held this month and in November of this year, and then in February 2025.

After their debut this Thursday, the basketball players of the largest of the Antilles will host the U.S. team at the Ciudad Deportiva coliseum in the capital on Sunday 25.

In that second game, the four players mentioned above will be able to be present to help the national team, led by Jasiel Rivero, who has been playing for Maccabi Haifa, Israel, since this season.

For the FIBA AmeriCup 2025 Nicaragua will automatically qualify as host, and the remaining top two teams in Group C (Canada, Dominican Republic and Mexico) will take the other two places in the continental tournament.

Likewise, the top three teams from the A (Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela), B (Brazil, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay) and D groups will also secure their ticket to that competition, with a total of 12 qualified teams.