Pablo Elier Sanchez
Havana, June 1 ( ACN)-- Technical director Pablo Elier Sanchez announced the 22-player roster with which the Cuban senior national soccer team will face Guadeloupe on Thursday, at the start of the CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) Nations League.
The goalkeepers are Sandy Sánchez, Nelson Johnston and Elier Pozo, while Carlos Vázquez, Yosel Piedra, Jorge Luis Corrales, Dariel Morejón, Yunior Yuri, Darío Ramos, Osniel Ramos and Nuñez will serve as defenders.
Pablo Elier and his coaching staff chose Karel Espino, Davide Fabricio Incerti, Dayron Reyes, Arichel Hernández, Rolando Abreu, Yasiel Matos and William Pozo as midfielders.
Forwards are Onel Hernández, Luis Javier Paradela, Naykel Reyes and Artemio's debutant Yasnay Rivero, who was the leading scorer in the recently concluded Apertura Tournament of Cuban soccer.
The outstanding striker from the capital, Marcel Hernández, who was called up but decided not to be in the squad for this occasion, is not included in the list.
This group includes players who have played in World Cup qualifiers and in the last FIFA dates. Many of them play in foreign leagues and the others have had excellent performances in the domestic tournament, so I think we are in a position to qualify for the Gold Cup and improve our level in this Nations League, the coach told the Cuban News Agency (Agencia Cubana de Noticias).
Namely, the Lions of the Caribbean were placed in Group A of League B along with Guadeloupe, Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda; the main objective is to advance to League A, for which it is necessary to be in first place in this key.
For this group stage, the 41 Concacaf men's teams have been divided into three Leagues (A, B and C) according to the results of similar stage in the first edition played in 2019 -then postponed due to the COVID-19 issue- including a promotion and relegation system (the last team of each key is relegated and the best is promoted).
The Cuban national team left on Tuesday for Guadeloupe to play at the René Serge Nabajoth Stadium.
In the competitive calendar, after that debut they will face Barbados on June 5 at the Antonio Maceo synthetic field in Santiago de Cuba.
Cuba will then visit Antigua and Barbuda on June 9, with the second leg taking place three days later on foreign soil.
Once this battle of four matches in just 11 days is over, the Nations League will stop for 10 months; upon its return, Cuba will visit Barbados on March 23, and then conclude its action on March 26 against Guadeloupe at the Santiago stadium.
