Cuba national football team

Early history

Cuba played its first international football match on 16 March 1930 at that year's Central American and Caribbean Games. They beat Jamaica (then a British colony) 3–1 in Havana. Four days later they beat Honduras 7–0.^[2] Cuba were managed by José Tapia, who remained in charge until after Cuba's 1938 FIFA World Cup campaign. Cuba's first World Cup qualification campaign was for the 1934 FIFA World Cup in Italy. All of the CONCACAF entrants were placed in Group 11. The winner of a best-of-three tournament between the two weakest nations, Cuba and Haiti would produce a winner to play 1930 qualifiers Mexico in another round of best-of-three. The winner of that would play 1930 semi-finalists the United States of America for a place in the finals. All of the matches between Cuba and Haiti in the first round were staged at Parc Leconte in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on 28, 1 and 4 January February 1934. Cuba won the first match 3–1 with Mario Lopez opening from a penalty and Hector Socorro scoring the second. The second match was a 1–1 draw with Lopez equalising in the 85th minute. In the final match Cuba won 6–0 with two Lopez goals, one from Hector Socorro and one from his brother Francisco. The second round against Mexico consisted of three matches at Parque Necaxa in Mexico City. Its first match, on 4 March 1934, saw Mexico go 3–0 up with a hat-trick by Dionisio Mejia, his goals scored in the 12th, 14th and 16th minutes. Mario Lopez scored twice for Cuba with one in each half, but Mexico won 3–2. A week later Mejia scored another hat-trick as Mexico won 5–0, and seven days later Mexico won 4–1 after Lopez opened the scoring in the 15th minute. Mexico did not qualify, their 4–2 play-off defeat to the United States was held in Rome during the finals, as the two teams had forgotten to stage it earlier

1938–2000

The decision to stage the 1938 World Cup in France was poorly received in the Americas, who had hoped for it to return to South America after the 1934 World Cup in Italy. All nations in South America except Brazil withdrew, and all CONCACAF nations except Cuba, thus the two qualified by default. The tournament was held as a straight knock-out tournament of 16 nations. Cuba were drawn to play their first-ever World Cup finals match against Romania (who were making their third finals appearance) at Stade Chapou in Toulouse, on 5 June 1938. Silviu Bindea put Romania ahead after 35 minutes and Hector Socorro equalised nine minutes later. With three minutes remaining Tomas Fernandez gave Cuba the lead, but within a minute Iuliu Baratky forced extra time with a Romanian equaliser. Romania went 3–2 up in extra-time by Stefan Dobay's goal on 105 minutes, but Juan Tuñas equalised for Cuba with three minutes of extra-time remaining. The replay was held at the same stadium, on 9 June. This was at the same time as Switzerland's 4–2 replay win over Germany. Dobay put Romania 1–0 up at half-time with a 35th-minute goal, but in the second half Cuba equalised through Socorro in the 51st minute. Six minutes later, Carlos Oliviera scored the winning goal and it ended 2–1. In the quarter-final Cuba lost 8–0 to Sweden at Stade du Fort Carre in Antibes, on 12 June. Sweden's Tore Keller and Gustav Wetterstrom each scored hat-tricks.^[3]

The NAFC Championship 1949 served as CONCACAF's qualification group for the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Cuba, the United States of America and Mexico played each other twice in a tournament held in Mexico City in September 1949. The top two would qualify. Cuba came third and did not qualify, their only point was gained from their second match, a 1–1 draw against the United States on 14 September. Cuba did not compete in World Cup qualification again until 1966. They returned to participation in qualification for 1978, but the 1982 qualifiers represented a significant breakthrough- Cuba reached the final round of qualifying, and were only 2 points short of reaching the 1982 World Cup. In recent years, Cuban football has seen an improvement in results.

2000–present

They reached the Quarter-finals of the 2003 Gold Cup (where they were beaten by the USA) by defeating Canada 2–0 in the Group Stage. During the 2006 World Cup qualifiers Cuba faced Costa Rica and were only eliminated on away goals. They held Costa Rica to a draw in Havana 2–2 and later battled it out for a 1–1 draw in Costa Rica. During the 2010 World Cup qualifiers Cuba faced Antigua & Barbuda and drew 3–3 against Antigua & Barbuda. Later in Pedro Marreo Cuba won 4–1 to advance to the semifinal round of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers. Cuba was with United States, Trinidad & Tobago and Guatemala. Cuba finished in the fourth place with only a victory against Guatemala 2–1 with a goal scored by Aliannis Urgellés. They finished in third place in the Caribbean Cup 2010 to take a place in Gold Cup 2011. In 2012 Cuba won the Caribbean Cup for the first time.

For the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Cuban team qualified directly to the Third Round as one of the six highest ranked teams and were placed in Group C with Honduras, Panama, and Canada. Although the Cuban team had several close games, they ended their qualification process with 1 draw and 5 defeats (losing home and away to Canada and Honduras and drawing to Panama in Havana in their final game after losing in Panama City). Their only goal of the qualifying campaign came from Alberto Gomes against Panama in the final game of the group stage.

World Cup record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1930	Did not enter
1934	Did not qualify
1938	Quarter-finals	8th	3	1	1	1	5	12
1950	Did not qualify
1954	Entry not accepted[4]
1958	Did not enter
1962
1966	Did not qualify
1970	Entry not accepted[4]
1974	Did not enter
1978	Did not qualify
1982
1986	Did not enter
1990	Did not qualify
1994	Withdrew
1998	Did not qualify
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022	To be determined
2026
Total	Quarter-finals	1/21	3	1	1	1	5	12

Cuba's World Cup record
First Match	Cuba 3–3 Romania  ( 5 June 1938; Toulouse, France)
Biggest Win	Cuba 2–1 Romania  ( 9 June 1938; Toulouse, France)
Biggest Defeat	Cuba 0–8 Sweden  ( 12 June 1938; Antibes, France)
Best Result	8th place at the 1938 FIFA World Cup
Worst Result	N/A

CONCACAF Championship/Gold Cup record

CONCACAF Championship
Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	T	L	GF	GA
1963	Did Not Enter
1965	Withdrew
1967	Did Not Qualify
1969	Did Not Enter
1971	Fourth Place	4th	5	1	2	2	5	7
1973	Did Not Enter
1977	Did Not Qualify
1981	Final Round	5th	5	1	2	2	4	8
1985	Did Not Enter
1989	Did Not Qualify
CONCACAF Gold Cup
1991	Withdrew
1993	Did Not Enter
1996	Did Not Qualify
1998	Group Stage	10th	2	0	0	2	2	10
2000	Did Not Qualify
2002	Group Stage	11th	2	0	1	1	0	1
2003	Quarter-Final	8th	3	1	0	2	2	8
2005	Group Stage	12th	3	0	0	3	3	9
2007	Group Stage	12th	3	0	1	2	3	9
2009	Withdrew
2011	Group Stage	12th	3	0	0	3	1	16
2013	Quarter-Final	8th	4	1	0	3	6	13
2015	Quarter-Final	8th	4	1	0	3	1	14
2017	Did Not Qualify
2019	To Be Determined
Total	10/24	13/27	34	5	6	23	27	95

NAFC Championship record

• 1947 – Runner-up
• 1949 – Third place

Caribbean Cup record

• 1989 – Did not enter
• 1990 – Did not enter
• 1991 – Withdrew
• 1992 – Fourth place
• 1993 – Did not enter
• 1994 – Withdrew
• 1995 – Third place
• 1996 – Second place
• 1997 – Did not enter
• 1998 – Did not qualify
• 1999 – Second place
• 2001 – Fourth place
• 2005 – Second place
• 2007 – Third place
• 2008 – Fourth place
• 2010 – Third place
• 2012 – Winners
• 2014 – Fourth place
• 2017 – Did not qualify

Current squad

The following 19 players were called up for the friendly match against Guatemala on 16 August 2018.

Caps and goals as of 25 March 2018 after the game against Nicaragua.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	1GK	Sandy Sánchez	(1994-05-24) 24 May 1994	5	0	Las Tunas
12	1GK	Elier Pozo	(1995-01-28) 28 January 1995	1	0	Pinar del Río
21	1GK	Nelson Johnston	(1990-02-25) 25 February 1990	1	0	Santiago de Cuba
2	2DF	Andy Baquero	(1994-08-17) 17 August 1994	13	0	Pinar del Río
3	2DF	Erick Rizo	(1991-02-28) 28 February 1991	2	0	Santiago de Cuba
4	2DF	Yasmany López	(1987-10-11) 11 October 1987	17	1	Ciego de Ávila
6	2DF	Yosel Piedra	(1994-03-27) 27 March 1994	8	0	Ciego de Ávila
8	2DF	Orisbel Leiva	(1990-09-14) 14 September 1990	5	1	Ciego de Ávila
15	2DF	Leonis Martínez	(1989-02-03) 3 February 1989	2	0	Santiago de Cuba
19	2DF	Jorge Kindelán	(1986-04-12) 12 April 1986	0	0	Santiago de Cuba
23	2DF	José Almelo	(1996-06-03) 3 June 1996	0	0	Pinar del Río
7	3MF	Rolando Abreu	(1992-05-15) 15 May 1992	2	0	Santiago de Cuba
11	3MF	Yordan Santa Cruz	(1993-10-07) 7 October 1993	5	2	Santiago de Cuba
14	3MF	Neiser Sandó	(1998-10-26) 26 October 1998	1	0	Santiago de Cuba
20	3MF	Luismel Morris	(1997-12-14) 14 December 1997	2	0	Camagüey
22	3MF	Roberney Caballero	(1995-11-02) 2 November 1995	3	0	Camagüey
13	4FW	Eddie Gelkis	(1991-03-26) 26 March 1991	17	1	Santiago de Cuba
17	4FW	Allan Pérez	(1996-07-19) 19 July 1996	2	0	Ciego de Ávila
18	4FW	Reinaldo Pérez	(1987-10-11) 11 October 1987	2	0	Pinar del Río

Previous squads