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The visit of a US Club will benefit Cuban soccer

Xinhua, March 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

The vice-president of the Cuban Association of Soccer (AFC), Antonio Garces, said the visit of the American club Cosmos to hold a friendly encounter against the local selection will benefit the development of national soccer.

"The visit will be very beneficial..., it is a step in advance, because it could open the road for other teams in the future, interested in coming for friendly games," said Garces, as cited by Radio Havana Cuba on Wednesday.

The famous US team is scheduled to meet the Cuban selection on June 2 at the stadium Pedro Marrero in Havana.

Garces highlighted that the Cosmos is a club with a lot of history in the American soccer, counting in older times with legends as the Brazilian Edson Arantes do Nascimento "Pele" and the German Franz Beckenbauer.

Cosmos comes to Cuba with its entire crew, including its captain Raul Gonzalez, former captain of the Spanish national team and of Real Madrid.

The US national selection played in Cuba in 2008 in the preliminary phase for the World Cup, but an American professional club has not visited the island in 37 years, cleared out Garces.

The Chicago Sting has been the only US club to visit Cuba after the triumph of the Revolution, in 1978, clashing with the national team, he recalled.

This match is the first sport meeting between Cuba and the United States after both countries began on December 17 a process to restore diplomatic ties, broken since January 1961. Endi