Roundup: Cuba and U.S. brought closer by sports

The New York Cosmos are expected to arrive on Cuba on Sunday, which will mark the first American professional team to play on the Caribbean island in 16 years.

The team will also be the first to do so since both governments announced the process of restoring diplomatic ties on December 17 last year.

The Cosmos will take on the Cuban national team in a friendly on June 2.

The U.S. team plays in the North American Soccer League, roughly equivalent to the "second division" in other countries.

The Cosmos will bring legendary Spaniards Raul Gonzalez and Marcos Senna, as well as a number of players from Central and South America.

Pele, who played with the Cosmos for three years and retired in 1977, is also expected to arrive on the island, along with the American team.

The Cosmos are remaking the visit the Chicago Stings made in 1978 to Havana, where they beat the Cuban national team 2-1.

Back then, the Chicago Stings were the first professional team to play in the island since June 1960.

Last April, an NBA all-star team went to Cuba for a training session that lasted four days.

Steve Nash, recently retired star and twice MVP winner, managed the sports practice.

President of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation, Antonio Becali, announced days ago that the Cuban national baseball team will face the Baltimore Orioles in Havana.

"It's almost a certainty that a (Orioles) team will come," said Becali, though a date has not yet been set.

The Baltimore team beat Cuba 3-2 in Havana on March 28, 1999. It was the first match of a professional baseball team on the island since the government banned commercial sport in Cuba in 1962.

The Cuban national team played away in May 3, 1999 and shook the loss off by beating the Orioles 12-6 at their own stadium.

More games against the Major League Baseball may be on the cards since more teams "intend to face Cuban teams" this year, said Becali, which Rob Manfred, new Commissioner of Baseball, confirmed through their website. He stated the possibility of matches against Cuban teams for next year.

Professional American baseball teams used to be frequent visitors to Cuba, like the Brooklyn Dodgers who held their first spring training on the island in the late 1940s.

The New York Yankees did the same thing in late 1950.

The last American team to play in Cuba was the Rochester Red Wings of the Triple A League in 1960, one year before the start of the U.S. embargo with the island.

At that time, the International League, of which the Red Wings were members, had a team in Cuba called the Havana Sugar Kings. Endit