Legendary US team to visit southern neighbor in June for friendly clash

The coaches of the New York Cosmos and Cuba's national soccer team jointly announced on Monday they will play a June 2 match in Havana.

The announcement comes amid talks by Washington and Havana to work toward the restoration of diplomatic relations between the former Cold War foes. The Cuban and Cosmos teams conducted their own negotiations in January, during a CONCACAF Under-20 tournament in Jamaica.

"Everything happened very quickly," Cosmos president Seamus O'Brien said of the match, which both sides call an act of sports diplomacy. "Everything was done in a couple of weeks."

The Cosmos will be the first professional US soccer club to play on the island in 37 years. The now-defunct professional Chicago Sting played in Cuba in 1978 while the amateur US national team played a World Cup qualifier on the island in 2008.

The Cosmos roster is a far cry from its 1970s heyday when Pele, Giorgio Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer starred for the squad. The team comes off a 2-2 draw in Hong Kong last month against a South China squad and a 1-0 loss on Saturday to club side FAS in El Salvador.

"When I was told that there was a chance of facing the Cosmos, I quickly said 'yes', because I was aware of this club, their history, their prestige," Walter Benitez, Cuba's coach, said at a media conference. "Now I realize this is bigger than I figured."

The Cosmos compete in the second-tier North American Soccer League. The team's roster includes Raul Gonzalez, a longtime star with Spain's national team and club powerhouse Real Madrid. Pele, Chinaglia and Beckenbauer, at the twilight of their careers, played with the team during its heyday in the late 1970s and early '80s.

The announcement follows the Dec 17 declaration by both governments that they would negotiate the restoration of relations severed after the 1959 Cuban revolution.

US Rep Charles Rangel, a Democrat who is a critic of the American trade embargo against Cuba, praised the match. He was in Havana when presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro announced they would work toward restored relations.

"There were two things that all the Cubans said that they loved about the US: One was sports and the other was every other damn thing," Rangel said.

At the media conference, a video was shown of the 1971 trip by US ping pong players to China that was credited in helping revive diplomatic ties between those countries.

Cosmos coach Giovanni Savarese said the team "historically has been a soccer ambassador" and said Cuba will be the 42nd country the team has visited.

"We're definitely excited for this opportunity. It's a historic moment," Savarese said. "It will be a great match to bring people together."

For the Cuban team, the match will also be a tuneup for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers and the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the US in July.

Sports exchanges between Cuba and the US have increased in recent years, including several visits by US college baseball players.