There’s an air of curiosity rather than tension in the U.S. national team camp as it prepares for Saturday’s World Cup qualifier in Cuba, its first visit to the island for 61 years. Eddie Lewis and Landon Donovan sound more like schoolboys about to go on their first student exchange.
“Being in England for so long, I knew quite a few Brits who went to Cuba because they’re allowed and they spoke very highly of it from a tourist standpoint,” Lewis told Michelle Kaufman. “It’ll be a good trip, an interesting trip. Obviously, it’s unique as an American. But first and foremost, it’s a qualifier for us. We’re not quite tourists. It’s a business trip. The main thing we’ll see is the hotel and the stadium.”
Donovan tried to emphasize the importance of the game too, but couldn’t help pondering the unknown. “It’s in the Caribbean, so I’m sure it’s pretty,” he speculated, “and it will be interesting to see what it’s really like. The Cubans I’ve met have been very nice, very polite. Maybe I’m naive, but I’m thinking it’s going to be a fun experience. At the end of the day, it’s still a soccer game and once you’re on the field, it’s not really any different.”
The lack of traveling fans in the stadium (capacity: 28,000) would be no different to any other road qualifier, Donovan said. “All these places we go, we don’t ever have fans there anyway. If anything, we have 10 or 20 people. That’s the way it goes for our team. I don’t think many people know what it’s like, what we go through to get to the World Cup. But I wouldn’t change it for anything. It’s a fun process and it makes us better in the end.”