They number five.
Four male.
One female.
All are outlaws.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines may be levied.
10 years of jail time may be served.
This is the penalty one may face for acting in direct opposition to the U.S. State department.
But, they didn't care.
They wore masks, much like the bandits of old westerns... hiding their faces behind bandannas so that they may not be readily identified.
It may have been the single most defiant action in American fan culture.
And it was a beautiful sight.
THE CONTEXT
A brief history lesson that most should know, but may work as a refresher for those who have forgotten:
In 1959, Fidel Castro overthrew the Fulgenico Batista's essentially dictatorial Cuban government.
The United States enjoyed the Batista government.
American business and influence flourished within Cuba (often the gambling industry, if you ever saw the Godfather) while Cuban exports, mainly sugar (the majority of which were owned by American entrepreneurs), sold to American businesses aplenty.
The Castro government? Not so much. Communists were the bad guys. Castro was a Communist. American and Cuban relations became icy.
American business interests were seized, assets were liquidated and Uncle Sam's presence in the land of Jose Contreras was reduced to the absolute value of zero.
The United States stopped buying Cuban sugar, providing resources to the island, and laid out an extensive travel embargo.
Nearly forty years later, these sanctions remain intact.
THE CUBAN SOCCER RENAISSANCE (kind of)
Baseball has always been at the heart of Cuban sports fans, while Cuba has also produced an impressive assortment of boxers... soccer, on the other hand, has had very little influence on Cuban society.
The Cuban national soccer team has only participated in one World Cup, a second round exit in 1938.
Since that span, Cuba has rarely reached the final phase of CONCACAF (a really long acronym for the governing soccer association of North/Central American and the Caribbean) on only the rarest of occasion, never having reached the promise land of the World Cup.
In recent years, however, Cuba has had some respectable showings, often overshadowed by mass defections of talent.
In 2006, Cuba finished in 4th place in the CONCACAF Gold Cup (losing two players to defections, including rimsing MLS star Maykel Galindo).
This year, Cuba has already surpassed the mark that they reached four years ago.
By the grace of wonderful luck, Cuba was drawn into the same group as the United States.
Simply put, the USA does not play in Cuba more than once every, say, 20 years.
On Saturday, September 6th, it was "once."
THE FIVE
Being a U.S. soccer fan isn't an easy endeavour. Highlights are not shown on the 10 o'clock news. Games aren't given any attention outside of the World Cup and a ten second sample on Sports Center.
Much like any other sport, the best way to view it is with other passionate fans.
With soccer, you have to do a little bit of searching.
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2 months ago
Great article, Stephen! I certainly hope they don't end up getting caught and facing jail time. Seems to me that all they were doing was supporting their country! Five stars and POTD.
2 months ago
great article man. Hopefully this will turn out right.
2 months ago
thanks guys... if you want to read more, go to www.fannation.com and search for Grant Wahl... he runs a blog and caught up with them for an interview. i was going to lift some quotes, but it got late and i was getting tired :x
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