Cuban TV confirms defection of 2 booters

Cuban TV on Saturday confirmed the defection in Washington of two members of the national soccer team (see previous blog item). "Cuban footballers Reynier Alcántara and Pedro Faife betrayed the unity of their select team and gave in to the temptations of the empire's money, and for that reason abandoned the national team," said a newscaster in the first reference made by the Cuban media to the defection. "As always, the team will go out to defend the colors of the national flag, rising above the traitors' mud," he went on. Also before the game, the Cuban News Agency announced that Faife and Alcántara "betrayed their motherland and abandoned the team."
Before leaving Havana for Washington, striker Leonel Duarte told the German news agency DPA that he didn't expect any defections. "All of us going there are revolutionaries and believe in the Cuban revolution [...] it may be that people will approach us and try to bribe us, blackmail us, put added pressure on us, but we're going there only to play football," Duarte told DPA.
Coach Reinhold Fanz did not sound as optimistic at the time: "I hope everybody will return, because the players see that we're moving ahead," he told DPA. "We have worked hard and well and, except for the results, which unfortunately have not been in our favor, I believe the players see that we're moving ahead." [UPDATE: Faife is with relatives in Orlando. Details in The Herald. For an interview with Alcántara, click here.]
---Renato Pérez Pizarro.