• Submitted by: admin
• Sports
• 06 / 11 / 2010

Rafael Arguelles and other former standout Cuban players will face a Rest of the World squad in an emotional match at Tropical Park.

Nearly 40 years since he played for South Florida's first professional soccer franchise, Rafael Arguelles considers it important to lace the boots again for an emotional match Friday night.

Arguelles will represent an exiled Cuban All-Star team that will play a select squad of players representing the Rest of the World in an exhibition match at Tropical Park.

The event -- "Soccer Among Friends'' -- will help commemorate a century of Cuban soccer.

"This is a beautiful occasion, it has made me live again as a player,'' said Arguelles, 63. "I never thought this would ever happen. What matters most is that we are going to have a good time.''

The match is the brainchild of South Florida-based sportswriter and sportscaster Omar Claro. A native of Cuba, Claro is also ithe author of Pasion por el Cuero or Passion for the Leather. Written in Spanish, the book chronicles the origins of Cuban soccer in the early 20th century through the present.

"When I began to write the book, it dawned on me, why not bring together a group of players together for a game,'' Claro said. "We had a handful of players in the first practice and now we are close to 40.''

Claro's book details Cuba's first reported soccer match on Dec. 11, 1911, featuring Hatuey, a squad of native Cubans and Spaniards, against Roberts, which consisted of British citizens living on the island.

A chapter of the book also is dedicated to the Cuban national team that played in the 1938 World Cup -- the country's lone World Cup qualifier.

Another section covers Cuba's player-link to U.S. professional leagues. Pito Villalon played in the American Soccer League during the late 1940s and 1950s, and Maykel Galindo is currently a forward with Chivas USA of Major League Soccer.

Between Villalon and Galindo was Arguelles. In 1972, Arguelles signed with the North American Soccer League's Miami Gatos, which a year later became the Miami Toros.

Source: www.miamiherald.com/