2024-01-02 23:18:55
Foto: RL Hevia
Text: Raúl del Pino
World sport will be happy in 2024, with a luxury calendar where, of course, the Paris Olympic Games steal the show and Cuba will not be immune to that party. But the great event under the five rings will not be the only event that captures the attention of the planet, since they will also celebrate the two most important soccer competitions after the FIFA World Cup.
We will get there in due time, because first we will take a look at some key moments marked in the almanac for the Caribbean island beyond the French capital, in which the objective will be similar to that of Tokyo in 2021, as we reviewed in Cuba Noticias 360 recently.
At the level of collective disciplines, two competitions emerge as the best dishes to taste. In the first instance, volleyball lovers will be able to enjoy the Nations League, a competition to which the Antillean men’s team made the leap in 2023 and managed to maintain the category for the current year.
However, the incentive for the future edition of this competition that emerged in 2018 in place of the old World League, is not to face the best teams in the world, but to secure one of the five Olympic places that will be distributed to the best placed teams in the world. the universal ranking once the preliminary phase is over. Let’s hope that between May 21 and June 30, Cuba manages to bring together all its troops in foreign leagues, as it has tried to do in the last calls.
Baseball will also have that same mission before the end of the year, with Paris 2024 already in the memory, when the team with the four letters will be present in the third Premier 12 tournament. However, it is still early to know if the Cuban Federation Baseball will once again call the so-called legionnaires, just like for the V World Classic. Cross our fingers.
The WBSC intends to consolidate this contest, whose venues this year will be Japan and Taipei, China, as the second most important on its agenda and to do so it needs as many stars as possible to attend. For Cuba, finishing on the podium would be received as a success after the notorious failures of the two previous participations.
In an Olympic year with few world events, athletics is the other sport that will catch the eyes of the island’s fans with the celebration of the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow and the World Relay Championships in the Bahamas.
All the qualifiers who will later compete in Paris must go to the Scottish city from March 1 to 3, including some who will arrive with medal options after what was seen at the World Cup in Budapest last August. The panorama of the relays is more complicated at the beginning of May, since this time the cream of the planet will participate, unlike the Poland 2021 edition, colored by the pandemic effect, in which Cuba celebrated a historic crown in the 4×400 meters.
READY THE PREMIER 12
After finishing the year located in the top 12 places in the world baseball ranking of the @WBSCMexico obtained the ticket to participate in the Premier 12 tournament, which will be held from November 10 to 24, and whose first phase has not yet defined a venue… pic.twitter.com/O2sm3qQZkK
— Beisbolpuro (@Beisbolpuro) December 19, 2023
Back on the international scene, just before the Olympic Games that will paralyze the world between July 26 and August 11, we will taste the other two sporting events that will focus media attention in 2024. As happened three years ago, the Lovers of the most universal of sports will be able to enjoy, almost simultaneously, the Copa América and the Euro Cup.
The first of these two feats to begin will be that of the Old Continent, which for the third time will do so with 24 contenders. On June 14, in the majestic Allianz Arena, the elevens of Germany and Scotland will hear the opening whistle of the competition that exactly one month later, on July 14, will experience the grand final of its seventeenth edition in Berlin.
The runner-up of the world France starts as the big favorite, but in Europe you always have to count on other heavyweights of the caliber of, first of all, the defending champion Italy, or the host Germany itself, although in recent years they have not exhibited his best level. Spain, England, Netherlands, Croatia and Portugal appear as the other candidates to advance to the final rounds.
In the case of the American contest, it once again extends its call to the entire continent after the so-called Centenario Cup in 2016. Let us remember that traditionally this competition only brings together the 10 Conmebol teams (South America), plus two guests, but now it will expand its format again to 16 sets.
The opening match of the 48th edition will have the Argentina team as the main protagonist, however, the new monarch still does not know who its rival will be on June 20 at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Atlanta, which will emerge from the confrontation between Canada and Trinidad and Tobago in March.
All expectations will be to see if the best player in history, Lionel Messi, manages to win another title in what could be his last official tournament with the Albiceleste jersey, on July 20 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, a city that also It has been the home of his new club since last summer.
This result will most likely depend on whether the current Major League Soccer star decides to continue for a couple more years until the World Cup that will be organized in the United States, along with Mexico and Canada.
But in addition to the Euro and the Copa América, the other three continental tournaments on the planet will also be held in 2024. Very soon, starting next week, we will have the African Cup and the Asian Cup, while the Oceania Cup will be held in the first two weeks of June. A fractional World Cup, some would say, although everyone will enjoy it.
???? Welcome to 2024, the year where the World Cup is played in installments!
Five continental tournaments will be played in seven months.
➡️ Asian Cup (12/1 – 10/2)
➡️ African Cup (13/1 – 11/2)
➡️ Euro Cup (14/6 – 14/7)
➡️ Copa América (6/20 – 7/14)
➡️ Oceania Cup (15/6 – 30/6) pic.twitter.com/8UdghP8l0v— Nahuel Lanzón (@nahuelzn) January 1, 2024
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