# Suecia 7-1 Cuba: La última parada del caballo negro caribeño
Escuché por primera vez sobre el equipo de Cuba del Mundial de 1938 en una polvorienta librería de segunda mano en Bolonia, de todos los lugares. El dueño, un maestro jubilado llamado Enzo que bebía espresso en cadena a un ritmo que aterrorizaría a la
Publicado: June 6, 2026
Sweden 7-1 Cuba: The Last Stand of the Caribbean Dark Horse
1958. Sweden. World Cup quarterfinals. Sweden vs. Cuba. How did Cuba make it to the World Cup quarterfinals? They were made up of a group of amateur players, training on sandy pitches in the streets of Havana. In the first round, they pulled off a stunning upset against Romania—a European team—and miraculously advanced to the knockout stage.
But the miracle came to a halt in the quarterfinals. The host nation Sweden—the team boasting the Gre-No-Li trio—gave Cuba no chance. 7-1. Sweden's attacking power was overwhelming; they would go on to finish as runners-up in that World Cup, losing at home to a 17-year-old Brazilian kid named Pelé. Cuba's World Cup journey was over, but their quarterfinal record has stood to this day—no team from the Caribbean has ever gone further in the World Cup. More than sixty years later, Cuba can still say: "We once made it to the World Cup quarterfinals." That statement came at the cost of a 7-1 defeat.