Venezuela to play against Costa Rica, Guatemala before Copa America

Caracas, May 26 (IANS) The Venezuelan football team will play two more warm-up matches against Costa Rica and Guatemala in preparation for the 2016 Copa America Centennial tournament.

The first measure for this taken by coach Rafael Dudamel was to reduce the number of called players for these matches from 40 to 31, reports Xinhua.

Dudamel, former goalkeeper of the Venezuelan team, also on Wednesday decided to strengthen the team with youngster player Mikel Villanueva, who had an outstanding season with the Spanish team Atletico Malagueno.

The Venezuelan coach will have to define the 23-player team that will participate in Copa America, to be held in the United States from June 3 to 26.

On Tuesday, Venezuela tied 0-0 against Panama in the friendly match played at Rommel Fernandez Stadium in Panama City.

Before arriving in Panama, Venezuela held a friendly match against the team Spain' s autonomous community of Galicia in Spain. The result was a 1-1 tie.

On Thursday May 27, Venezuela will face Costa Rica in San Jose and on June 1 they will face Guatemala in the US city of Fort Lauderdale.

During Copa America, Venezuela will face Jamaica on June 5, then Uruguay on June 9 and finally it will face Mexico four days later.

--IANS

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