VANCOUVER -- It was with a late-night cab ride to the border and an identification card concealed in her shoe that Yisel Rodriguez, of the Cuban women’s national soccer team, quietly slipped into the United States over the weekend.

Rodriguez, 22, and her teammate Yezenia Gallardo, 20, defected to the U.S. Saturday night after returning to the Sheraton Wall Centre, where the team was staying. After Cuba’s CONCACAF match against Canada at BC Place in Vancouver, the pair made their move.

“We waited for a distraction of the coaches,” Rodriguez told ESPN in a phone interview, with her brother, Raudel, acting as interpreter. “Then I talked to my roommate [Gallardo] and we decided to go ... We hailed a cab and asked him to take us to the border.”

The pair reached their destination around 2 a.m. on Sunday and told a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official they wanted to defect, ESPN reported.

The players’ passports were in the possession of the Cuban delegation, but Rodriguez told ESPN she was able to prove who she was by presenting her Cuban identity card, which she had kept hidden in her shoe.

In most instances, people who arrive at the border looking to defect to the U.S. are taken into a detention facility, said Mike Milne, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“Then they have to have a hearing with an asylum officer ... to determine whether they have a ‘credible fear’ that exists enough for them to go and plead their case to an immigration court,” Milne said.

However, under the U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act of 1996, Cuban nationals looking to defect do not have to be detained.

“They are allowed to enter the U.S.,” Milne said, speaking generally. “Basically they’re given what’s called a notice to appear. They will appear before an immigration judge [at a later date] to make their claim.”

While most people also require a valid passport, a Nexus card, a Free and Secure Trade card or an enhanced driver’s licence to enter the U.S. from the western hemisphere, a Cuban national claiming a “credible fear” would be allowed in.

To establish a “credible fear,” defectors must present a well-founded fear of persecution, or have been persecuted, in their home country due to membership in one of five classes, explained Sharon Rummery, spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration. They are: race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.

It is not known what reason Rodriguez and Gallardo gave at the border, however Rodriguez told ESPN her motivation was to advance her soccer career.

“My goal is to keep going with soccer and someday go to the Olympics as a U.S. player,” she said.

Rodriguez’s brother, Raudel, told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that he would take responsibility for his sister, ESPN reported.

She boarded a flight from Seattle on Sunday night and arrived in Miami on Monday morning.

It was the first time they had seen each other in 16 years, according to ESPN.

Neither Canadian nor American government officials would comment on whether the two players had defected. CONCACAF spokesman Ben Spencer said the organization was aware of reports they had defected.

“It is now a matter for the Canadian authorities and the Cuban Delegation and we are not commenting further,” he said.

Jesus Pereira, head of the Cuban soccer delegation at the tournament, refused to answer questions from reporters at Cuba’s game Monday night against Haiti. Rodriguez and Gallardo were listed as absent.

Gallardo is one of Cuba’s top players, playing in every minute of the team’s first two games at the tournament. Rodriquez also started both games.

Cuba lost all three games at the tournament and failed to qualify for the London Olympics.

Cuban soccer players have a history of defecting during tournaments on the North American mainland. Seven members of the men’s Under-23 team defected during a CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament in Tampa, Fla., in 2008, and men’s national team player Yosniel Mesa defected last year after a game in Charlotte, N.C., during the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

awoo@vancouversun.com

With files from The Associated Press