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Cuba's Men Return to the Olympics 🌍
They beat Canada 3-1 (25-21, 25-23, 23-25, 25-22) in Moncton for the place NORCECA sends to Los Angeles. Cuba have not been to an Olympic Games in ten years.
Cuba's men have been away from the Olympic Games for ten years. On Saturday night at the Avenir Centre in Moncton they beat Canada and took a place at the next one.
It will be Cuba's eighth Olympic appearance and their first since Rio in 2016. The programme has one Olympic medal, a bronze from Montreal in 1976, half a century before this weekend.
Canada were playing at home, in the building they had spent the last two weeks in, for the only Olympic place their confederation had left to give.
Canada Had Already Beaten Cuba This Week
Moncton ran two tournaments back to back. The continental championship finished on Wednesday, and Canada had reached its final by sweeping Cuba 3-0 in Tuesday's semi-final.
The Olympic qualification tournament that followed had four teams in it and no team from the United States, which has held a place at these Games since the day Los Angeles was awarded them.
Canada beat Mexico 3-0 in Friday's first semi-final. Cuba beat the Dominican Republic 3-0 in the second, and the first set of that one finished 32-30.
Mexico took third place on Saturday afternoon, in the match played before the one that decided the Olympic place.
So the two of them met again four days after the first time, with everything on the second one. Canada took the third set 25-23. Cuba won the other three, the last of them 25-22.
Cuba Won the Serve and the Attack
Nine aces to three is where the match went. Cuba also out-attacked Canada 62 kills to 57, and Canada out-blocked them 8-6 and lost anyway.
Marlon Yant scored 25 points for Cuba, 21 of them kills, three of them aces and one a block. Miguel Angel Lopez had 22 points with 19 kills and three blocks.
Stephen Maar led Canada with 20 kills and Eric Loeppky scored 14 points.
Canada Leave Moncton With the Smaller Prize
Canada did win something this fortnight. The silver medal behind the United States on Wednesday carried a berth at the 2027 World Cup in Poland, and that tournament is one of the two doors still open to them.
Twelve teams play the indoor men's tournament at the Honda Center in July 2028. One is the host, five come out of the confederations, three out of the 2027 World Cup and three out of the world ranking.
Canada now need one of those last six. The World Cup berth they won on Wednesday gets them into the tournament that hands out three of them.
Canada's libero Landon Currie, quoted in identical terms by his own federation and by the Canadian Press.
It's super disappointing. I thought we came out really strong and all of a sudden, at the flip of a switch, Cuba came out swinging and we didn't really have an answer for them. They picked up their serve and scored a decent amount of aces on us.
At the end of the day, I'm proud of this group and I love these guys to death. Our path to LA gets more difficult but we're not out and we're going to keep fighting until we get there.
Japan took Asia's confederation place on 13 September with a sweep of Iran in Kitakyushu, and Cuba have the second of the five. Canada have to go through Poland now.
