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The US Men Cannot Win Moncton's Olympic Place
The championship finished on Wednesday and the Americans won it in five. Canada, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Mexico play the Olympic qualifier at the same arena on Friday and Saturday, and the United States is barred from it as LA28 host.
Eight teams played the NORCECA men's continental championship at the Avenir Centre in Moncton, and the one team that could not win the Olympic place on offer was the United States.
The Americans won the championship anyway. They beat Canada 3-2 (25-19, 26-24, 25-27, 17-25, 15-13) in Wednesday's final, and none of it changes where they were already going.
NORCECA ran two tournaments back to back here. The championship's top four eligible teams now play a separate Continental Olympic Qualification tournament, semi-finals on Friday 18 September and medal matches on Saturday 19 September, for the single Los Angeles place.
The United States are excluded from that second tournament because they qualified for 2028 as the host nation.
Karch Kiraly, the United States head coach, in NORCECA's own round of coaches' comments published before the tournament.
NORCECA came up with a creative solution for this situation for the Olympic qualifying phase. We are thrilled to be included in the Championship and included in phase one, as we already have spot in the Olympic Games. We look forward to playing great teams in the NORCECA zone like Canada and Cuba, it's a wonderful learning opportunity for us. We are also looking to earn the World Cup berth and play our best to finish out the 2026 season.
They Beat Canada Twice in Three Weeks
The United States beat Canada 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-21) in Ponce on 29 August to win the NORCECA Final Six for a third year running, and they hit .333 doing it.
The blocks were 16 to three. Jacob Pasteur scored 14, Sean Kelly 12 with four blocks, and libero Troy Gooch handled 18 excellent receptions.
Wednesday's rematch took five sets and a 15-13 to settle. The Final Six and the continental championship are two different tournaments nineteen days apart, and the Americans won both.
Canada Play Mexico First on Friday
Volleyball Canada's schedule has Canada against Mexico at half past four on Friday and Cuba against the Dominican Republic at seven, with the bronze and gold matches at the same two times on Saturday. The winner of the gold match goes to Los Angeles.
Cuba beat the Dominican Republic 25-22, 25-19, 26-24 for the championship bronze, and they meet again on Friday night with a great deal more on it.
We are printing Cuba in that field and here is why. Volleyball World's report on Thursday names the four as Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, in an article that also records Cuba beating the Dominican Republic for the bronze, and Puerto Rico did not reach the medal rounds. Volleyball Canada is hosting, names Cuba and prints the times.
Jose Mañón, who coaches the Dominican Republic, to NORCECA.
We're here representing the Dominican Republic. We faced some visa issues with a few players, but we've brought a team ready to compete.
The United States, Canada and Cuba took the three 2027 World Cup places that came out of the final standings, per Volleyball World. The Dominican Republic finished fourth and got neither that nor a bye.
We said on 12 September that Canada would take this without having to beat the United States and would drop a set to Cuba on the way. Canada swept Cuba and then lost the final to the United States in five, so both halves of that were wrong.
The place is decided on Saturday night, and we expect Canada to win it in four.
