Matanzas/After finishing in third position in the recent NORCECA Championship, the Cuban men’s volleyball team faced the qualifier for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The semifinal of the pre-Olympic event provided the Cubans with a 3-0 (32-30, 25-19 and 25-15) victory over the Dominican Republic. Now, only host Canada stood in the way of Cuba’s return to the Olympic stage. The summit match, which took place in the city of Moncton, began with the Cubans prevailing in the first two sets, with scores of 25-21 and 25-23.
“In the semifinal of the NORCECA Championship, also against Canada a few days before, we had decided to rest Robertlandy Simón so that he would be at 100% in the two games for Olympic qualification. We knew that we would play about seven games in the tournament and we did not want so many consecutive games to take their toll on such an experienced player. We also rotated Marlon Yant, who did not start as a starter, and we alternated him with Miguel Ángel López. Already in the dispute for the ticket to Los Angeles 2028, all the headlines opened in full form,” he declares to 14ymedio Jesús Cruz, head coach of the Cuban squad.
It is January 2020 and the Cuban team lands in Vancouver for the qualifier for the Tokyo Olympic Games, finally held in 2021. The competition includes a round-robin against teams from Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico. In the end, the duel between the Greater Antilles and the Country of the Maple Leaf will be key to defining the quota for the Olympic event. Cuba won the first two sets with identical scores of 25-22.
“Many athletes within the team were in that classification that was lost with Canada after winning the first two sets and some ghosts appeared”
The third set takes place in Moncton. Cuba loses it 25-23. Jesús Cruz has to do something: “Many athletes within the team were in that classification that was lost with Canada after winning the first two sets and some ghosts appeared in the minds of several, but a call was made for confidence in the preparation we had. The previous matches in Italy and Russia were very important to regain calm and remember that losing a set is not significant in this sport. No set is like another. The players also called each other to chapter and faced the fourth set as if it were the first.”
Ghosts from the past? What had happened in Vancouver in 2020? Cuba fell spectacularly in the third set 25-12, gave up 25-21 in the fourth set, and in the fifth, the Americans won 15-9. In that game, neither Miguel Ángel López’s 21 points nor Robertlandy Simón’s 15 points prevented the debacle.
But the fourth set in Moncton in 2026 would be different: Cuba finished the match by winning it 25-22. The final numbers expose Marlon Yant as the Four Letters’ top scorer with 25 points. Miguel Ángel responds this time with 22. Special mention in attack went to the opposite Alejandro Miguel González with 11 hits in 18 attempts.
“We analyzed with our statistician the behavior of Canada’s passers in recent confrontations against us”
What made victory possible this time? Jesús Cruz is clear about it: “We analyzed with our statistician the behavior of Canada’s passers in recent confrontations against us. We determined their tendency when they had Simón in front of them or when Alexis Wilson was there. From there, we drew up the tactical plan. In the NORCECA semifinal, their opponent did a lot of damage to us because of the demarcation we gave them in the block. We corrected some details to the auxiliary attackers who block in that area and it was carried out to the letter. Another detail that made the difference was the direction of the serve. We directed most of the services towards their captain, who had attacked us very well days before, and we tried to make it more difficult for him to attack in complex one. In defense, in zone one we managed to pick up a couple of balls, which had not been possible in the previous match.
Emotions explode in the face of such a triumph: “The joy of qualifying for the Olympic Games is immense. Imagine, a lot of effort and sacrifice to achieve this goal. Among the people who come to mind is my mother, Verónica López, who has always encouraged me to move forward, to forget about detractors and negative criteria, and go out to find what we have all worked so hard for,” Cruz concluded.
