The Cuban volleyball team will finalize its preparation in Havana before traveling to Moncton, Canada, where it will compete in the 2026 Norceca Men's Continental Championship, a tournament with dual qualifying stakes: three spots for the 2027 World Cup and the regional place for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The event will take place at the Avenir Centre in Moncton, New Brunswick, from September 11 to 19.
Cuba was placed in Group A alongside the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and the United States, while Group B includes Puerto Rico, Mexico, Curacao, and the host country, Canada, according to the digital newspaper JIT.
The format states that the winners of each group advance directly to the semifinals, while the teams that finish in second and third places will compete in the quarterfinals in a crossover manner.
The Olympic qualification has a particularity: the United States is already guaranteed its presence at Los Angeles 2028 as the host country, so if they advance among the top four —as is expected— their spot would pass to the team that finishes in fifth place in the overall standings.
The team led by Jesús Cruz arrives at the tournament backed by an eight-match European tour in Russia and Italy that left a positive impression, concluding with four consecutive victories.
In Russia, the Cubans shared honors against Dinamo LO in Sosnovy Bor and then participated in a tournament in Ufa, where they defeated Russia and Belarus, although they lost to Iran.
The Italian stage was more solid: victories against Germany 3-2 in Reggio Calabria, against the locals 3-2, and to conclude the tour in Messina, a 3-1 win over Brazil with set scores of 19-25, 25-21, 25-23, and 25-18.
The men's tournament arrives following the strong performance of the women's team, which finished third in its own Norceca Continental.
The men's team, on the other hand, finished the 2026 Nations League in 16th place out of 18, with only three victories in 12 matches, indicating the magnitude of the challenge they will face in Moncton.
Cuba has not managed to qualify for the Olympic Games in men's volleyball since Rio de Janeiro 2016, and the tournament in Moncton represents the main regional opportunity to reverse that decade-long absence from the event under the shadow of the five rings.
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