May 10, 2016 - 9:22 PM
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Canada's road to the 2016 Futsal World Cup has hit a dead end.
Canada dropped a 7-4 decision to Cuba on Tuesday and will miss the 24-country FIFA Futsal World Cup after failing to reach the semifinals at the CONCACAF Futsal Championship.
Frederico Moojen scored twice while Vahid Assadpour and Ian Bennett added the other for the Canadians (1-2-0), who finished third in Group B behind defending CONCACAF champions Costa Rica (3-0-0) and Cuba (1-1-1)
Reynier Fiallo had a hat trick for Cuba while Daniel Hernandez, Reinier Socarras, Jhonnet Martinez and Breniht Suarez added singles.
Costa Rica, Cuba, Panama (3-0-0), and Guatemala (2-1-0) have all qualified at the CONCACAF tournament to represent North and Central America and the Caribbean at the Futsal World Cup this September in Colombia.
Already qualified for the Futsal World Cup are host Colombia, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Mozambique, Paraguay, Portugal, Russia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Thailand, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
Brazil has dominated the world scene, winning five of the seven Futsal World Cups including the last two. Spain won the other two titles and has finished runner-up to Brazil three times.
Canada has not qualified for the Futsal World Cup since the inaugural event in 1989 in the Netherlands, where it failed to advance from the first round after beating Japan and losing to Argentina and Belgium.
Futsal is a five-a-side indoor game, played in 20-minute halves on a surface no larger than 25 by 42 metres (and no smaller than 20 by 38) for international matches. Goals measure three by two metres.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2016