The 2008 NORCECA Men’s Continental Olympic Qualification Championship will be played January 6-11 in the city of Caguas, with USA as the top favourite of the eight-team event.
Following its fourth-place finish at the FIVB World Cup, Team USA’s world ranking has improved from fifth to third behind Brazil and Russia. Nevertheless, it can expect a battle from several NORCECA teams, particularly Canada, Cuba and Puerto Rico, which defeated the United States in four sets at the World Cup and went on to finish sixth.
Playing Puerto Rico at home will be difficult, said U.S. Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon. “We expect Puerto Rico’s fans to be out in force,” McCutcheon said. “It will be like playing Poland in Poland or Brazil in Brazil.” Puerto Rico’s Hector Soto was the overall leading scorer at both the NORCECA Championship and World Cup tournaments.“It won’t be easy. The competition will be tough but our chances of qualifying are there,” stated Soto. “We will be at home and if the other teams want to qualify they will have to beat us first.”
"This Olympic qualifier has a full spectrum of eligible teams from the NORCECA Zone and will prove to be a tough qualifying process," commented Canada's Head Coach Glenn Hoag. "Our team is focused and looking forward to playing after many months of training. Our attention will be focused on the task at hand."
“Our guys are very enthusiastic and they are going to battle for the qualification. Cuba has participated in six Olympic Games, but none of the current players have been present in an event of this magnitude. They are young with good potential but without experience at this level, despite some participations in the World League,” said Orlando Samuels, the Cuban coach.
The other teams that have confirmed their participation in the qualification championship are Mexico, Dominican Republic, Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago. All competed at the 2007 NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship in Anaheim, California. Only the winning team at the NORCECA qualifier will earn a spot at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
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from NORCECA