Illustrative image. Photo / Sialdeporte

Havana, June 29 (ACN).- The Cuban men's handball team was left without options to win a ticket to the World Championship to be held in Poland and Sweden in January 2023, after suffering its second defeat in the tournament of the North American and Caribbean Confederation.

The Cuban team lost 28-32 to the United States in the qualifying tournament held at the Mexican Olympic Sports Center.

With this result, the representatives of the island were left without the possibility of advancing to the final and disputing the only place in that competition to the aforementioned global event.

In their debut on the 26th, the handball players of the Caribbean nation lost to the host Aztecs with a score of 25-33; while on Monday they tied at 27 goals against Greenland.

That duel at first seemed to have been a victory for the Cubans 28-27, but in the end it was not so.

In that controversial match there was a complaint from the Cuban team because the scoreboard did not reflect a goal that was not validated later on, resulting in a tie on the scoreboard.

The Americans (3-0) are already finalists of the event and must now fight for a ticket to the universal competition against the Mexicans (1-1) and with a match pending today against Greenland (0-1), which, if successful, would leave the locals out of the tournament.

The first stage of the tournament, which will conclude this Tuesday, will be followed by a rest day tomorrow 29th, and then the challenges for third place and the title on the 30th, the latter giving the winner a place in the World Cup.