CANADA 3 CUBA 0
A crazy night of soccer. Missing Cubans, two red cards and 35 Canadian attempts on goal in a lopsided World Cup qualifier.
Despite the wild shooting gallery in front of Cuban goalie Odelin Molina, Canada managed only one goal in 72 minutes before scoring twice in five minutes to emerge a 3-0 winner before 17,712 on Friday.
Advancing to the final round of CONCACAF qualifying is still well within Canada's reach. A tie Tuesday in Honduras will be enough, with the Panama-Honduras result later Friday clarifying exactly what will be required for Canada to move on.
The top two in Canada's group advance to the final six-team round of qualifying in CONCACAF, which covers North and Central America and the Caribbean.
From there, three will advance to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. A fourth CONCACAF team will take part in an intercontinental playoff with the Oceania winner to see who joins them.
Asked what a fair score-line would have been Friday, Canadian midfielder Atiba Hutchinson paused before saying "I think we could have scored at least seven goals today, we had so many chances.
"Obviously, we only had three but there could have been a lot more. And that's one of the reasons why players had their heads down a bit. Because we knew we could have had a lot more goals."
Captain Kevin McKenna was disconsolate as he left BMO Field.
"We're just not finishing our chances. It might cost us in Honduras," he said, knowing that goal difference is a tiebreaker.
"It's in our hands, obviously, if we draw or win the game [in San Pedro Sula]," he added. "But it would have been nice if we had taken a lot of pressure off ourselves by scoring more goals tonight and we didn't do that."
The Cubans (0-5-0) dressed just 11 players for the game, meaning their bench was empty. Down the field, Canada (3-1-1) had 10 substitutes dressed.
After the game, Cuban coach Alexander Gonzalez was reluctant to talk about the missing players other than to say through an interpreter that some had left the team.
Pressed on the issue, he said he came to Canada with 15 players. He arrived at BMO Field with 11.
FIFA rules says a team should consist "of not more than 11 players, one of whom is the goalkeeper. A match may not start if either team consists of fewer than seven players."
Hart knew the Cubans were down players but opted not to tell his team about it before kickoff.
For Hart and his players, playing against a team with no substitutes was a new experience.
"It was strange," said Hart.
