Yoandy BLANCO’s hatrick and Marcos MARTINEZ’s brace propelled Cuba to a crushing 6-0 victory over Barbados in the first semi-final and into the gold medal match of the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games (Men) on 24 November 2014 at 3:30pm. This victory also gives Cuba a spot in the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada.

Cuba’s goalkeeper Leordan HERNANDEZ had to be quick off his line to deny Barbados’ Akeem RUDDER a goal in the first two minutes of the game. Cuba soon got into their stride and forwards BLANCO and Yoel VEITIA caused Barbados’ defence some problems and Goalkeeper Captain Andre BOYCE had to be sharp in goal to deny Cuba on several occasions.

The half was pretty evenly contested the longer it progressed until Cuba was awarded a penalty stroke in the 27^th minute which BLANCO cool put away. Marcos MARTINEZ then added his team’s 2^nd goal two minutes before halftime from a well-executed penalty corner.

Cuba shot out of the blocks in the 2^nd half and doubled their half time score when BLANCO and MARTINEZ once again found the back of the net 4 minutes after the re-start. This seemed to knock the wind out Barbados’ sail for a while and Yoel VEITIA capitalized and scored his team’s 5^th goal when he blasted a shot past goalkeeper BOYCE. Despite being 5 goals down Barbados did not give up the fight and forced Cuba’s substitute goalkeeper, Yendry DELGADO into making a few saves. BLANCO then completed his hatrick when he converted another penalty stroke in the 55^th minute to make it 6-0 at the end of play.

Barbados will now contest the bronze medal match on 24 November 2014 at 1:15pm.