TORONTO — Canada huffed and puffed and blew Cuba’s house down.

But it was a lot harder than it should have been.

Canada relied on goals from Tosaint Ricketts, Will Johnson and David Edgar in labouring to a 3-0 win over a short-handed Cuban team in a very bizarre World Cup qualifying match on a chilly Friday night before 17,712 spectators at BMO Field.

Canada should have easily had seven or eight goals against a Cuban side that featured only 11 players, and had nobody on its substitutes’ bench.

Johnson felt Canada, who only had two goals in its previous four qualifying matches, could have won by a wider margin. But he also believed Cuba’s lack of reserve players did not really give the Reds that much of an advantage.

“It was a unique challenge,” Johnson diplomatically said of the situation.

Canadian coach Stephen Hart said it looked like his players began to doubt themselves during a first half that saw Canada barrage the Cuban net with shots but only produced one goal. He also said Canada “got it right” in the second half thanks to a more patient approach.

Word began to leak about 90 minutes before kickoff that something was up. As soon as the Cubans arrived at the stadium, they were pulled into an emergency meeting with FIFA officials.

The plot thickened when it was confirmed that only 15 players travelled to Canada for the match. No official reason was given as to the whereabouts of the four missing players, although Cuban coach Alexander Gonzalez hinted that they defected to the United States in the post-match press conference when pressed for an explanation.

“As with any Cuban sport team that travels around the world, they are all chasing the American dream,” Gonzalez said through a translator. “Obviously, it’s a difficult situation for the team and it’s tough for (me) to talk about it.”

11 Cubans warming up at BMO Field. twitter.com/JohnMolinaro/s…

— John Molinaro (@JohnMolinaro) October 12, 2012

Though it was hardly an impressive win for Canada considering the circumstance, it still counts and the valuable three points earned by the Reds moves them a bit closer to qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

“I would have liked to have scored six. But to be honest, we scored some goals (and) we won the game. … We did that, and we scored some goals. I’ll take it,” Hart said.

But captain Kevin McKenna was far from happy, taking a far more sombre tone when speaking with reporters after the game.

“I’m a little disappointed with the result. At 3-0, I think we should have won by more. We’re not finishing our chances and it might cost us in Honduras (next week),” McKenna said.

He later added: “I wanted more out of the game. I don’t know about the other guys, but for me it’s not good enough.”

With the win, Canada moved into second place in its qualifying group with 10 points (+3 goal difference), ahead of Honduras (eight points, +2) and pointless Cuba. Panama leads with 10 points (+4). All four teams have one match left to play.

Only the top two nations move on to “the Hex,” the final round of CONCACAF qualifying where the best three countries in the six-team, round-robin group advance to the World Cup.

Canada visits Honduras next Tuesday in San Pedro Sula in a game that it must take a point from in order to advance to the final round. A loss would eliminate Canada, who previously made it to the Hex in 1998, and even then it finished dead last.

Cuba entered this game already eliminated from World Cup contention.

Though the Cubans had no substitutes, the game was allowed to continue. FIFA permits teams with fewer than 11 players to start a match, and a referee can only end the proceedings if a side is reduced to fewer than seven players.

Only three players (Carlos Francisco, Alberto Gomez and Yoel Colome) who played in Cuba’s 1-0 loss to Canada in Havana back in June to begin this qualification round were present Friday. Still, Gonzalez insisted this was a strong Cuban side, despite the absences.

Gonzalez cut a solitary figure on the sidelines, standing all alone in front of the barren Cuban substitutes’ bench. You almost felt sorry him, forced to watch his under-manned side furiously cope with wave after wave of unrelenting attacking play from the Canadians.

The match was played predominantly in the Cubans’ half of the field, with Canadian goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld reduced to a spectator. When the Cubans did break forward, they were quickly shut down by Canadian defenders.

It was all one-way traffic from the opening kickoff, with Olivier Occean, Simeon Jackson and Ricketts all spurning glorious scoring opportunities. It looked like it was going to be one of those nights where Canada couldn’t score when the breakthrough came in the 14th minute.

Jackson played a great pass over the top that released Ante Jazic down the left flank, and the Canadian defender rushed into the penalty area before playing a simple ball across to Ricketts to knock past bewildered Cuban goalkeeper Odelin Molina.

Canada poured on the pressure but goals were not forthcoming, due to poorly-time runs flagged for offside and disastrous finishing. Ricketts somehow headed an Edgar cross over the crossbar from close range in the 40th minute, squandering yet another scoring chance. Had Ricketts left it alone, Johnson would have easily scored on a tap-in.

Canada continued to lay siege on the Cuban goal in the final moments of the half, but could not convert, a situation that continued early in the second half.

Canadian players’ hearts were in their mouths when Colome was allowed to fire a shot from outside of the box that just blew past the goal post in the 57th minute.

If it hadn’t already, the match slipped into farce over the course of a crazy two-minute span.

Cuba’s Roberto Linares was shown a red card for a lunging and dangerous tackle on Andre Hainault. Canada stormed forward and Johnson made it 2-0 with a header in the 74th minute. But in the post-goal proceedings, a ruckus broke out and Occean ended up being red carded for shoving the Cuban goalkeeper, reducing Canada to 10 men just like the Cubans.

Edgar put the final result beyond doubt, scoring on a lovely volley from the centre of the box off a Jazic cross in the 78th minute.

“I hit the target. You can’t score unless you hit the target. I made a good connection, and I was in the right place at the right time,” Edgar said in describing his highlight-reel goal.

Occean’s red card means he’s suspended for next week’s match in Honduras. Hart said he will talk with his coaching staff about trying to bring in a player to replace Occean for that trip, but that nothing was guaranteed.

Occean called his expulsion a “non-sense call,” and claimed that he barely touched the Cuban goalkeeper.

“That’s poor refereeing — really poor refereeing. It (wasn’t) a red card. It’s ridiculous,” Occean stated.

NOTES: The Cuban coach told reporters that two of his players played the game despite carrying injuries… Canada is 61st in the current FIFA world rankings. Cuba is 146th… The Cubans close out their campaign next Tuesday in Havana when they host Panama… Canada’s lone World Cup appearance came in 1986 in Mexico when it bowed out in the first round on the back of three losses…