Former Cuban president Fidel Castro has got the rematch he wanted. Now defending World Baseball Classic champion Japan will have a chance to make him regret it.
Cuba routed hosts Mexico 16-4 in a Thursday game halted after seven innings by the mercy rule to book a second-round date with Japan tomorrow, the same day Mexico will open against reigning Olympic champion South Korea.
The Japanese “Samurai” will face unbeaten Cuba, seeking a 39th consecutive trip to a global tournament final, in the same stadium where they defeated the Cubans in the final of the inaugural Classic.
PHOTO: AFP
Castro had said that he hoped Cuba would have the chance for revenge against Japan for the 2006 loss and that the teams might meet again for this year’s title, sentiments echoed by Cuban manager Higinio Velez after the triumph.
“We’re actually fulfilling both things,” Velez said. “It’s the repeat game. It’s a chance for us to get back at them and this might be an anticipated final.”
“We’re not worried. We know what their quality is. We respect them. We’re going to just be ready and work out,” he said.
PHOTO: AFP
Two teams from San Diego will advance to the semi-finals as will two from the Miami second-round group that begins play today when Puerto Rico face the US and Venezuela play the Netherlands.
Velez was reluctant to compare this year’s Cuban team to the 2006 runner-up squad that made a point by reaching the final of the first event to feature US elite Major League Baseball talent.
“I don’t think one is better than the other,” he said. “I don’t like to compare the team in that first Classic. That team fulfilled its goal. It was a team of men but not a team of names. It was the best we had. Today this is our best.”
Cuba’s victory on Thursday made them a top seed while the Koreans’ 1-0 win over Japan on Monday put them in the same position.
Yulieski Gourriel drove in four runs, including a two-run homer in the fourth, in Thursday triumph. Ariel Pestano and Miguel Enriquez each drove in three runs and Frederich Cepeda blasted a three-run homer.
Meanwhile, South Korea lost 4-2 to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday in a tune up game, a day after they were ripped 10-4 by San Diego.
Lee Jim-young and Kim Hyun-soo drove in runs for the Koreans while Jang Wonsam pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings for the Asian team.
Taiwan’s Kuo Hong-chih pitched for the Dodgers while countryman Hu Chin-lung hit a two-run single for Los Angeles in the eighth inning.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
RSS