[pbald]

Honestly, they came preceeded with some big international results nobody game much credit to.
I didn't see any single prediction putting the cubans past round 2.
Where the heck did these guys come from? their game is fundamentally good, but they make mistakes.
My thinking is they're a team you can not afford to give a break to, cause they'll come through with the run and you're gonna have a hard time coming back.
Who will they face now? Japan or Korea, and who will win?

[MVB]

Cube rocks!! Remember, the Cubans always win the Olympics ( three out of the last four times).... I'm surprised Dominican R did so poorly! I mean with a lineup containing Pujols, Ortiz, Tejeda, Beltre, Reyes, and Alou, how could you lose???

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by MVB

Cube rocks!! Remember, the Cubans always win the Olympics ( three out of the last four times).... I'm surprised Dominican R did so poorly! I mean with a lineup containing Pujols, Ortiz, Tejeda, Beltre, Reyes, and Alou, how could you lose???

Cuba is a team...most nations are a collection of stars...same concept kept the Soviet Union winning hockey gold medals...

[Wizard of Os]

Shows what i know. Stay tuned to this forum and you'll see the Wizard of Os put both feet in his big mouth repeatedly...

Not only did Cuba push past DR, the WBC homepage tells me that Japan just put up five in the seventh against scoreless Korea.

Pretty good pickin' there: of four teams, i chose what appear to be the two losers.

As i always say, i can correctly predict anything except in sports, politics and weather.

Nice final, though, with two traditionally (and still) baseball-loving nations with long histories of the sport.

[pbald]

You're right Wizard, both those countries have such a rich baseball tradition that it's gonna be quite enjoyable watching the final game.
I think the main difference between Venez, Cub, Jap, Korea, PRico, Dom Rep and the USA team is that they really played their heart out whereas our guys went to the tournament with an "exhibition games" mentality.
We underestimated our rivals and paid dearly for it.

[EmpireWF]

For a lot of the other countries, they play this as it's actually the World Championship. Especially Cuba, they have serious national pride and a guy in Fidel Castro back home who's counting on them to win. It will obviously be different for them than the Americans.