“Team Cuba wants to make history” in WBC, head coach says

HAVANA, Cuba, Cuba, Mar 17 (ACN) Armando Johnson, director of the Cuban team for the semifinals of the 5th World Baseball Classic, held in Miami, United States, assured that there is great unity and resolve to make history among his players, who are in perfect shape and aware of what they want.

“We have done part of our job,” he said, “but complete satisfaction will only come if we go back home with the title, and to that end we’re going to leave our lives on the field.”

He remarked that the support received from Cuba and other parts of the world has been an incredible incentive to the whole team, whose members keep up with the messages posted on social networks and the calls they receive, knowing that the Cuban people took to the streets after their most recent victory.

“Unfortunately, we know that there will be provocations at the ball parks, but we are also prepared and convinced that we will also find support there. Playing baseball is what drives us all, and we intend to prove it on the field, which will have the last word,” he emphasized.

Johnson said that the challenge now is to outdo our feat in the first WBC, when Cuba was runner-up. Now it will be opposite the winner of the game between Venezuela and U.S.A.

“Be it one or the other, our mindset will be the same. We have studied both teams, and our team’s purpose is to keep having fun and doing what we have proved to be capable of doing,” he pointed out.

The Cubans arrived in Miami on Thursday on a flight from Japan, where they beat Australia 4-3 in the quarterfinals after finishing first in Pool A despite back-to-back losses to the Netherlands and Italy.