After rain forced the organizers of the World Cup of Baseball to cancel the opening match between Chinese Taipei and Italy, the tournament now starts on Wednesday. 14 of the 16 participants in both groups will see action. They will kick of a round robin schedule. After these seven game days the four best teams of each pool advances to the quarterfinals.
The first date features two interesting duels. In group A, Team USA faces Mexico in a highly anticipated match up between the two foes. In pool B, Cuba starts their quest for a ten straight world title against Australia. Both teams met already last week, with an impressive 5-0 warm up victory for the Aussies. However, the last time they crossed paths at the World Cup stage, the Cuban team won 9-5. These two are going with high hopes into the tournament and the game is one of the highlights in the preliminary round.
The European teams start also into the event. The members of the Netherlands squad are hoping for a win against debutant Thailand. Germany and Spain are clearly the underdog in their duels versus Venezuela and Panama.
Schedule for Wednesday:
(local times)
Group A (Taichung)
12:00 Spain – Panama
15:00 South Africa – Japan
18:00 Mexico – USA (stadeo.tv)
Group B (Taipei)
12:00 Cuba – Australia (stadeo.tv)
12:00 Netherlands – Thailand (stadeo.tv)
18:00 Korea – Canada (stadeo.tv)
18:00 Germany – Venezuela
