Chinese Taipei has more baseball experience. Baseball is still a very young sport in China. Not very many play it. No surprise to me that China got swept. And not just swept, annihilated.
..the game of the night/morning though has to be Korea/Japan to determine the winner of Pool A competition. HUGE WIN FOR KOREA. Both teams were guaranteed advancement in the tournament coming into this morning's game, however were playing for the right to say they had the best record among Pool A teams. And let me tell you, Japan is one of my picks for the whole tournament, and I picked them for this game as well, but Korea's pitching, especially in the bullpen on this particular morning, was OUTSTANDING. Japan scored the two runs early, but were pretty much shut down the rest of the way. The two performances that impressed me most were those by Dae-sung Koo; who was just released by the Mets within the last week, and Chan Ho Park, who has struggled the past few years. They were VERY GOOD against this dangerous Japan lineup. I didnt see when Korea put the 2 runs on the board, the tying, and go ahead, because I was watching my 5 year old brother this morning, and he wanted to play Playstation , so I really cant comment on that. But with the performance of the Korea bullpen, before they scored those runs I was willing to almost guarantee that the game finish 2-1 in favor of Japan. However that was not the case, as we know, and Korea prevailed as the Champions of Pool A, and Asia (sort of putting to rest Ichiro's quote saying that Korea and Chinese Taipei were nowhere near the level that Japan was). And now, with what i've seen the last 3 days, Korea has emerged as one of my favorites from here on out.
I dont think they win this thing, or advance farther than Japan (I still have to stick with the notion that Japan is still superior to Korea when it comes to the Baseball department based on the facts that they are much more advanced, and much more accomplished), although I wouldnt be completely shocked if they did.
But I still stick with my stance that the final four competing in the semis are the 4 power-houses; America, Dominican Republic, Japan, and Cuba.
I have been very pleased with the WBC so far (if you havent noticed ) and hope to see more good play.