Japan, which was aiming to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC), did not pay attention to Korea.
Japanese WBC national team coach Hideki Kuriyama held an official press conference in Tokyo on the 26th and announced the final entry of 30 players. Looking at Hideki’s full Q&A report reported by Japanese media, it is noticeable that he did not mention Korea even once.
According to Japan’s Daily Sports, coach Hideki replied briefly and boldly about the goal of the tournament, “No. 1 in the world, that’s all.”
The defending champion, the United States, and the previous championship winner, Dominica, were mentioned as targets for alert.
Head coach Hideki expected Japanese major leaguers, “Every word from seniors who had experience in the United States was very helpful. The team needs experience. I believe that the players will do a lot for the team to win.”
Hideki said, “I believe in the soul of Japanese baseball. I just believe in this and face baseball. I believe that the players will definitely express it. I will do my best so that the people can think that it was good to see this baseball.” .
Despite including many major leaguers such as Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish, Seiya Suzuki, and Lars Nutba, Japan has the youngest national team ever with an average age of 27.3.
Coach Hideki said, “I didn’t intentionally select young players. Anyway, the winning team is the best. I tried to pick the best player to win,” and revealed that age was not a consideration.
He said, “I kept thinking about what form can save the soul of Japanese baseball as much as possible. Basically, 메이저놀이터 it is a style of enduring, protecting and overcoming the pitcher. That’s it. Anyway, I only thought about becoming the best in the world.”
He kept quiet about the game that will be the key.
Coach Hideki said, “It’s everything. I’ll assume that we can go from the first game to the end. But it’s 7 games. Not that many. Every game is important. I will fight with all my might, cherishing each ball.”