Japan 6, South Korea 0

We'll, I guess things were too good to be true for the South Korean baseball team. Though having already beaten Japan twice in the World Baseball Classic, Team Korea could not pull the same luck on Saturday. Their first loss in the tournament, Team Korea unfortunately will not make it to the final match this Monday. Though disappointed, we have to realize that Korea, like in the World Cup, was the underdog of the tournament. To have reached the semi-finals is already a great achievement. Although winning would have been great, it, nonetheless, exposed the rest of the world to an Asian nation that is often overshadowed by China and Japan.

Korea should be especially proud as China and Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) were knocked out almost immediately from this tournament. And ofcourse, their is the United States; despite having invented the game and sporting the nation's top paid players, they did not even reach the semi-finals. Is baseball still the American past time? I think the World Baseball Classic has shown that other nations are not catching up with the United States, but have already caught up and are exceeding them. Another good example would be in the Athens Olympics, when the supposed Dream Team of basketball performed its worse ever. I think now is a wake up call for the US, that they are not always going to be the superior to other nations.

Being the ultimate front runner, I probably will be cheering for Japan on Monday, as it will still be great to see an Asian nation win. ^^

- Alex Liu