I never coached a team for a tournament like this, and never thought the pressure to be so high. Baseball is the best sport. Everyone has to work together. There is nothing more wonderful than that Japanese players did such a wonderful job and showed that to everyone in the world.
Personally, I think Japan is the strongest team in Asia and we want to finish Pool A as the top team in the group.
I am proud that Japan is the strongest team in Asia. We are determined to go through at the top.
I believe this team is much stronger and will be probably the strongest team that Japan ever had against a Cuban team.
We heard that TV ratings for our games surpassed 30 percent and 40 percent in Japan and we also got warm fan support in the United States. I feel very happy that we responded to such enthusiastic support with this title.
We have a saying in Japanese that 'the third time will reveal the truth' and since we've lost twice to South Korea and both were games that we lost by one run and gave up two runs in the eighth inning, we would love the opportunity to meet them again and win.
They've been supporting us so much. That's why we were able to accomplish this. So we'd like to share this great moment with all those fans back home in Japan and also here.