For us this was very big because everybody saw Cuba as a smaller team. They thought of the other teams, greater teams, bigger teams, powerful. They thought we could never win against Venezuela, that we did not have any possibility or any chances. And here you have it. We know how to play under pressure.

We are all amateur players, therefore playing against major league players is the greatest victory for us.

Everybody saw Cuba as a smaller team. They saw other teams as greater. Yet here we are. Nothing is impossible. You will see in the final. We're prepared for this mentally and physically.

Our message is already out there from our international competitions. I think we showed people that baseball is spoken here, baseball and nothing else.

This is the greatest victory in the history of Cuban baseball because our opponents were major-league players.

I think the message has been delivered. Baseball is baseball in all parts of the world ? be it in the big leagues, be it amateur. You have to value baseball as such. It's not about the price of the player but the heart with which the baseball is played. Our team is a team that has fought for unity. The soul of our team is unity. There aren't any stars.