Sunday 15-03-2009
1 11:30 – 1:30 THAILAND vs. INDIA
2 2:00 – 4:00 HONG KONG vs. SINGAPORE
3 4:30 – 6:30 MALAYSIA vs. MONGOLIA
4 7:30 – 9:30 UAE vs. MACAU
Monday 16-03-2009
5 11:30 – 1:30 INDIA vs. MONGOLIA
6 2:00 – 4:00 MALAYSIA vs. THAILAND
7 4:30 – 6:30 MACAU vs. HONG KONG
8 7:30 – 9:30 SINGAPORE vs. UAE
Tuesday 17-03-2009
9 11:30 – 1:30 THAILAND vs. MONGOLIA
10 2:00 – 4:00 SINGAPORE vs. MACAU
11 4:30 – 6:30 MALAYSIA vs. INDIA
12 7:30 – 9:30 HONG KONG vs. UAE
Wednesday 18-08-2009
– Day off –
Thursday 19-03-2009
13 11:30 – 1:30 7th PLACE GROUP A vs. 8th PLACE GROUP B
14 2:00 – 4:00 7th PLACE GROUP B vs. 8th PLACE GROUP A
15 4:30 – 6:30 1ST PLACE GROUP A vs. 2ND PLACE GROUP B SEMI FINAL
16 7:30 – 9:30 1ST PLACE GROUP B vs. 2ND PLACE GROUP A SEMI FINAL
Friday 20-03-2009
17 11:30 – 1:30 LOSER FROM GAME 13– LOSER FROM GAME 14 (place 8 & 7)
18 2:00 – 4:00 WINNER FROM GAME 13 – WINNER FROM GAME 14 (place 6 & 5)
19 4:30 – 6:30 LOSER FROM GAME 15 – LOSER FROM GAME 16 (place 4 & 3 )
20 7:30 – 9:30 WINNER FROM GAME 15 – WINNER FROM GAME 16 ( FINAL, place 1 & 2)
Raymond Sawada just made his NHL debut with the Dallas Stars, scoring his first goal in the debut on his birthday, how awesome is that!? (Prospect note)
The Tohoku Free Blades played an exhibition match against the last place Asia League team Nikko Ice Bucks on 28 Feb during the Ice Bucks Fan Appreciation Day. The game was 3 periods of 15 minutes each, and the Bucks won easily 8-3. But the real news was that the Free Blades only had 15 players dressed. 2 goalies, 6 defencemen, and 7 forwards. I assume that the Blades are going to sign the rest of the players during the off season, depending on whether they’re accepted into the Asia League or not (decision on signing imports and their number depends on this).
Bucks in black and Blades in grey, not sure if the Blades uniforms are just practice unis or the real thing:
Also a note of concern was that the Bucks were only able to draw 572 fans to the exhibition match despite it only costing 1000 yen and the event being held on a Saturday. Then Bucks supporters club used to have over 4000 members, but is now hovering around 1000 members. I pray that the Bucks survive (currently they’re carrying more than 100 million yen = $1m in debt on an operating budget of about 250 million yen per year) and that the Blades join the Asia League now that Seibu Prince Rabbits are folding (the best option here would be another company buying the team or it becoming a club team, but this is very unlikely in the current economic climate).
Whenever Ichiro was at bat, the camera flashes went crazy like fireworks in the stands. This video doesn’t quite do justice as the campact digital camera’s video mode’s not sensitive enough to capture all the flashes. There were at least 2-3x more visible than what is captured here.
As for the WBC warmup games themselves. Saitama Seibu Lions beat down the Japanese national team 7-2, and the Yomiuri Giants barely lost 1-2 in extra innings on a wild pitch. And both club teams were lacking a few regulars to the national team, and were in full spring training mode by the latter half of the games, with lineups full of bench players and minor leaguers taking the mound. Needless to say, Samurai Japan looked horrible on both days, but hopefully this (and the opening game against China on Thursday) serves as a wakeup call for the team, otherwise they may not even make it out of the 1st round held at home in the Tokyo Dome. Notorious slow starter Ichiro is also having a horrible lead up to the WBC with only 3 hits in 23 at bats (and at least 2 of them were of the infield kind).
