Pan-American Youth Baseball Championship

Cuba unveiled its lineup for the upcoming Pan-American Youth Baseball Championship, to take place in Baja California Sur, Mexico from Sept. 5th-14th.

The list announced by Coach Luis Cuba, leading the team for the 2nd year, told the Prensa Latina news agency the team features 4 fielders who were on the team that won bronze at last year's World Youth Championship.

The Pan-American Baseball Championship will begin next Friday and according to the schedule released by the organizers, the Cuban team will play its first match on the opening day against Panama at the Arturo Nahl Stadium in the Baja California city of La Paz.

The 4 players who helped win the bronze in 2013 are Luis Roberto Moiran, Victor Victor Mesa, Julio Pablo Martinez and Yunier Diaz, who will cover the fields along with rookie Jorge Luis Oña.

A 5th player to watch is head pitcher Cionel Perez, who according to Prensa Latina, has a "stellar record in Cuban elite baseball as well as Daniel Pérez Pérez, Yunser Corrales, Ronald Bolaños, Yoan Oviedo, Raidel Orta and Michel Baez."

Infielders include Hasuan Viera, Omar Estevez, Denis Peña, Diosvel Arian, José Amaury Noroña and Luis Vicente Mateo, and the catchers will be Alexander Guerra and Ariel Martínez.

The 10 participating teams will compete for 4 slots at next year's World Youth Championship in Japan.

Volleyball

Opposite spiker György Grozer conduct World No 10, Germany to beat No 7 Cuba 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-19) on the 5th day of the 2014 FIVB Men's World Championship at Spodek Hall in Katowice, Poland on Wednesday.

Germany improved their won-loss ratio after 2 matches to 1-1, while Cuba dropped to 0-2 in a cap where György Grozer led the match and German scorers with 19 points including 4 ace services followed by Denys Kaliberda with 10 while from the Cuban side, outside hitter Ernesto Jiménez scored 15 points as best scorer.

What made the difference was the big dominance for the German team in serving and blocking skills as the winners had 5/2 advance in aces, and 12/4 in blocking items.

Regarding these bilateral clashes, the following key and sensitive points should be analyzed:

• Germany achieved their 6th win match against Cuba in 9 matches.

• This is the 2nd win for Germany in a row after they won their last meeting at the World Championship, defeating Cuba 3-0 in 2006.

• Cuba has lost their last 3 matches in a row at the World Championship since last time in 2006.

• Twice before, Cuba started a World Championship campaign with successive defeats, in 1956 and 2006.

• In the 2nd set, Germans scored 4 points by serve with 1 ace of Cuba.

• Single Cuba’s fierce spikes and blocks by David Fiel and Leandro Macías, didn’t stop German power that took advantage of Cuba’s many mistakes.

Match for Peace in Rome

The Pope Francis received a shirt with the number 10 handed by the Argentinian football star Diego Armando Maradona, whom he embraced in a ceremony before the Match for Peace, recently concluded in Rome.

Maradona attended the encounter along with other participants in the match of the most universal sports, played at the Olympic Stadium of Rome, said a source at the Vatican.

"Pope Francis is much more than Maradona. He is truly one of a kind", said the excited Argentinian midfielder.

Other known football figures such as the Argentinian Diego Simeone and the Italians Gianluigi Buffon and Andrea Pirlo, as well as the Colombian Carlos Valderrama also attended the conversations.

Although the Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio endorsed from the leadership of the Catholic Church the idea of a Match for Peace, its original organizer was the Scholas Occurrentes and the Italian PUPI Foundation, of the former Argentinian football player Javier Zanetti.

In recent weeks, the Holy Father made calls for peace in Gaza, during the Israeli aggression, which killed more than a thousand 100 people, and the conflict in Syria, whose government faces armed opposition groups financed from abroad, notably from the United States and its European allies.

With the aim to raise money for the project as another alternative lifestyle, players from several countries participated in the match, including 20 Latin Americans, such as the Brazilian Ronaldinho or the Chilean Arturo Vidal, as well French star Zinedine Zidane or the current German star Mesut Ozil.