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• 03 / 08 / 2010

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An opening week of post-season action has followed close to form and thus brought precisely the results most prognosticators envisioned.

Defending champion Habana Province and 2009 semifinalist Ciego de Avila have already cruised on to the second round, and last year's runner-up Villa Clara is also knocking loudly on the door of a semifinal berth.

   So things have played out just about as most analysts had earlier projected, with the better pitching ball clubs (especially Habana Province led by Esteban Lombillo and Ciego de Avila under the guidance of Roger Machado) encountering few obstacles in their first-round matches.

   Well, almost as projected, that is. There is the matter of the Sancti Spíritus-Industriales series which quickly proved to be an absolute shocker.

I wrote one week ago that the Gallos-Blue Lions encounter appeared to be the easiest one to call in advance, with the forces of Lourdes Gourriel seeming to have all the momentum after a terrific 63-win campaign. But I also did caution (remember?) that this was precisely the series (since it seemed so one-sided at the outset) that might very well provided the league’s biggest upset of the year.

And now it turns out that I was absolutely right on at least one count. Unfortunately for Gallos partisans it was my caution and not my original projection that turned out to be most strictly on target.

Source: PL