Until this morning, everything seems perfect for the CHN team, Everyone advanced to the latest stage. All mixed doubles even cruised to the semifinal. Then suddenly, it is Taufik found the weakest link of CHN team, he beat Bao CL in 2 sets, which brought up the collapse of the whole team. Xie XF almost lost, not enough, then Zhang Ning lost in just 2 sets. not enough, both men's doubles lost. Exactly as I posted before, if someone beat one CHN players, then there will be a big collapse in CHN's defense. Tomorrow, CHN can be regrouped if they can heal the wound quickly, all of them could be advanced to the next round, this is more than 50% chance, or they will suffer more loses, not just 1.
If you look at the past Asian games, Chinese didn't seem to have much success compared to TC/UC/WC. They didn't win any men individual event in 2002, and only have a bronze in the team event. Not sure if they don't care much about the Asian games and not well-prepared, or the players are tired or burned out after a long season.
Agree with your assessment. Anyway, ZN losing is no big deal. Of late she has not been performing that well, either. China has never done a clean sweep where Asian Games is concerned.
Zhang Ning had done more than enough for China. The Chinese team should have blooded more young players in AG. And use Zhu Lin in the individual events, 'cos I think she has better mental capacity than Xie Xingfang.
Precisely...ZL, WYH are two of the many upcoming players. But maybe China wants to let ZN go out with a medal. But I think whatever it is, the younger players will be coming more into the international picture after this. ZN has had a very good and illustrious badminton career.
But the two china MD are still not consistent...Just like Fu/Cai...Their skills are very good and i though they would play at least rubber set with the mas pair as other MD all play till rubber set...I don't expect they lose easily...
China has sucess in usual tournaments like all england thomas cup etc. but when it comes to such big events they seem to play badly
I remember China almost clean swept all golds when it first joined the Asian Games in 70s. China grabbed all golds except 1 in badminton. After that, also did pretty good, might swept all golds in 1990, not sure here. Only after Lee YongBo took in charge the national team, China haven't done well. I think there are two reasons; 1st, because China is so dominant in the Asian Games in every sports, always grabs half of the total golds, 150 golds to 200 golds ??, so it doesn't need golds that much. Lee YB also admitted that every time his boss never gave him any task in Asian Games. So the second reason China did poor after LYB, is that since there was no target, so LYB and his team never took it seriously. They may take it a little bit seriously this time. But not before, Last time, they even did not use Lin Dan, (was number 1 that time) in the single events, not use Bao CL (number 3) either. But on WC and OG, especially Olympics, there is a strict task for LYB to take at least 2 golds. Otherwise he would be fired. So that's the difference. Because in OG, China needs the golds to compete with the US and Russia
i totally agree with this statement. the chinese teams MD is extremely inconsistent. some tournaments they play amazing, others they are mediocre. stating the obvious: china's weakest link by far is MD. i dont think there are any up and coming MD teams from china. they should start investing now...
FU/CAi have always been in trouble when facing Malaysian pairs, particularly KKK/Chan or KKK/anyone...so it is the KKK factor.... Personally, I prefer Markis/Hendra vs Fu/Cai to these Malaysian pair. Fu/Cai are easy to defeat KKK is just like Tony..He is very dangerous!!!! My heart always jumps up and down when Ina pairs meet KKK pairs... SInce KKK is not paired with CCM, I think Markis/Hendra will be able to handle them....But seriously, KKK/CCM is the most dangerous doubles players
Who knows???Anything could happens now...But KKK is really a great player...TBH is also not bad but still lack of experience...But no matter what the results is,they are already very good coz Fu/Cai is a good and experience pair but they can beat them easily...This is already a great achievement for the younger pair...
May the best pair win. HEhehe.. BTW talking about CHN collapse. Now the pressure is more towards Lin Dan. I hope he will not buckle under pressure. Taufik definately is going to take advantage of the situation. Its the psycological battle now.
LD handled it well in JO. Except this time he's facing a cool LHI in magnificent form who just blew Hafiz away in the QF.
Chinese MD have only in the recent years been a threat to the rest. Earlier on they always depended on the strengths of their MS. And if other teams could get a point from their MS they would usually be able to beat China in those days.
Why CHN players more like open tournaments Many people here pointed out that China players played better in open tournaments, and wondering why. Here is the answer from Xie XF. She said, she felt like in jail in AG. She cannot go anywhere except the dormitory and stadium. She felt depressed everyday facing the wall in the small room, having nothing to do. That's the reason she dislikes AG so much. Usually in open tournament, she can go anywhere, touring the city, eat out with Lin Dan. But in AG, no quality food, no fun, no freedom...
Fu/Cai don't have much skill for a top pair. They win on speed. They don't know how to play otherwise. If you can slow them down, they will get confused. If you get dragged into their speed game, you lose double-time.
Maybe Li Yongbo should ask his old partner Tian Bingyi to take over MD department. Bingyi did well for WD, now WD world top 4 pairs are all Chinese.
Hmm.. ..i've mentioned earlier before the AG started that winning all 7 golds in the Badminton event is out of this world, nearly impossible to achieve. I don't recall whether CHN mentioned their goal was to sweep all 7 golds or not. I think this AG is the most demanding tournament i've encountered. Imagine, having to play BOTH Team and Individual events, with the same amount no of players over roughly 10 days of competition. I mean, where else do we see that in professional badminton. Not in reg. Olympics, not TC/UC nor Sudirman Cup(both comes closest). Anyways, re ZN's lost, i think YPY was just quicker to or more aware of the shuttle(as i saw brief clips of their match). ZN seemed to "coast" a bit thruout the match.
in the last couple of years, there are no chinese md teams that pop into mind (other than fu/cai) possibily sang yang and zheng bo but that's kinda iffy... [SIZE=-6][/SIZE]
Bingo...I think Rexy and Ko Herry have realised the "trick" of playing against Fu/Cai. That's why Fu/Cai lost to Kido/Hendra (twice), Fairuz/Lin, and now KKK/TBH in the space of just a month Other pairs are still struggling to play against Fu/Cai. I think the same argument follows for Kido/Hendra as well. They still have to learn to play against willy veteran pairs like Tony/Candra and Clark/Blair; two pairs which they have lost to twice this year.