In Thomas Cup their opponents were actually a scratch pair and in G3 Li/Liu were the ones giving away 80% of the opponents points and of course the Match Points too. Who knows what would happen if there were no Lin Dan as the MS3. In BAC, minions didn't participate (their form might have still good by then without the break). In WC, Li/Liu played Liu/Zhang in SF who had very kind to get rid of Con/Kold in QF despite LC playing like a .... .
In the end, Li/Liu were the one who emerged victorious. Yeah, almost screwed up. Everything can happen. I began to suspect that minions didn't participate in BAC might contribute to their declined form. This is just a wild thinking and I know it has nothing to do with their declined form. But, the coincidence is there. You already know their form in team event and the tournaments after that.
It is definitely the wedding break that contributed to Marcus declined form. How much it affected Kevin and to their form, hard to tell. But watching their form in TUC, MO, WC kind of reminded me of their 2015 - 2016 form.
Maybe but in terms of money, they arent even close with minions. Just look at how much Sindhu signs with LiNing 7million $ deal. Minions should know this.
We don't even know how much exactly Li/Liu or minions are making. After winning several WC and OG medals, I am sure minions value will rise up.
1. Not comparing their success, just their play style. Nice strawman. 2. Koo wasn't overweight in 2007, if you think so Markus would obese by that standard. Even in 2010 Koo wasn't really fatter than Markus. That's not meant negative towards him - Koo just wasn't fat (yet) at that point. Watch the 2010 WC final, he still played incredibly there. 3. This isn't a strong era in MD by any means. Li/Liu are a very incomplete pair (neither a really good technical player, both have big flaws in their respective game), Kamura/Sonoda cannot kill the shuttle in an average hall....and the only really gifted net player who used to be dangerous to them is stuck in doubles hell with a back court player who makes more than 5 errors from above the net in one of his good games. An indicator: Goh/Tan weren't even relevant before 2016, and by a lot of MD pairs aging/retiring they are suddenly one of the better pairs left... In 2016, 3 Top10 pairs either retired or took a long break (Fu, Lee/Yoo, Ahsan) with all 3 top Korean pairs retiring altogether (Ko/Shin, Kim/Kim as well). That leaves a massive void. I'm not saying that the minions only have success because of that, and it's not their fault they don't have massive competition - you can only beat what's before you. Still, fact is that MD post 2016 is a joke compared to 2014, for example.
Agreed, I feel for that player.. I really do hope his partner will show a lot of improvement this year. I want the best form of this pair to play against top form minions soon. Ahsan didn't retire or take a long break, he was paired with Rian Agung Saputro but didn't work out as well as the coach expected. They actually defeated Li/Liu in WC 2017 in R2 surprisingly.
He took a break after that embarrassment in Rio, didn't he? He had injury troubles afaik (otherwise he just had a massive dip in Form for no reason). Either way, one of the Rio medal favorite pairs didn't play until recently, and Gold winning pair split because one retired, and the Gold favorites retired altogether. It's common for that to happen after an Olympic cycle, but this time there were no new pairs replacing them on the same level - partially because previously strong teams like Korea had no one waiting to get their shot (all Top3 pairs at a similar age, retiring at the same time). At least that's my theory. The minions were one of those younger pairs waiting to conquer the scene, and they had almost no opposition from other newcomers with the established Top10 weakening massively. Again, not taking anything away from them. Just wish we could have at least some tension like we used to in 2009-2012, where there was at least 3 pairs capable of winning titles, and the big rivalry between JungLee and CaiFu - this way its less about anticipating tight, awesome matches and more waiting to see if this is one of the like two tournaments a year where they f*ck up or have an injury
I wasn't a big fan of Koo/Tan either. Doesn't mean I can't respect their achievements and abilities they just got hyped way too massively by idiotic fans at the time, who believed that because Tan had that "smash record" which Yonex measured out of competition, with a different measuring approach than tournaments, and with only a few Yonex players attending, that he was all of a sudden the hardest smasher and best back court player in the world....complete bollocks, of course. Still, they had definite strengths and were able to produce some magical rallies and moments. 2007 AE and 2010 WC finals were really awesome matches, for example. The similarities I mentioned are less a one to one technical similarity (for starters, Tan is a left hander....), but Koo and Kevin are fairly similar on court, as I said, very outgoing, flamboyant characters, technically gifted, superb reading of the game,... although I'll yield that TBH and MGF are certainly less similar than that. Still, both usually win by setting a just blistering pace that the opponents can hardly follow (or not at all), and while they have solid defenses, it's not what makes them strong (as opposed to classic Korean MD pairs, such as Lee/Jung, Kim/Ha,..). MGF actually isn't that dissimilar to his former partner Markis Kido (e.g. both are not playing in a way you'd teach kids to emulate, but make it work for them ), but Setiawan is a completely different player than Kevin imop, so the pairs aren't really similar imop.
Well I guess those players have to age. And not to deny, those were just some very rare talents somehow shown up at the same time and somehow thrown into the scene altogether. Can't replace them just like that. The Koreans weren't that old age wise, but they chose to retire anyway. Fu was probably way too expired and damaged by then, he only stayed for the sake of Sudirman Cup. And I am quite fortunate and probably one of the billions who wasn't much a fan of JungLee and CaiFu era, so I am not that sad they are not around anymore. There are some good matches now and then, just not as often. I am glad I have become big fan of minions last year (after witnessing their "growth" in Dubai SSF 2017), who always appear in at least SF or F in every tournament till now. But I still had to bang my head to the table often when ZN had to lose too often in early stages last year. The problem with MD matches lately is that sometimes great matches happened in early stages and no streaming!! And then lame matches just happen in SF or F because of the weird-so-called-random-draw lol.
You're a unicorn. How can you not like those battles....anyway, it's not like that's the only rivalry or great matches one could possibly enjoy. 2013-2014 had some really incredible matches as well, Fu/Zhang vs Lee/Yoo at the DO, the '14 WC final,....but the only tight matches I've seen recently weren't at a tournament-winning level. Sure, tight scores are exciting, but I may have gotten spoiled by seeing tight scores, excellent badminton and late tournament stages all rolled into one in past years
Yeah, Fu/Zhang vs Lee/Yoo DO 14 final was great and some others too. I guess I enjoy battles of wits more than battles of physical haha Tight scores don't always mean exciting matches lately, it's such a shame. I don't know why, the draw somehow always make things so intense in one half but much less in the other. Result : meh finals. Could be the busy schedule and all too. Last year, most top pairs performed really bad all through the year. Just look at the WTF qualifiers and some of the group draw.. disappointing.
Finally someone mentioned it!!! I notice it too since the world tour final game back in December the jawline and neck is slowly fading away
Just finished watching the AG 2018 MD finals , minions actually lost the 1st game and trailing behind at G3 14-18 but Wow minions managed to comeback level and won it. During post match interview, Rian said minions calmness in maintaining their composure led them to win Now, Minions lost to Han/Zhou twice is it due to under pressure? anyone would like to share insight on this?
Couldn't agree more. just watch the match between minions and fajar/rian in indonesia masters, that match really should be the final. it's so entertaining, so many good rallies...not the typical indonesia vs indonesia MD match. I really hope they can met each other again in the all england, slower hall...the quality of the match should be even better.
Why do you think minions keep winning then? They are not physically above the others. That's the problems with the other MD pairs, they don't use much wits in their game. So minions (fine, I mean Kevin's) wit usually prevail in the end. Why do you think I keep wishing for Kevin and Zhang Nan (with both partners in their good form too) to meet as often as possible? Not only for their skill and technical, that's for sure
Probably just a slight mismatch in terms of play style. I don't think they feel extra pressure or sth
I don't really understand what you're trying to say. They may be smaller than a lot of their opponents, but badminton is not about maximum strength, so it doesn't matter a lot (if it were, Asians wouldn't do quite as well )...your post sounded like they're playing a tactical game while everybody else is just smashing their arm off, which is definitely not the case...and they don't make huge mid-game adaptations on their own either, so I don't see where you come up with them playing a game of wits vs other pairs being all physical If you want to point out one pair that compensated for lesser athletic ability with very tactical play, look at BoMo, not a pair that plays some of the fastest badminton
