Lin Dan is a very extraordinary player. What can you guys say about the pressure on him on winning the gold for china?isn't he made to capture that gold? Hold on a bit...LD is not yet pressure resistant, he may falter due to pressure e.g 2006 doha-vs. Taufik..., 2005 world championship-vs. Taufik...these things are concrete examples of his instability during bigbig tournaments. with these given facts, can you say that he can take the gold? What are the skills he should improve on?net? what are the steps he should take for him to complete and finish his career in fashion?
i think it'll be difficult to defeat him in beijing if he's fully fit, especially since it'll be homeground advantage, and if he has his bodyguards (BCL/CJ/CY) around to tire everyone else out before he plays with them ...
Who can challenge him? LCW is no longer a threat. TH is in good mood less than 10% of the time. PD is a year older. BCL can't beat LD. CJ's skill is not at LD's level yet - and LYB may ask CJ to give LD the gold. I will bet everything on LD.
I think at this point he truly deserves it. Back in 2004, there was a little doubt if he was the best and it showed he wasn't ready to dominate by his performance in Athens. Now he truly is the best player out there. Not unless Taufik becomes committed again, I don't see that happening. Even if it did, there's no guarantee a fit Taufik will beat a fit Lin Dan.
I am rooting for Taufik the guy is an enigma, like Maradona at Football. Badminton needs him more than he needs Badminton. In Lin Dan's back yard if he took gold it would be beyond great. We need him to stop the rot in Badminton with the Chinese dominating it's becoming a bore.
THe pressure will be Tremendous for him to get Gold Medal in Beijing. It depends on the Draw as well.
TH knows that playing too many tournaments only educate his opponents so his edge over his opponents has a component of surprise. LD skills are simple, speed and explosive power with ok stroke, so nothing really to hide except playing slow on less challenging players. That's why LD can lose to lesser skilled players, he's just toying them around and sometime risk mistiming the comeback pace. LD only concern as i see it is not getting an unnecessary or silly injury. If OG occurs today (2007), gold medal is a shoe in for him.
He certainly can, and has a good chance of doing so. But you can't say he's going to be just as dominant as he is now. He probably will be. But a lot can change in a year. I wouldn't make any big predictions until closer to the actual tournament. He's always going to have a good chance though whatever happens.
Taufik might retire after the Olympics and will surely play his best. Lin Dan main rival will be Taufik Hidayat as he wants to win it badly. Lin Dan has some advantage playing at his own country
I think that's a good point that you made about Taufik but the problem with that is the less you play the less ranking point's you get. When the Olympic games arrive he will not have as many and his seeding will be low making it harder for him. They might boost him up a bit seeing he is the current Olympic champion.
Agree with you....LD could lose, probably in the early rounds as LD tends to take his early rounds' opponent easy to a point of under-estimating them, or if he got injured, or if CHN has the top 4 seeds, then it is possible for LD to meet PG or LCW in the early rounds...sure home court advantage favours LD but the pressure in Beiging, that could be a good thing or a bad thing, time will tells. One could be sure that if TH participates, TH will put everything in this event, and to go out with a bang and we know how much TH wanna screw up LD.
Yaya, Lin Dan always lose when under pressure.. Lin Dan is playing in his own country.. depends how he handle the pressure.. if he can, he have a good chance to win the title..
"in Dan always lose when under pressure", that is not true though...LD can get beaten in early round when he is not taking his opponent seriously...only when he plays TH or other top players, then he would tighten up his game...look at SF 2005AE, he came back to beat LCW, and that was one of the best game I have seen. Then again, OG08 in Beiging, the pressure must be nuts! and a lot depends on the draw, LD's team-mates seeding and whether LD faces TH and LCW early. If LD get past QF, my bet on him.
Its unoften that a new young guns player will win in the olympics, so no one new should be able to beat our surrent roster of badminton wolrd class players. hence, Simon S and other newbies are out CY, BCL, CJ can all beat Lin Dan on occassion, but a fit and committed lin dan is very difficult to overcome. plus there is the whole respect thing, you respect your superiors, and lin dan is definetely their superior, they might not want to upset him. (upset as in beat him early, not make him sad, although that would happen) as for TH, he is an enigma, and anything can happen to him. if it is true he is going to retire after the OG, its is very likely we will have a TH-LD final if the draw allows for it. PG is too old, and its actually liekly he'll retire before then. personally, i want Bobby Milroy to win, cause he's canadian, and maybe then the badminton program in canada will get a lot of funding and i can train with feather birdies XD
If Bobby Milroy could survive the first round or the qualifying round, that is an achievement...but we can all dream, hahaha! LOL!
If Bobby Milroy could survive the first round or the qualifying round, that is an achievement...but we can all dream cos miracles can happen, hahaha! LOL!
Lin Dan will win the OG 2008 Gold if there is no surprise. Lin Dan usually lose when he is over confident over his opponent. We saw this when he was playing against Taufik in ASIAN GAME DOHA. He could have wrapped up the 2nd game but he paid the price by challenging Taufik to play net knowing that Taufik was controlling the net play on that day. I agree with OneToughBirdie, as long as Lin Dan doesn't take his opponent lightly, he should win gold in OG 2008.
The answer to that question is NO..... Beijing olympic Gold belongs to TH..... Games-type competion is TH's specialty. It's in his blood, Man....
I agree Taufik is a good player and he is crafty. He is the only one that can challenge Lin Dan. But I thnik his fitness does not allow him to compete to the level that he wants anymore. Sometimes you can't fight against age eventhough you have very high spirit. His prime is over. I don't see why badminton is not in Lin Dan's blood. I can feel it when I watch him playing againt every top player. Every move and every dive he made is not for fun.
