*adds more charcoals into the fire* IF you see the release of the Mixed Team draw for the CG, NZ is ranked 3rd and Singapore 4th, with Canada being 5th and Australia coming in at 6th unfortunately. Interestingly, the Aussies will have a chance to turn the tables on the Kiwis as they are both grouped together in Group B. Only the best 2 teams in each group will advance to the quaterfinals (knock-out) stage. If they play to form, both the Aussies and Kiwis should be the top two teams of Group B. Question is who will be 1st and who will be 2nd. The 2nd in the group will no doubt be facing the top team of Group A, which unfortunately will be the almighty Malaysians, the top seed. So the Trans Tasman rivalry will be ferocious as each will try to avoid the fate of being beaten by Malaysia in the quaterfinals and missing out on the podium. Based on current performances and forms of the players, the Kiwis should beat the Aussies but then again the Aussies will have home ground advantage and no doubt, verocious crowd support. I'm rubbing my hands in glee and anticipation of the NZ vs Australia match. Hopefully it'll provide me with juicy ingredients for my daily report on the event. Be sure to read all about it on the IBF website A
Adelina, I wonder how you'll choose your words if the Aussies should triumph. As I understand it the matches were pretty close during the TUC and now that they are playing on home ground, 'luck' seems to favour them.
Watch out for the aussies It will be an interesting pool in Pool B, as mentioned both Aussies and Nz teams will be desperate to win to avoid playing malaysia in the quarter finals. Aussies have been losing to NZ quite consistently of late but with a late injury to John Gordon, ruling out their top mens doubles pairing and some better results from Kate/Kellie in ladies doubles there just maybe an upset brewing. Aussies r desperate to win a medal in this event and there will be a fair bit of emotion thrown in with retirement looming for a few players and some surprise picks for the team. Come on the Aussies... turn the tables on the Kiwis and bring home a medal in front of the home crowd.
U seemed like u registered on here just to reply me that...to tell u the truth, i aint aussie nor an aussie fan, neither a kiwi hater, ive live and played badminton in NZ b4, wat i was saying is just the truth, maybe all of them went in the main draw but thats because only their top players played and they have good rankings, and i think none made it to the 2nd round?? Their rankings are high up only because they play a lot in tournys around oceania, and there are no competition, they kick the aussies ass, win it, gain ranking points, and shoot up in ranking...am i wrong...maybe thats apart from Dan and sara who obviuosly are pretty good, and btw Dan's a very talented player IMO too bad he's quite old now...but on top of that, for eg John Moody, his ranking between 30-40 i think(might be wrong), but he would easily be beaten by a world ranked over 100 malaysian, chinese, korean or indonesian or denmark player...simply because those countries have so many good players those others dnt get a chance to play tournys...so ranking does not show much unless ur in the top 15 But 1 thing i have to say, Im impressed by Bad NZ, theyve done a fantastic job promoting badminton in NZ and we've seen tremendous improvements in the squad, plus i admire some of the players determination, among them Rebecca Bellingham, Dan, Sara theyve tried really hard... And if u havent know this Bec has done alot of work promoting badminton in NZ especially to juniors, u see her on the "no speed limit" logo...and her car has that logo as well lol... And on that i have to admit Kiwis are much more hardworking and has a better system to develope talents than the aussies in term of badminton so im guessing thats the reason y aussies have got their ass kicked(tho Lenny would kick all their ass when she recovers lol)...so once again hardwork proves to be the key to success... So conclusion, to "coach", ive seen badminton in both countries from grassroot level to national squad, and read alot about professional badminton and follows the whole season, so i know where Kiwis and Aussies stand in terms of badminton in the world...I am by no means bias to NZ nor Aus...only country i would be bias towards is msia coz im born malaysian and would never forget where i came from... Good luck to both sides in the games and one thing i know, "malaysia will kick Englands ass this time round"...hehehehe
