Tomorrow his opponent is his junior Zhu Siyuan whom I believe will go all out to upset him, who wouldn't?
I am totally agree with you, especially when I saw the way he drop his bag when he changed side in G3, and his coach had to bring his towel and water for him, slightly disappointed.
That's nothing, the coach XXZ and him are like buddies. It's his boredom and disappointment that the crowd is so small, less than 500, and other things about the venue which he didn't say much what about, which bothered him. Apparently, badminton is not popular in Brazil. I think come the Olympics, most of the spectators may come from Asia.
Doesn't matter. I have even seen the senior coach who usually sits with XXZ to coach Lin Dan, carrying his bag. Even if XXZ was exactly equal to him, LD should bring his stuff over. Frankly, I have never seen any other player using his coaches to carry around his bag. The fact that he is so overconfident, and thinks himself above his coach, can also be his undoing for he will then not listen to his coaches. Tell me one thing: Does he even practice with the National Team? Or is he practicing separately?
In fact, some of the CHN coaches like to carry the players' kitbags when changing ends,such as Zhang Ning. As for Lin Dan training in the National Team, of course he does except not with Chen Long.
Another comfortable win over his compatriot.....17-21 21-12 21-14 Lin Dan will take on Spaniard Pablo Abian in the Rio Finale and
Seems like they are using the scoring software that will be used in the Olympics. They want to be well prepared next year.
Asian Games and European Games Badminton Champions meet in Rio Grand Prix Final Debated this long and hard with myself, but I just have to make it a point to watch this live-- late-career Lin Dan with his lifting/controlling game and Pablo Abian (Badminton Champion at Inaugural European Games this year) with his stroking-rallying game should be interesting (AKA long rallies)... though it's really just a matter of whether Lin Dan loses patience first or Pablo Abian loses concentration first. Head-to-Head statistics are against Pablo Abian, but should be a shirt-exchange worthy event despite the small, rather clueless crowd... too bad I have to sit through Li Yun's hollering in the WS Finals to get there...
The 18-yr-old Li Yun is elated and over-reacted in her double victory over the top seed, Rong Shafer, once in the group stage, then in the QFs. I supposed she was too eager to prove herself to her coaches that her selection into the CHN National 1st Team is justified. It won't be long before she is silenced when she faces more experienced and capable opponents in the near future. By the way,her screaming sounds esp loud on youtube, perhaps due to the manner it is transmitted which is also out-of-sync; the other players shouting sounded just as loud to me even when I set the volume to 20% or lower.
Pablo Abian beating Guo Kai is no mean feat. If Lin Dan continues pushing his luck playing his unmotivated,lazy,oh-so-casual,lackluster badminton, I won't be the least bit surprised if the highly-charged, fired-up Abian go all out, throwing caution to the wind to stun him for a celebrated,(maybe?) sensational victory. I'm worried that Lin Dan's mediocre game has settled into a bad habit and we know how hard it is to kick it once it sticks. I doubt anybody, not even Lin Dan, can instantly transform himself into a different player without at least a short period of some determined effort and mental preparation. The fact that he's been under par the whole of the year is proof positive of this. The good thing is he sounds to be in earnest for his third Olympic gold quest as reported in the Chinese press, but that's still months away. Today's final, we'll see.
To make matters worse for him, Lin Dan is upset about the venue and the low turnout of aprox 100 spectators for an already small 500-seat capacity in the stadium layout as well as the dearth of publicity for the tournament; so too does Yonex, the sponsor. In other words, he simply struggles to settle in the tournament, just cannot get into the game. At first I thought Guo Kai would prevail over Abian and steal Lin Dan's thunder today. Never mind, I'm sure Abian will prove he's no pushover either.
of those 100 people watching,70 are coaches,players etc....and the real number of fans is around 25 i believe.
Li Yun could use some coaching in G3. In G2, her backhand deep corner is being exploited by Shen Yaying.