I predict Chen Long will be able to handle Viktor in the semifinal and Chen Long will prevail in the other half to contend LD or LCW. Within four years from now VA should be able to start winning Superseries. But if you ask me my prediction for Tokyo 2020, I would still go with Chen Long right now. Beside Chen Long, there will be many future young stars like Kento Momota coming back (that VA's struggling to beat), Xue Song, Jeon Hyoek Jin and our trio youngsters (Jonathan Christie, Ihsan Maulana, Anthony Ginting) also going up on the rise. Adding some older players making their way out in Tokyo 2020, competition would be tight and though I'm not underestimating him I also not seeing him as a favorite yet.
Is the above prediction even possible, given the current draw (unless the draw is not accurate)? LD and LCW would face off in SF, only one would survive. I predict LCW. Someone already pointed out, LD seems to have motivation issue, while LCW is still going very strong.
As usual...the future is not bright for the malaysian badminton team in the olympics. I doubt if this year is any different. The odds are...probably just another silver for malaysian mens single....
It may be a bad luck for LCW to meet Lin Dan in semi final as he may ended up with bronze in his last Olympics. However, there is also no guarantee for LCW to win if he meets Lin Dan in the final. Regardless of the draw, he needs to overcome Super Dan. All the best to LCW
Checked out poll result out of curiosity, many BC senior members voted LD including CLELY, JustinL, DinkAlot, pcl99 while there's not even one notable members on LCW's side.
Qidong choa654 chandler_k04 well-son indrg jickman n3w813 Limited328 Ashaan stradrider shoffee SolsticeOfLight Sundis Glitchy pathan ThatBadGuy poohpooh racketman123 Wussy iAsianGuy Gali_99 blabl BadSID elkew B-J-R shiba amit008 thljcl Daniel™ Master badlove tmbadmntn677 Raajneesht dodot goody Vijay P. Ethandack CIA-99 selasarorg Swedebadminton TurbanatorIII Nonconvex All these people voted for LCW with 42 votes.
DinkAlot Builder taufik CLELY andre_kostolany Tekkai shooting stroke chichee pcll99 Justin L jkkwongnz Sambo DaiLo nilesh123 Qiang.Feng skhai91 RC47 VWong The_One haloyo onsfraaske Dedes Taiyang All these people voted for Lin Dan with 23 votes.
One more change to consider, in addition to what had already been discussed this far. On China/Lin Dan side, nothing has changed in terms of coaching staff support. On LCW side, however, something significant happened since 2012 Olympics. Malaysia added Morten Frost and Hendrawan to help him. The two could advise Lee on strategy and mental (how to relieve pressure). You could see some of LCW's speculative moves in his recent tournament, in which he "destroyed" LD (see Asia Championship just 3 months ago). This was a 3-gamer, but LD only got 4 points in the 3rd game (20-22, 21-15, 21-4)! LD was ambushed a couple of times, too. If not anything else, this coaching staff change should be a boast in morale/confidence.
The expensive investment by Malaysia on Frost and Hendrawan (who was offered 10 times what he's making in Indonesia and all the lucrative perks, an offer he couldn't refuse) was made because they haven't given up on LCW, who's probabaly their biggest chance for their first ever Olympic gold. Even though LCW succumbed twice in the hand of LD in Beijing and London, LCW was given more support by BAM to revenge LD and bring back gold from Rio. What's is the better way for LCW to repay all this but simply bring glory for Malaysia by winning gold in two weeks time? I'm in just for their clash, the eagerly waited mouth watering trilogy epic battle of LD and LCW. A semifinal that hopefully will happen, and a semifinal that could be more important than the final itself. Just give me the LD vs LCW Oly part 3 epic trilogy battle for the one final last time before they retire.
I'm afraid it could be wishful thinking that the appointment of Hendrawan and later Frost could have such a significant positive impact on LCW's mentality. When a similar view was expressed sometime ago I countered that it didn't really help when Hendrawan's services was engaged in April 2015 , just a few months before LCW's second WC defeat, 21-14 and 21-17, to Chen Long in Aug'15 at Jakarta which, impressively,happened to be Chen Long's 4th victory in a row over LCW that began coincidentally with the previous year's WC'14 followed by the Incheon AG'14 and the Chinese Taipe GPG'15. That should made us wonder whether the supposed boost in mentality contributed by Hendrawan and Frost's advice/coaching to LCW's game in helping him to overcome his nemesis, Lin Dan, and archrival, Chen Long, of late could be carried over to a major championship such as the Olympics as opposed to those other non-major match victories remains as yet to be seen. Without doubt the Olympics , just as the World Championships, are a different ball game and, apparently,LCW's record when it comes to the crunch is nothing short of dismal. For sure, the burden of the pressure of expectation in his last and final shot for that elusive glory now that he is at the tail end of his long career is no less heavy than it ever was.
Yes, LD and CL can only hope for what you predict. If LCW could play freely in major tournaments like he does in SS/SSP tournaments, they both would have won less majors. I'm convinced. And LD knows that. In the post-match interview at the WC11 he said in the end he just hoped for a mistake from Chong Wei. Very telling indeed.
That s what LD did in China Open 2015 Game 1. He was up 20-17 ( I may be wrong.) And he thought LCW would just fold, like in previous matches. LCW did not fall for that. In the past, LCW had to have at least a 5 point advantage to close out a match with LD.
It won't make any difference , whatever the poll results. However it just shows the older members like the past and the younger members don't care about the past.
@Justin L: Please review the following major tournaments in the last 12 months: HK Open Asia Championship China Master Malaysia Open LCW beat CL every time. Except World Championship in August last year.
I am going to give a very fair judgement and fair opinion here. Hope what I have stated will not cause any controversies. To be honest I am a great fan of MD (LYD / YYS). I really like MD matches so much as it is so exciting. But honestly speaking I am also a great fan of MS (Lee Hyun Il) who to me is a great MS player. But then there is always something very special about LCW. I am definitely not a great fan of LCW. But his humble attitude and his good court manners is definitely good. Plus being world ranked no 1 at this kind of old age is definitely something that is telling about his good skills and abilities. I need not be LCW fan to know that his result has been good hence he is now world ranked no 1. LCW has certainly achieved a lot of things that I myself have wished that Lee Hyun Il could achieved. At the same age as LCW, LHI is already no longer world no 1. In fact to be honest LHI is never a word ranked no 1 type of player. In badminton a lot is about consistency and sustainability. I know it is very subjective issue indeed. But having consistency is the thing that will make a player ranked no 1 for so long. Getting ranked no 1 for so long and even at this age is definitely not easy. I am not bias here. Just stating my opinion.
To be honest it is very difficult do judge how good a player is and so forth. In fact it is very controversial indeed at times. But for me I tend to look at the consistency of a player. Consistency is very important in badminton. I know there are not many players who can show such consistencies. But for a player as old as LCW to be able to have that kind of consistency is never easy. It is never easy to be top player. let alone ranked no 1 at this age. Hard work and diligent in training makes a lot if big difference. Only hard working players will excel. So this I think really tell something. Plus LCW court manners is exceptionally good and he is also humble despite ranked no 1. There are not many players who can maintain good attitude at the court. I know there are many badminton players with bad court attitudes but I would prefer not to name it here to avoid controversies. Even without naming the players name here I think people around the whole world also knows who are those players with bad court manners. For me I only respect those players with good court attitudes and manners. Those players with bad court attitudes don't earn my respect. For me in my mind I already know who will win this MS gold medals in Olympics. I guess everyone in the whole world also can predict already. Anyway I will just wait for the MS results to be out in Olympics to confirm what I wanted to say is right. i won't say it now. The 2015 and 2916 h2h record has been very obvious. This is just the my humble opinion. Hope it won't stir up any controversies.
Of course, I'm aware of that when I looked at their H2H. It still doesn't invalidate the point I'm making. Remember, it's the majors that I'm emphasizing and Chen Long succeeded twice, in WC'14 and WC'15, with two other non-major victories in-between for a 4-match winning streak, incidentally. Talking about 4-match winning streaks, Chen Long achieved it twice against LCW before but, to my surprise, this record was broken by none other than Lin Dan who beat LCW 5 times in a row, from All England Mar'12, then LOG'12, World Championships '13, Incheon Asian Games'14, and finally, the Japan Open Sep'15 !
