I was pretty shocked by today's game. I expected a LD, LCW, LD match, with 21:15, 18:21, 21:12 I expected LD to pressure for two consecutive games, pushing LCW to play his absolute best second game. But he just... flopped. So terribly. I'm not really confident it was stamina or anything like that, I don't think he looked tired. His shots were just lackluster. He had enough in that third game to pull out some Super Dan moves, attesting to the fact it wasn't a stamina issue. I don't really want to blame the environment either, I don't really understand what happened, but both players had some wildly terrible shots. I'm talking the lifts and clears that went out beyond the doubles side lines. How did they manage those? That's a little disappointing. He had that big wad of tape on his back, but I didn't see him really having any signs of discomfort or issue. I saw a little through the hole in his top before they started playing, and figured it was just a little tape. It wasn't until they swapped shirts that we saw he had an enormous amount on him. Again, I didn't see him show any discomfort, some disappointed looks, but not discomfort. I don't think I have more to say than Lin Dan actually played the wrong long game tactically. I think he needed a better performance in that second game. He needed to force LCW to work. He went for the vanilla strategy of using round 2 as a breather, but the point of that is to burn your opponent's stamina just by playing a movement game, not to fluff every shot and waste your own energy. Regardless of if he decides to stop playing, I hope LD sets his sights on coaching.
You should've placed your bet on LCW with me (although it would still be void if Chen Long triumph) I'll have to buy my friend a new racket only if Chen Long grab gold. The bet is void if LCW triumph. With a H2H of 12:13 to LCW's favor (with both have beaten each other 4 times in a row, it could go either way)
You're right, but my money was all on LD winning. I was really 50:50 about who's going to win but I didn't bet against LCW winning , I placed a bet against Chen Long winning.
That's true to any extend. He will play his last Olympics game, and he will retire. But I don't think he will retire immediately. He's just signed with Yonex, and the deal is beyond 2020, so I think (hope) he shall still play for another year (or two) before actually retire, and switch to coaching or celebrity role. Sent from my Passport using Tapatalk
Lin Dan's open letter to Lee Chong Wei : If there are still some people that hate this man....Then humanity weeps for them.
I have been saying this, Lin Dan has humility born of true greatness. He is a great guy, the more you know him, the more you'll like, respect and admire him.
The tapes couldn't help him today Lin Dan - '' I trained very hard for these games and I am satisfied with my Performance despite the outcome "
The tapes are for protection from further injury to strained muscles. Often misused by jokers to give excuse for their Papa losing.
Check out https://hype.my/2016/118182/linlee-lin-dans-supposed-letter-to-dato-lee-chong-wei-is-fake/. Just be aware.
How can that be when the quality of the Lin Dan - LCW match isn't that high and Lin Dan was somewhat off-form, and , most importantly, Chen Long played his best badminton to beat LCW who also claimed he played better than he did at London Olympics 2012 and all his World Championships as well as accepting that Chen Long played better than him that day ? In other words, if the Lin Dan - LCW semifinal match is the true final then the winner of that match should take the gold medal match too. Instead it was Chen Long who proved to be the most outstanding player of the tournament to emerge Olympic gold medalist.
There was a lot of history behind that match. Both players gave it all they had because of that. That's what made it special. Many years from now people will remember this match rather than the final because of both these players and how they fought for it. It certainly was the true final that we all wanted to see.
Completely agree. Watching these two play a rather slow game is still more exciting than watching others players, in my opinion. Because of their fluid footwork and great racket skills. I think Chen Long always shows good sportsmanship and he seems to be a really nice guy, but I don't like to watch him play. I think it's boring because it's too predictable and robotic, like Chen Jin, if you will. The magic is missing. I can't be the only one thinking like this?! An indicator is the number of pages the different players' threads have. And I think Chen Long has less fans than Chong Wei, even in China.
