From memory yes, think they lost out to their compatriots Fukuman/Yonao? I've gone and watch a few more videos on the pair and noticed quite a lot of people pronounce "Matsumoto" instead of "Matsutomo" (including myself at the beginning)- wonder if she gets annoyed or kinda brush it off? Another video on the finals match- obviously no clue on the commentary-
45 minutes, what a whopper of a video. Here are the first 14 minutes, the rest will have to be a cliffhanger for when I have more time (it takes many times longer to actually put the stuff into English than to just watch, this probably took an hour haha). Narrator introduces them. Rank 1, powerful smash, etc. The bond they created since grade school, the dream of the olympics, etc. Misaki says they've always wanted the gold at the olympics and stuff. Some stuff about how hard it is and shortly about Ayaka getting hurt. Apparently they're abroad for almost half the year due to the 10+ tournaments. 9 years since they paired up. Unusually long. Ayaka is 25 and likes changing nail designs when they're away. "They grow quite a bit even during three weeks of training camp so I feel like changing the design" and some more stuff about that. The 23 year old Misaki loves eating. There's a Japanese (duh, they're in Japan, but she means with traditional Japanese food ) restaurant nearby where she goes practically every day. They go there with the team. Misaki orders rice and miso soup. "These two are opposites personality-wise". They ask Kurihara (yay!) what Ayaka's personality is like. She replies that she's good at taking care of people, juniors for example. Narrator says she's cheerful and sociable. (Nozomi is there as well!). Misaki is quiet and shy. Ayaka says Misaki's strong point is that she's smart. The dude says her handwriting is good. Narrator says that when these two contrasting people form a pair a strong power is created. Now they cut to the superseries finals and the narrator talks a bit (only eight pairs can appear, they won, etc). He says stuff about how they play, rallying and "the technician" Misaki pulling in the opponent with net play and Ayaka smashing and stuff. First japanese #1 world ranking. Now he talks about that they need to understand each other well ("telepathy"), and gives an example with Misaki pushing deep into the opponent's corner and Takahashi moving in the back accordingly and preparing to smash. Another example; Misaki aiming close to the body so they can't get the shuttle back well and Ayaka already stepping forwards to smash the return she knew would be weak before it comes. "Exactly as planned". Ayaka: To understand without using words, to think something and to want to do something are the same (yeah, Japanese is funny in that you don't need to make sense to get the meaning across... right?) Misaki: Our continuous attacks are probably our best weapon (the narrator mentioned their "continuous attacks" with the examples earlier, seems to be a thing). <something (can't hear)> have confidence in it. Narrator: their continuous attacks are a big threat to their opponents. Higashino Arisa (not sure who it is, but yeah): Even if we return the shots, matsutomo is waiting for it, and in the opposite side takahashi is waiting for it; our shots get read and get hit. Narrator: Their continuous attacks "of one mind" (the thing talked about with examples before); what they created for fourteen years. Cute pictures with fancy clothes when they're 4/5 years old. Apparently that's when they met. Ayaka played badminton from first year in grade school and won best place in the national tournament (All Japan) from fourth to sixth grade. Older guy (Matsumura, coach, presumably Ayakas during grade school): she put in the most effort. Even during breaks she'd be the only one hitting etc. Misaki, from Tokushima, also won several successive All Japan championships from fourth grade, specialising in net play. Misakis coach: She had a small body, but she had a feel for speed and was faster than all the other kiddos. Narrator: Being one year apart, they never faced each other in tournaments. But which one is stronger? Their coaches decided to arrange a practise match. Ayaka: I definitely didn't want to play, thinking she was one year younger but super strong. But they did play. It was Ayakas overwhelming victory. But this match changed their lives. Misaki: I was beaten full of holes but it was super fun. I was happy to be able to play. Coming up next: One child prodigy writes a letter to another child prodigy.
Excellent work nemrod! Will wait patiently for part 2 (understand how time consuming it is to do translations)
Here's the remaining half hour: The match triggered Misaki to write a letter to Ayaka. The distance between them shrunk rapidly. Dude asks Misaki if she started the letter-writing because of admiration (and Ayaka laughs ). Misaki says she doesn't remember, but says she probably just wrote a ton of questions. Even when entering high school Misaki chased after Ayaka and chose the same school (wow, talk about dedication/obsession/stalker tendencies ). It was a very strong school. But Ayaka had back pains and stopped being able to win, and the small in stature Misaki carried the weight of not having enough power. The coach, Tadokoro Mitsuo, decided to make them form a pair. In doubles their differences might work out. Coach: An attacking player and a player with good technique make a good pair. Matsutomo will do good plays to make the opponent lift and Takahashi can hit it with good feeling. They trained like they were reborn. Ayaka: From the start I didn't really think I could hit that strong smashes, I noticed that through Misaki. The Japanese high school nationals (2008) strengthened their bonds. Ayaka sprained her ankle before the match and played with painkillers. Misaki says the opponents aimed at Ayaka and that she definitely didn't want to lose. Narrator: Misaki desperately chased the shuttle thinking she didn't want to put strain on Ayaka. Ayaka says that's her best memory, Misaki working so hard and them playing a good game. They won, and got the dream to appear in the Olympics in doubles. They continued their pairing after graduating and polished their combination "of one mind" aiming for the gold. August. One year until the Rio olympics. Who gets to play is decided according to results in May. But, their condition has worsened this year. Lots of losses in the first or second round. The reason is China. The country that has won doubles gold in five consecutive olympics. With overwhelming attacking play with their power and speed thanks to their physique. Last year they fought quite evenly, but this year they (AT/MM) have fallen behind. Their tactics have been studied, their consecutive plays are being sealed by quick attacks right off the bat. To combat that they put effort into training receives. 4 vs 1 training. Shots from all kinds of angles. 40 consecutive shot training, training speed and power to combat China. One hour long receive sessions. To enable them to play their consective plays. September. The Japan Open where the world's top players will gather. But right from the start they will be tested. The second game after taking the first game easily. Misaki: "ouch ouch ouch ouch" (yeah, that does look very ouch). She twisted her ankle. She can't move well. But she receives treatment and continues playing. Matsutomo's dull movements. Takahashi covers all alone. They're now in opposite positions from the high school championships. Ayaka: I said I'll cover so it's okay. Don't push yourself if it hurts. They somehow managed to win, but the second round is dangerous. The diagnoses said it would take a month to recover, and they couldn't appear in matches. Takahashi continued training by herself. The other pairs began to close in on them in ranking points and it wouldn't be strange for them to be overtaken at any moment. If it continues like this, in the worst case they'll lose the spot in the olympics. End of September, Misaki comes back to training after her injury has healed. She says she sprained three places in the foot. "It hurt a little..." Their first training together for a while. But their cogs didn't fit as well. Takahashi continued doing mistakes she normally wouldn't. They can't play their usual tenacious play. Ayaka is hurrying and putting shuttles in the net. Nakashima Kei (former Chinese representative?) asks her why. "It won't be decided immediately, be more self-aware about that". Ayaka: When the score gets close I want to finish it and it becomes a lot of smashing. He says if they can't keep the rallies going they can't win. Narrator: behind the haste was the impatience that they need to win. Ayaka: I'm feeling gloomy. Or, like, it would be bad if we lose, what should we do since we're not in normal condition etc. Narrator: But, she couldn't put her impatience into words because she thinks it would make Misaki feel responsible. Ayaka: I think that Misaki thinks she's caused trouble for me by getting hurt and I don't want to make her think that. Narrator: with her thoughts hidden they lose in the second round in a tournament. The cogs in their combination didn't fit. They have a talk together with the coach. Ayaka talks about her impatience for the first time. "I thought I needed to get it across. I hadn't told anyone about it." Matsutomo first learned that Ayaka had been worrying. And she admitted to the same impatience. "We were both pressured in various ways and being able to express that was refreshing and a good opportunity." After that, they've talked and tried to get back to their old form. They overcome things one after the other. November. In one week there is a large tournament. The place is the home of their rivals, China. The two practise receiving again. The coaches for the male players appear. The four of them become practise partners against the pair. Strong smashes come one after the other. Receives go high into the back of the court. It's their anti-China tactic. If the receives are weak the Chinese players can easily finish it. When they lift as close to the line as possible the opponents won't be able to return with force and here the counterattack starts. To give a name to it: "offensive receives". It's a strategy to be able to play their continuous attacks. Misaki: Our characteristic is our continuous attacks with our combination. To hold out without giving up until the opponent tires of it. But it's not easy to return like that and if it's not deep enough they get taught a lesson. The only way is to learn by repetition. To win against strong enemies with their own plays. If it's the two of them, they can do it. The day of the decisive match against their rivals has come. The audience cheers for the Chinese players. Their goal is to win gold. With plays that come from their combination they get to the finals for the first time in 7 months. Their opponent in the finals are Chinese. The pair that won in a tournament two weeks ago. The gold medalist in the beijing olympics yu yang and the 175cm tall 21 years old tang yuanting. Takahashi and Matsutomo practise offensive receives 4 vs 2 right up until the match. Misaki: If we can play long rallies and hold out taking everything... <trails off into a mumble> Finally, the finals. Can they use their aggressive receives to bring out the continuous attacks they specialise in? In the first game... the sudden Chinese power. They fight back with offensive receives. Twice in a row, they keep lifting high and get the flow, and get a weak return and Ayaka finishes it. They take the first game. But in the second game the Chinese ups the power. As a result the offensive receives become weaker. They lose the second game, it's 1-1. And in the final, third, game. All of a sudden it's 5-1. Even so, they didn't give up. Ayaka: Even the Chinese are human and at some point might pull back, and we can't overlook any chances like that. The gap gets wider. Matsutomo pulls off an offensive receive and the Chinese need to go on the defense. The pace is with Japan. And then Matsutomo pushes the shuttle close to the opponent's body just as planned and Ayaka is already waiting for the return. The continuous attacks they've polished. Ayaka receives the wordless message Misaki sent. Ayaka: As far as the combination goes we are not losing. What we wanted to do worked which was good. From here they take a bunch of points to turn the game around in one go. But the Chinese pulls away again. And now it's a Chinese match point. They keep picking the shutles up, but in the end they get second place. They didn't give up until the end and put pressure on a strong opponent, and gets applause from the audience. Misaki: We managed to keep up in speed more than I imagined. In some instances I thought we even won in speed. We need to grow our strong points more and more. The two who trusted each other and persisted with their attacks until the end face towards Rio and felt resistance. Ayaka: We'll definitely run into them from now on until the olympics. The next time it would be good if we could <something I can't hear because of people playing in the background>. Misaki: We've always wanted to win on the world stage. Even if we have huge losses I definitely want to achieve that goal together. The Takahashi and Matsutomo pair who have supported each other from a young age. A world class bond. The determination to win the gold medal together.
This video was pretty funny. The guy on the phone says he managed to get an interview with the pair (AT/MM). He says that Juhl hit Misakis racket once in front of the umpire and says they have a bad attitude, when he asked Misaki what she felt at the time she said they're always like that. She actually found it funny and laughed. The studio people joke saying that's quite some composure she has. That's why (I think he refers to the composure) even at 16-19 she was quite cool thinking "maybe we'll lose?", and that's her "moe point" (lol. If you're not into that part of Japanese culture, it's basically an aspect of her character that makes her attractive). Phone guy says they (I assume he refers to AT/MM) really show off the good points of badminton, and he felt like playing for the first time in a while. They talk about how Matsutomo is popular with liberal arts guys (lolwat) and looks cool. Phone guy finishes off by talking a bit about the tokyo olympics.
I know Matsutomo is the shy and quiet one normally but I think she's starting to open up a little more post the last few tournament wins. She was so cute saying "terima kasih" in their interview after winning at Indonesia Open earlier this year. I've always had the impression that height is a substantial advantage in badminton; but obviously I've been proven wrong by this pair in their hard work and dedication in playing! I think this video will be similar to the long feature: And how their supporters were cheering back home:
I don't know if it's actually true, but it feels like the Japanese team gets a lot of national support. It would be nice if more countries were like that.
2016 is assuredly a great year for them seeing what they are achieving, a lot of young (and cute) players making big show to create at least curiosity plus the Tokyo Olympic fever is building up.
I remember watching a clip where a team of women and a team of men raced to knock over a number of targets as quickly as possible. The women were so much better they did it twice in the time the men did it.
Glad to read badminton gaining popularity in Japan http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/...ing-wave-popularity-success-rio/#.V-B_doh9670
On the same website I noticed also that Yuna Kim the ice Queen have possibility to be granted gold medal due to the russian doping scandal.
@nemrod could you kindly translate the short video? There's a full feature on Tokyo 2020 for those interested
