I think one of the reason they can comeback also because the change of the strategy. in game 1 they're lifting too much, you can't do that against li/liu. before game 2 coach herry tell them (specifically to marcus) to stop lifting and try to playing it flat if they somehow forced to lift.
Yes his performance since sudirman cup has been superb. more threatening from the back, solid defense, dangerous at the front court, I also like the fact that he variate his serves more now. he struggle a little bit in the first game but since then he has stepped up.
BTW did anyone notice that kevin seems to be talking a lot at the interval of game 3 ? usually he just hearing what the coach said and didn't say much.
This pair would be much more likeable if they were not so arrogant. I do not like the reactions of Kevin whenever he gestures or stares at his opponents.
It is most definitely an intimidation tactic. A predator that keeps it's eyes focused on it's prey is a potentially very dangerous threat as it limits the preys options on a plan of attack, or flight.
As we're far removed from being apes on the savanna, however, I'd say it falls more towards questionable behavior rather than predatory advantage (also a 1,60m guy isn't really high up the food chain ;P)
Whats not to like, World Number 1 plays entertaining brand of badminton. Even the Japanese fans can be testament to that other than the 9 dull affairs today.
The fact that they get devoured by minions 9 times proves that they really are lower on the food chain.. so the joke is on giraffes.
Well well well what a day today. I had personal trouble since last night and was pretty busy this morning to sort things out. Planned to arrive earlier at the arena to line up for a better seat but today didn't go as expected. So when minions (Kevin) played like his hands tied behind him and lost G1 I was very downhearted and was prepared to literally "go to my corner and sulk for a while". In G1, Kevin started badly and was visibly very nervous In the video with replays and zoom ups between the rallies, it was hard to tell how nervous, tensed and overly subdued he actually was in G1. Maybe I could tell that because I have been watching him everyday since Day 1. Completely different Kevin from the days before, his movement were timid and rigid. Why oh why of all days he had to choose today to be like this? Li/Liu starting brilliantly made things even worse.. and Marcus form wasn't convincing either. They could not get out of the pressure throughout G1. The only good thing that I could say to comfort myself was that at least minions did not end up with a single digit score. G2, minions were still under pressure at the beginning. Slowly but surely Kevin seemed to loosen up a bit and both him and Marcus took back the control of the game and phew.. Li/Liu crumbled. Nothing beats watching Kevin and Marcus at their best. Though Marcus made a few mistakes closing to the end of G3, but I was relieved to see him holding himself really well toward the end. Marcus had improved his attacks and the variations. Throughout this tournament I was thoroughly happy with him except for yesterday's match against Chia/Soh. All the best tomorrow against Ahsan/Hendra. Overall, a magical experience of 60 minutes Well honestly after today, I don't really care about what people think of Kevin or minions. Fortunately I watched the match live first before watching the video so I don't have to doubt Kevin at all. As for them being likable or not, it's different to everyone. Though I can say for certain that they are more likable than Li/Liu's to some people Haters would just hate and see whatever they want to see, like they see Li/Liu didn't do anything and just being as harmless as puppies. WARNING : Haters should just look away now and not read this as it is a fully biased report Reminder : At least Kevin behaved himself really nicely when Li/Liu was quiet (Japan Open SF last year if anyone cares to remember) This time I am going to defend Kevin instead. Today it was Li/Liu or more obviously Li who did most of the intimidation and provocation when minions were utterly quiet in G1. Staring at the opponents, that is what Li/Liu doing too a lot. Intimidation, if not provocation, is Li/Liu's breakfast. And when Kevin stood up on his ground and did it back to them in G2 or G3, only Kevin is being an ass? I was fortunate to sit surrounded by the locals and most of them who sat around me shared my feeling and were rather fed up and annoyed by the CHN behavior in G1 and G2. I wasn't lying when I said most saw Li/Liu as the antagonists of the match. Apparently the local kids disliked and got intimidated by Li/Liu for some "unknown" reasons. Some kids started mimicking Li's intimidating shouts to shout back at CHN pair especially when minions won the rally as if Li/Liu were the bad guy to beat. Even the boy behind me kept muttering "Oh no, this is bad this is bad" when minions were under pressure. Honestly, those around me were "glad" when Kevin started his antics to stand up in the CHN pair face. When minions started to fight back in G2, everyone was cheering for them as if to say "take that" to the CHN pair. More and more joining in to clap to the "IN-DO-NE-SIA". Toward the end of G3 some of the local kids shouts loudly "INDONESIA! INDONESIA!", whenever the Chinese supporters sitting in front of them cheered "Jia you!". I actually gave those kids a thumb up when one of them looked at my direction when I joined them. The boy behind sounded happy in G3, and the mother mocked him "Oh so you can laugh now eh? You were so quiet in G1". Suddenly, minions had become their "heroes" that will defeat the villains for them (to my delight and luck) I had no idea it would have come to that really, but all thanks to Li/Liu themselves. Kids are just so adorable, aren't they? I was jumping up and down at my seat a lot especially after mid interval G3.. and seemed to say out loud my disappointment and my admiration that when I was jumping in delight the moment minions took the match. The spectator who sat in front of me (one Japanese lady) also got so excited with the outcome of the match, turned around to me and somehow she offered her hands up to high ten me and said "Yaay! They won,!!". I was stunned at first It was so weird and unreal. Japanese to high-ten a stranger? Never heard about it. Is this for real? I guess the match itself was quite unbelievable. So yeah we high touched. And I ended up high-ten both of her companions too lolol (They were not offering but I just went for it anyway haha.. ). One of her friend, mid aged guy, who kept on taking minions pictures and videos (I suspect at that lady's order, now that I think of it), was very impressed with minions. He was surprised to see me coming on my own to the tournament. Anyway, in the video, at G3 12-10 Li was screaming and shouting toward minions several times during and after killing the shuttle but he got no warning at all. If that wasn't provocation, I don't know what is. And maybe he forgot at the heat of the moment that the one across the net was no other than Mr. Touch-me-and-I-will-eat-you-alive Sukamuljo. Well if you asked me, he was asking for Kevin's "Yes? I can't hear you?" when Kevin won the next rally. But again this is a very biased point of view. Yes of course Li/Liu is a pair of saints who would never do anything like that, some say, and only Kevin is bad, arrogant bla bla bla because, what? He's world's no.1? He's somehow being the center of attention for being entertaining and exciting to watch when he is ? In my opinion BWF was just looking for something to cook after a somewhat uneventful semifinal day. All the videos were on Kevin, Kevin and Kevin. Kevin should ask them to pay him for the drama and the controversies they made out of him haha. I can imagine the director was probably directing all the cameras to focus on Kevin just in case anything incredible happens. And it did for 50 minutes.
LOL their H2H now is 10-2. The so called WORLD CHAMPION and BWF Ranked no. 2 being clowned around by a midget. What a joke Here, some cute picture for the haters;
this is sport. entertainment for us, a job for them. kevin's antics, win or lose, make it even more fun to watch for me. kevin acts however he needs to act in order to make himself play better. who doesn't want to see any player play better? is it really any different than players who don't return the shuttle to their opponent at a reasonable distance? ...or the mind games played when asking/refusing a new shuttle request? ...or all the screaming at the end of a point? scream after every point won: carolina, kamura/sonoda, 95% of korea... scream after important points won: tty, momota, ratchanok, pv sindhu... rarely ever scream: 'zen'dra setiawan/ahsan, inoue/kaneko, lee hyun-il... never make a sound: yamaguchi i love watching all of them. i don't care how the players act. i'm not their mother. then again, do you think kevin's mother cares how he acts on court? i'd almost be curious...
Both named him Kevin after the Home Alone character. Kevin's mother should have known what she should expect when she decided to name her son after such character if she watched the movies at all. The mother in the movie never had an easy time, yet Kevin's mother somehow said, yes let's name our son after the witty kid with attitude.
Like Yu said , you will forget what he did after seeing him Live on the court. Li is shouting like they won point against AhsanHendra in the ThomasCup last year. Well Hendra can accept it but you do that to Kevin.. oh well.. Who cares about his arrogance when he can play 21 entertaining points. And not bore the crowd to death. I would say watching 8 matches live seating is also tiring and somewhat boring so people have to see it from fans point of view. and there are reasons why MD is scheduled last match most of the times in SF/F
Well I didn't actually say I would forget what he did. Never always agreed with his loss of temper. But given the circumstances yesterday, his antics didn't seem "inappropriate" nor "uninvinted" at all when you watched it live. I have been following BWF news articles and I have noticed that they always put 'Sukamuljo' did this or that, instead the fact was that it was actually 'Gideon'. This time they also wrote that in the last point, Li missed "Sukamuljo" 's flick serve when it was Marcus who did the last winning serve. "and winning the match after Li Jun Hui fluffed a flick serve from Sukamuljo." https://bwfworldtour.bwfbadminton.com/news-single/2019/07/27/indonesias-day-out-japan-open-day-5/ And another one I remembered too that last time they talked about "Sukamuljo" not happy with the service fault calls and we all know which of them who really had problem with the service judge in that match. Guess they are loving this "heated rivalry" between Kevin and Li/Liu:
Well, I never said Li/Liu were innocent. But I just wished we could have world class MD pairings without the antics. FHF/CY, LYD/YYS, AS/MK were all superb pairings and behaved well on and off the court. It just irks me that, these days,after Kevin/Marcus or whichever pairing that wins a hardearned point, just has to rub it in with some gesture to the opponent.
