Thai needs to give their young guns more chance in these tournament. This WD pair of kitit/prajo’s performance has stagnated for ages… and they are not young as well anymore
Yamaguchi wasted a lead of 14-8 in second game and 18-15 in second game, after winning the first. Now Korea has a good chance of reaching the final. Not sure how fit Okuhara is.
I don't know why JPN not consider the scratch pair Matsutomo/Matsuyama. This pair worked very well in the previous competition. They can be WD2 and Fukushima/Matsumoto is WD1. By doing this, they can have better chance in WD1 than MatsuShida, who is a lot more error-prone and inconsistent.
MatsuShida were playing very well during All England. But they don't have the experience to play in this high pressure situation.
I think it’s fair to say that MatsuShida are a rickety wagon that can barely keep the wheels on let alone win a race. JPN messed up big time by keeping them as WD1 throughout this tournament.
It all boils down to the doubles coach, Ding Qiqing...not wanting to risk introducing a scratch pair for WD1.
Any scratch pair from the JPN WD reserves would have been better than this WD1 that didn’t have the power, defence or tactics to counter top tier WD teams.
Is PJB still the head coach of Japan? If yes, I still stand by my opinion: He is not a great tactician for team matches The lack of risk the he is willing to take is too blatant
Playing against the KOR WD, you need someone with very good defense and counter-attack to tire them out and prolong the rallies to find a chance to get point. Matsutomo and Fukushima are the only two I can think of. JPN has the Rio OLP champ in their team and didn't dare to use her in important matches, I'm so disappointed. Matsumoto, Matsuyama are good in creative shots, and also in making errors due to their risk-taking.
NO never had the attack, and at this stage she doesn’t have the speed and movement anymore to outrun this level of attack.
Sad to See NO bewildered like this ...the last time I saw her this way stranded was during the decimation by PVS at WC 2019. you can see it in her face that she is completely demotivated and KGE is completely charged up. No worries NO you tried your best !
CYF vs ASY would be interesting But that's that. Uber cup has been a snoozefest this year. Japan screws up another team event, and how.