2005 Sudirman Cup – Victory for China, Disappointment for fans

Discussion in 'Sudirman Cup 2005' started by kwun, May 20, 2005.

  1. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The Sudirman Cup, the bi-annual World Mixed Team Championship concluded last week in Beijing, China. A clean sweep victory China, who dropped no matches and dropped only a total of 4 games, stunned the badminton world. While there were a handful of exciting matches in the top group, we cannot help but to be disappointed by the lack of excitement in a few lineups.[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]2005 Sudirman Cup was a thorough victory for China. With the Sudirman Cup in their trophy case, China now holds the title for all 3 badminton team championship trophies, the Thomas Cup for men’s team championships, Uber Cup for women’s team championship, and the Sudirman Cup. But while this is a success for Chinese badminton, were badminton fans satisfied with the Sudirman Cup? Do we find the matches exciting?[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Granted, there are quite a few very good matches in the tournament, a few comes to mind:[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]-finals mixed doubles, finals men’s singles[/font]
    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]-Denmark Indonesia men’s singles[/font]
    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]-Japan vs. Malaysia women’s singles[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The real exciting matches are very hard to find and can easily be counted with one hand. Badminton fans who are looking for more brilliantly played and closely fought matches will surely come home disappointed.[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Why is that? Isn’t this supposed to be the most high caliber team championships in the world, where the top badminton nations dukes out for the heavy gold plated Sudirman Cup? What happened?[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Firstly, I was to clarify that I am only examining the top group of 8 nations and I am only focusing on the top 4 teams, China, Denmark, Indonesia and Korea. [/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We can take a look at the issue from a few different perspectives.[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Bad Luck[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Denmark without any doubts is one of the strongest badminton nation in the world. Their quest for the Sudirman Cup, however, has never been successful. This time around, they faced Indonesia in the semi-final. From an analysis in my previous article, we can see that Denmark has a 50/50 chance of toppling Indonesia to face China in the finals. However, again, they fell short of expectation, losing 3-0 to Indonesia. And Denmark wasn’t really the ones to be blamed, they have poor luck throughout the tournament. Top women’s and mixed doubles player Mette Schjoldager was not able to play due to illness, while top women’s singles player Tina Rasmussen tore her Achilles tendon during a group match. This resulted in a weaker lineup for mixed doubles, women’s singles and women’s doubles, and ultimate the loss in the semi-final.[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Too many under strength lineups[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The final encounter between China and Indonesia was very exciting, even though China won with a 3-0 victory, both the mixed and men’s singles matches were top quality and both generated vast amount of discussions and analysis in Badminton Central Forums. Even the women’s single match was exciting because a young and promising player Fransisca Harris played the best match of her life against the reigning world champion.[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]But what happened to the China Indonesia group match? Indonesia chose to field a weak lineup against China. Reserving their top players in mixed and men’s singles, both of which Indonesia had a real chance in. China’s undisputed strength in women’s singles and doubles left only one exciting match for this tie, the men’s double match between Fu/Cai and Candra/Sigit.[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The semi-final between China and Korea was yet another weakened lineup. Korea the reigning Sudirman Cup holder invited badminton legends Kim Dong Moon and Ra Kyung Min back from retirement months before the Sudirman Cup, refueled badminton fan’s hope of an exciting semi-final between China and Korea. However, Korean coaches surprised all analyst by fielding a very young, inexperienced and frankly, strange, lineup. With only young players and blatant put a singles specialist in a doubles match. Needless to say, they ended up getting slaughtered by the powerful full strength Chinese team.[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]As badminton fans and spectators, we always hope to see best matches being played, especially when it comes to top tournaments like the Sudirman Cup. Any country who field a under strength lineup will create a lot of disappointed fans. However, there are times when team strategies comes into play, perhaps a country decides to reserve the energy or hide the strength of their top players so they can perform in later stages. This is possible in group matches like in the Sudirman Cup, and I believe that was Indonesia’s tactic in the group match. While that may be understandable, it is disappointing nonetheless.[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]However, in Korea’s case, they chose to field an under strength lineup in the semi-final, which indicates that they lost all hope in retaining the cup and have given up all together. This is completely not acceptable. What happened to sportsmanship? How can they face tens of thousands of fans who rooted for them over the years? If you think you will lose, fight and lose gloriously. If you don’t think you are able to win, then why bother even showing up? [/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I was more furious after I learned of the real reason for Korea’s choice of players in the semi, which I will not fully disclose to save Korea further humiliation. I will only say that the list of players are the ones who has never played so far in the Sudirman Cup and the coaches wants everybody’s name to appear at least once in the tournament.[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Too strong, too many[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It is hard to fault China in this tournament. China has a complete team with all rounded strength in all events. Furthermore, even if there is an injury, they always have an equal strength backup ready to play. This results in a team that is strong and injury tolerant. [/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Furthermore, when they have players to spare, China has the choice to field different players in different lineup to reserve energy without any loss in performance.[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And all credits to China, who fields their best lineup always without question. Only if other nations could have such strength and badminton fans will be in for a treat on every team championships.[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Despite so, it makes us wonder if this complete dominating strength is making the situation worse than it already is. Without a chance in winning the Cup, many teams will lose motivation and will to try like what happened to Korea. [/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Conclusion[/font]

    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Overall, I must say that while I think there has been quite a few good matches, I am somewhat disappointed by the 2005 Sudirman Cup Badminton Mixed Team Championship. I sure hope that in the future coaches will choose to play and field their best players, show us what your players are capable of, show us what we have waited two years for, show us that you didn’t waste our hope in you, show us some sportsmanship.
    [/font]
    [font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]also posted here:
    [/font][font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
    http://www.badmintoncentral.com/badminton-central/content/view/102/2/
    [/font]
     
  2. DaN_fAn

    DaN_fAn Regular Member

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    I was disappointed since there was no telecast in my country.
     
  3. LazyBuddy

    LazyBuddy Regular Member

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    I agree with Kwun on KOR's semi final line up. Yeah, the coach was doing a favor for the young backups, for financial reasons. However my question is: Wether they really give up the cup at the beginning or at the end, why don't let the young backups play the fairly easier games in group match? Even if they end up losing some group match games, KOR will still go to the semi (might with a bit worse record than now).

    To me, in S. Cup, rank #2 or #200 is the same thing = come back home w/o the cup. Why can't they put on a fight against CHN, even if they lose, they can still throw away the match against DEN (if any?).

    Either way, I don't understand their philosphy, fight hard in the group, and just give up all in a sudden.
     
  4. chewybar1986

    chewybar1986 Regular Member

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    Ok I understand your disappointment in the Sudirman cup because it might not have lived up to your expectations but you have to look at the bigger picture, I am refereeing to the match between Korea and china and Denmark’s chances.

    Ok a weak team is disappointing for the fans but for Denmark as you said they were unlucky with the injuries but this is a team event and if your team doesn’t have the strength to replace fallen team mates then you don’t have the right to win the cup. You cannot rely on one individual to win every match for you, you should have strong reserves to replace the first team players if an unexpected event happens to them or the latter were they want to rest them while giving their best players a rest.

    I agree that Denmark have a great First team with good men backup but were the weak link lies is in the woman reserves which is critical to a mixed team event. If you cannot replace injured team-mates because you never know what will happen, then you don’t deserve to call yourself title contenders.

    You were disappointed in the fact that they unleashed a young team against China but you have to look at the facts. Korea got Kim and Ra back from retirement after 9 MONTHS!!! and expect them to compete at the same level in which they had been from the Olympics for the initiate of the competition, Yes they have probably still been playing at their clubs but nothing at that level for a consistent time and after playing in nearly every match of the group stages you are asking Kim too much especially after the big match against Denmark and the same with Ra who played in every match in the group matches playing against the world no.1 mixed team Emms and Robertson and also playing against Kamilla rytter Juhl and Thomas Laybourn who if I remind you were runners up in the all England. Each of these matches lasting a very long time to say the least, this will surly take it out of Ra who probably couldn’t take another match against the Olympic champions so was rested.

    As for the disappointments were the coach said he wanted to have all the players in the team to play. He was probably looking at the future for Korea who needed to take their best players out of retirement to stand a chance of winning the cup again, the next sudirman cup they will not be able to call on Ra and Kim again so they will need the younger generation to mature and become established first team players for this event and for the Thomas and Uber cup events and what better way in which to do this than giving these players the taste of this event first hand against China although it might have been forced because of the lack of fitness with Ra and Kim but this is the only way in which the will gain experience in these events and if they have any hope of winning back the cup then they will need their younger players to experience the pressure of this event and on the big stages.

    Because of this I don’t think that Korea deserved to win the event either, The only team that showed they have somewhat of a good depth were Indonesia and this was shown by them getting into the final

     
  5. Loopy

    Loopy Regular Member

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    Kwun, apart from those 4 matches you mentionned, are there any other exicting match worth looking at? Just want to save my HD space :)
     
  6. Wong8Egg

    Wong8Egg Regular Member

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    I don't quite agree with Kwun that the 05 Sudirman Cup is a big disappointment for fans. Perhaps some of the coaches do giving up on against China, but from what I seen most the players did not let it go easily without a fight. Matches like the Korea vs China men single, and Sony vs LD was pretty impressive to watch too. ;)
     
  7. Wizbit

    Wizbit Regular Member

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    Korea played a big gamble and did not pay off

    Why call Kim and Ra out of retirement, if they didn't plan on playing them in the finals (or latter stages). For me, this is a lack of or poor planning.

    If the aim was to play everyone in a match, then the youngsters should have been played early on, letting the experienced players, and the ones who won the last sudirman cup to play the latter stages.

    I think Korea also used Kim/Ra to scare their opponents. Though it had everyone second guessing whether Kim/Ra would play together till the very end, I think the plan back fired...because as far as I can tell, Zhang and Gao were pumped, China was prepared to play Kim/Ra.

    They lost the game before it started, and this is what leaves a sour taste in the mouth..Korea as the defending champions, didn't put up a real fight. They just didn't have the belief in themselves and handed the cup to Indonesia/China.

    SO..no need to call Kim/Ra back again in the first instance, just dragging their names through mud, and lost respect for team Korea.

    The only other scenario I can see is, they DID originally want to field Kim and Ra, but maybe Kim was unfit or injured. I would rather see it this way.

    Will we get an official response from Korea?
     
    #7 Wizbit, May 25, 2005
    Last edited: May 25, 2005
  8. hcyong

    hcyong Regular Member

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    This just gets me speculating. Is it to have these players get ranking points?
     
  9. peace

    peace Regular Member

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    Actually, I can say that indeed Korea made me surprise about the order of player they used in SF and I was a bit disappointed about that. But in my opinion, they just want to make their young players get used to the pressure, eventhough it seems strange that they did it in SF which is very important for them as the reigning champions.
    But I guess, if they still play their main players like Kim and Ra, their chance to win was still lower than China..and we saw that Kim was not playing well against Denmark in the last group match.

    But for me as the badminton fans, the Sc 2005 didnot make me disappointed at all, eventhough we see China be the winner again...sometimes it may cause boring, but one I can say is Chinese players show also a very great performance and techniques among them...and Indonesia in Final have also done their job well, I can see from their spirit.
     
  10. LazyBuddy

    LazyBuddy Regular Member

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    I don't quite agree with ur ideas:

    1. Yeah, Kim and Ra might be a bit out of shape, and they might never be able to perform to their peak lvl any more. However, fight hard and lose is totally DIFFERENT than simply give up. Yes, put Kim and Ra all out, might not save KOR, or even the final result is still 0:3, but so what? The fans want to see their super stars (even they are not at the top), but not just some rookies getting slaughtered. Think about this, if this is MJ's or Babe Ruth's last game, of course, he can't play as the high flying dunking machine again, but ppl still want to see him. Not some "all bench" out garbarge time.

    2. I don't quite accept the excuse for "plan for the future". Sure, if u want the rookies to get some experience, there were plenty group matches, or even other events (individual opens, national opens, T. C. U. C, etc) to be used. Do u see any professional teams say NBA, NHL, or MLB using all rookie lineup in the semi or final matches? :eek:
     
  11. DaN_fAn

    DaN_fAn Regular Member

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    Well one positive to look from the Sudirman cup is the Lin dan-Taufik rivalry.These 2 are sure to get attention when they play each other in the future.it helps too since they are both pretty young .

    I am mad too with the way Korea's decisions.Mistakes like these makes the game lose it's fans.:mad:
     
  12. seven

    seven New Member

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    I don't think this has anything with having the young players play under pressure as ..... there was no pressure at all, Korea had already given up the match!!! :rolleyes:
     
  13. seven

    seven New Member

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    It's looks more like the best players refused to play and get thrashed so they had to send their second(third?) choice players... :eek: :p
     
  14. LazyBuddy

    LazyBuddy Regular Member

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    Even Kim (confirmed???) / Ra refused to play, this might only weaken them by 1 or 2 events. They still should be able to have quality representatives for the other 3 or 4. But look at the "joking" lineup they had...

    Unless the entire top 50% of the KOR team were forcing a revolution something... :eek:
     
  15. takuan

    takuan Regular Member

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    in Indonesia some say that Korea made good decision when they played
    young player againts China...its good for regeneration
    i dont know, but their coach said their senior player didnt play well in
    this sudirman cup
     

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