I never said anything about guarantee. I said "reasonable chance". In this context, something like 10% can be considered "reasonable chance". Or if you can't accept "reasonable chance", then China has the highest chance among all countries to get 5 golds.
True he did and IMO, he deserved it, esp. after a couple of outburst and then throwing his racket in disgust at the end of the 2nd set against BoonsakP. But reasonably so. According to the chair umpire, he made 3 faults at the net. And after seeing replays and heard comments from several people myself, they all thought only 1 was a "legit" fault. The other 2 were very questionable, *at best*. Personally, those things shouldn't bother him so much as to get himself a yellow card. Point is, even after getting the yellow card, he was able to gather himself and be under control for the subsequent set. He even playfully played with his racket right in front of the net, just after he did a net-drop and Boonsak couldn't get the shuttle over. His poise and calmness in that 3rd set, which led to him winning the 3rd set, are indications that he has "mature"..How "mature", we don't know.. He even admitted that in the press interview meeting after the match, that he should've won the 2nd set, if not for the 3 fault calls, which bothered him emotionally/mentally..
OK, that's good enough....Perhaps, we'll just cut it down and go by "as usual"..that's a "safer" connotation...
Hehe, that's a "safer" timeframe i guess, actually the next WC is next year 2006...Right now, to be honest, they are still surfacing and not ready for "prime time", as they need more practice and more matches to solidify themselves..
Let's not forget about the draft in the stadium... that changes the way they have to play. The indones were always very defensive in their previous outings and do make very high clears, but doing so often in that stadium would tantamount to giving points away.
To answer your last question, I mentioned the straight set victories in the "early rounds" not such exciting stuff. If I were to bribe 8 players from 3 different countries, I think I'd want some drama for my dollars. You seem fixated on this relationship between Tony and Candra. That, too, happens all the time and you can get competitive matchups between former partners but it is absolutely irrelevant. What kind of pull does Tony Gunawan have with Choong Tan Fook or Jens Eriksen? If you want to dissect plays such that you "can clearly see the level of skills" and prove to yourself what you want to believe, knock yourself out. A lot of us saw Howard play like he has never played before and Candra make mistakes that he's made many times before and Sigit ride his ass for them as he has done many times before. Alven and Luluk fell apart in exactly the same way in the first round of the Korean Open. Made a few brilliant shots and the rest of the time they looked like, er, novices. Champions fall apart. Upsets happen.
heh. i like it when people say they don't want to get into something but they immediately went straight into it, or when they say they won't accuse someone of cheating but they still went ahead condemning that person for cheating, or when they say they won't comment on sensitive issues and yet they continue to give elaborate comments... just like football interviews, reporter: can u describe the referee's decision? do u think he was biased? player: it is not my job to comment on his performance, it is up to the football's association. but what happened there was a disgrace, anyone can see the ref was incompetent and we would've won if not for him.
Here, here. There seems to be a bit of paranoia running about this thread. Apparently it's easier to believe in The Giant Conspiracy of WC 2005 (tm) than to simply admit that candra/sigit were beaten on fair terms. This, my friends, is what's called an upset.
From what i can see and feel, the Finals for me personally was quite "sucks", esp. from the Mens field. MS, we(most of us) expect an exciting and longer match, but we didn't get one. And then the MD, sure it was exciting, but so many top players and seeded teams fell and didn't even reached the Semis. And out of nowhere team "U.S." reached the Finals. Sure upsets do happen and true, maybe the earlier round victories for the "U.S." team seemed to make sense, as probably those pairs never seen the Tony/Howard pairing. But when they met Candra/Sigit in the Finals, I know many people wonder also, could it be all set-up for them to meet each other??.. I'm an Indo-Chinese myself. And no, i'm not the only one that "seem fixated on this relationship between Tony and Candra". As a matter of fact, many people(at least Indonesians) that know their past history, seemed to think about that. I mean, put it this way, i'm sure you've watched enough matches of Candra/Tony/Sigit and the Indonesians MD pairs and know what level of play they are capable of. And whilst watching the Finals, what did you feel about the 2 pairs playing against each other??.. Last regarding "A lot of us saw Howard play like he has never played before", well, IMO, it has more to do of him playing with Tony. If you want to really "measure" up his skills, maybe he can try partnering up with Bob M. and see how far he&his partner can go in other international tourneys??..
I don't want to believe in this also, i'm just sharing what is on the minds of people i've met and talked with. It could all be just a "made-up conspiracy", we/I don't know. I guess we'll just wait and see what'll happen in the next 6-12+ months. If there are no current veteran Indonesian players bolting to U.S., then this whole thing is just pure speculation/conspiracy.. BTW, has anyone seen Tony Gunawan current profile at IBF website. I've looked but didn't see his profile. And regarding his status as *not yet* naturalized U.S. citizen(as he admitted and mentioned in an article in another thread), how is it possible for him to play and represent the U.S.??..Does anyone know his eligibility rule and/or the legality req. of this??..
well, we shall see...hope it's not true..it just that several people mentioned to me and have witness the few of the going-ons by those veterans players during this WC..I mean close friend and former teammates playing against each other, there must be some feeling or sort for their friends. maybe not even the coaches knew all about it also..
Tony Gunawan Does anybody know if Tony Gunawan is the first player to win World Championships for two different countries?
NO conspiracy Here's a copy of what I wrote in another thread -- since the subject of conspiracy seems to crop up in every thread! Hi folks, I was at the WC05 everyday last week and saw every stroke of every match that Tony & Howard played in. "the_way" is completely wrong when he wrote that the whole thing was fixed. Here's why: 1) The matches were too closely and too competitively played. For example, if a boxer wants to throw a fight, he would make sure he gets KO'd and not fight vigorously to the end and leave it to the judges' decision. On TV maybe the Tony/Howard matches didn't look intense, but upclose I can see with my own eyes that they were all hard-fought and very very close. All the misses were too close (hitting the lip of the net, missing the lines by fractions of inches, etc.). You can't fake mistakes that closely. 2) Would the Indonesian/Chinese/Malaysian, etc. governments who spend gobs of money on their own players allow a fix to help the USA? I don't think so! 3) Would players who've spent all their lives training, sacrificing personal lives to be champion throw away their opportunity? Especially when winning a world championship could mean lifetime pensions, houses, and other bonuses? 4) The disappointment in the faces of the players who lost to Tony/Howard were real! They all had looks of anguish and utter disbelief that they've lost to the US team. I speak Indonesian and I could hear the things that Luluk/Alven and Candra/Sigit were saying to each other during the matches. Believe me, they weren't saying "hit it out next time" or "serve into the net!" My sister sat right behind Bapak Agum (Indonesian sports minister) during the finals on Sunday. He and his wife were the couple that all the Indonesian players went to after their matches. When Candra Wijaya went to them, he was almost in tears while profusely apologizing for not winning the gold medal for Indonesia. This wouldn't happen if the whole thing were fixed. 5) I was hanging out with many of the Indonesian players throughout the week and was able to chat with them. After the finals, I was chatting with Sonny Dwi Kuncoro and Luluk Hadiyanto, and they were talking about Tony. Sonny said that he thought before that Tony might go back and play for Indonesia, but not now since he was able to win a world championship even playing for the US. Luluk commented that the US audience support for Tony was incredible and it got to him and Alven. Talking about the semifinal match he played against the US, Luluk said because of the audience cheers Tony became a superman and just wouldn't die ... getting everything back even after he and Alven kept smashing and smashing. He said it with such candor and amazed disbelief, that I know for sure that he didn't fake it and lost the match on purpose. These are just some of my personal observations that I believe contradict the_way's assertion of conspiracy. BTW, for those badminton fans in the US, ESPN2 has scheduled 3 hours highlights for September 12 from 3pm ET to 6pm ET. Their schedule only listed doubles coverage, which means there won't be any men's single matches being shown. That's odd! I want to see a replay of the Taufik-Ponsana, Taufik-Jonassen, and Lin Dan-Peter Gade matches again! They were awesome!
Tony's status Tony received a special waiver from IBF to play in the WC05 for the USA, but he won't be able to play in the Olympics since he's not a US citizen. I was told by Eti (Tony's wife) that Tony/Howard will split up soon because Howard needs to start training for the Olympics with someone who's eligible to represent the US. That's a shame, since they worked so well together, and I would like to see how well Tony/Howard will do in other tournaments. But, at least they gave us in America a glorious week of pure joy, exhiliration, and happiness. Whooo...what a great job they did!
According to the Q&A before, Tony said he just got Green Card (PR for USA), it would take another 5 years to get USA citizenship unless US immigration gives something special to Tony. I did not think Tony expected this special treat just based on how long he had got Green Card. In such case, Howard needs to play with someone else for 2008 Olympic. I think Tony would partner with Halim to play opens etc in near future (can not wait for that). But we would not see them play in Olympics 2008 (sad) unless they would represent INA again (providing PBSI agrees). If I were PBSI, I would accept this since it would not cost PBSI money (somehow, my impression with PBSI was so concerning funding.)
Attending 2005WC was the first time i ever went to such a huge badminton event other than the youth wc and it was simply amazing...i just have a few comments/questions to make and i hope that you guys can give me some feedback.. 1)in the XD final..there was a fault called to Xie when the Indo served long to him and he had to run back to retrieve it, it went over the net, but why did the umpire call it a fault?? -even though the chinese pair didnt win the finals i thought it was great that they made it that far. they had some impressive games against the higher ranked players..perhaps they will take zhang/gao's place soon? 2) its my personal opinion..but i felt that lin dan did not play his best throughout the tournament with the exception of the match between him and gade..i dont know if it's his tactics or style of playing but watching his previous matches before the finals, he tends to let the first game 'go'..you could tell because he wasnt being offensive at all, he simply was on the defensive side. now i dont know if this is because he wants to 'test' his opponent but he could've easily won those matches in straight sets. my brother said that he does this because he's confident that he'll win but i dunno, isnt it too big a risk to take? and the the MS final, besides the fact that taufik was superb i noticed again that lin dan gave away the first game easily, it didtn seem that he was really 'trying' for lack of a better word 3) i was quite disappointed with the Chinese XD double pair of zhang/gao..they won the first game pretty solidly..but then it was like downhill, gao ling wasnt attacking the way she usually does..always making unforced errors, of course the thai pair played really well but the chinese pair werent really playing like their usual self 4) at the beginning of the fu/cai's match against the malaysians i felt that the chinese pair had a really good chance to win...like gao/zhang they won the first game pretty easily but they simply lost it from the second game on..cai was the first of the two to start making the mistakes but then fu was affected too 5) i was really happy for the taipei LS single girl cheng..i first saw her at the youth wc and she was great back then already. even tho she's very short for a usual single player , she makes up for it witht great technique and she covers the court really well, really fast. she reallymade taipei proud. 6) in my opion i think that xxf made too many unforced errors. now i dont know if it was the ac but she couldve been more consistent 7) i felt really bad when susilo was out on the first day after injuring himself, he had the game and easily wouldve won it..even thought he most likely wouldnt have made it to the finals..it was a huge upset.. -these are just some of my comments and questions..and i really would like to hear what you guys think
