Thomas Cup Prediction: Japan has the performance edge on at least 3 of the 5 matches and the brilliant tactical Coach Professor Park Joo Bong. A lot will also depend on how young Kento Momota performs in his first major team final. On the other side, Malaysia has the previous winners' team pedigree with Coach Rashid Sidek being the 1992 Cup winning team's first singles player. He will need to impart his wisdom on Thomas Cup Finals day experience. What is similar between the Malaysian team of 2014 and 1992 is that the 3rd singles slot is unreliable. Thus the tie must be dealt with in the first four matches or else Captain Daren Liew will have to create a miracle. In the final, a good start is critical. At the 1992 Final, Rashid Sidek almost collapsed on court after beating a much fitter Ardy Wiranata in 3 games for the first point.
OOT: Starting at about 1:00 AM until 4:00 AM (US ET) there will be the peak of a newly discovered meteor shower, maybe a BIG one, visible from N America (depends on your local weather). Info here: Never Before Seen Meteor Shower to Ignite Across Skies: Where to See It http://m.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/viewable-for-the-first-time-ne/27352068 If you are under clouds, try one of these streaming webcams to view the Camelopardalids http://www.space.com/19195-night-sky-planets-asteroids-webcasts.html
Even i am wondering, when you people are looking for national holiday, this is too much from our "beloved " cobalt .. Isn't it??
MS1 - lcw 60-40 md1 - tbh/hth 50-50 ms2 - cwf 40-60 md2 gvs/twk - 60-40 ms3 ld - 30-70 if lcw lose, it will be very difficult for msia...
Aiyaaa! Why so emotional? Everyone knows LCW chokes at the final hurdle in the big ones. Tago is doing a dream run. LCW chokes, and the house of cards topples! (OK. I gotta run for cover now.....)
i was there when korea beat china in uber cup, the atmosphere was awesome... the camera men were focusinng on li yongbo all the time... if japan is going to win this, the ws1 will determine their chances, if japan can win ws1, then there is a possiblities if japan lost ws1, no chance
Interesting to see that this time the forum do not have any 'who will win' thread for a major event in badminton.. Looks like this time we will be getting a new champion in the thomas cup, and a possibility too in the uber cup
Uber Cup prediction: WS1: I don't rate Mitani at all. Paper tiger which will be shredded by the real one. LXW in a demolition. CHN 1-0 WD1: Bao/Tang might have to play a few rallies more against Misaki/Ayaka but the JPN ladies are simply delaying the inevitable. CHN 2-0 WS2: The Shreiker will blow out Sayaka's ear drums to clinch the Uber Cup for CHN. Final score: CHN 3-0 JPN (like no one is predicting this )
Japan may have to depend on the third match to determine the outcome just like yesterday, and Sayaka can absolutely beat WSX, but she won't if she's as error-ridden as she was yesterday when she should have beaten Sindhu. Then the Japanese WD2 will have to fight hard, but I don't think it's completely impossible for them, and Akane can beat WYH, too. It sounds absolutely Herculean when put that way, doesn't it? Let's hope for a miracle.
Thomas cup is the exciting one i am looking forward to.. LCW must win this thomas cup otherwise he won't get any chance to do so... I predict 3-1 to Malaysia.. But we don't know which Kenichi will turn on that day... Let's see. Am really looking forward to Thomas cup finals.. It's too exciting this time .
I think the reason why JPN fields Akane instead of Eriko is because the latter is too well-known and familiar to any of the CHN WS including a poor H2H in CHN's favour. So it's better to gamble on Akane to spring a surprise on WYH should it come to that tiebreaker. I believe Akane has been trained to take on WYH who ,OTOH, is practically unfamiliar with her young opponent's game and therefore WYH has to have good court sense and think on her feet, not an easy thing for anybody to do in a team event. I'm thinking WSX's style of play is more suited to deal with Akane who lost tamely to Bae YJ, another rallying,stroke and somewhat deceptive player in their previous and only encounter. Obviously, LYB and coaches would prefer to count on the experienced albeit not very steady WYH than to bet on the raw, youthful Sun Yu on the big occasion. If it's up to me, my lineup for Team CHN would be WS1=LXR, WS2=WYH and WS3=Sun Yu, the WD1 and WD2 in what combination or order doesn't matter as CHN WDs have a distinct advantage over any JPN pair. That said, I'd still slightly prefer their WD1 to be MJ/WXL, leaving WD2 as TQ/ZYL, two seasoned pairs with big-match experience as BYX/TJH 's maiden appearance in this UC is not exactly convincing so far. Also whatever happened to the JPN WS1 Mitani,WS2 Sayaka and WD1 Ayaka/Misaki's performance yesterday against Team IND is unlikely to repeat itself as Team JPN views themselves as the underdog vis-a-vis CHN. In other words, Team JPN from being relieved and elated after overcoming IND narrowly will be highly charged, extremely motivated and , as the underdog, would be able to play freely, fearlessly and, possibly, rise to the occasion to put Team CHN under immense pressure from the get-go. All the pressure and nerves will be on CHN's side and any one of their WS and WD may wilt under the intense heat and heavy burden of expectation,the more so when their Thomas Cup squad has already been unceremoniously bundled out by the same nation, JPN, in the semifinal. For me, I wouldn't at all say it's a foregone conclusion for CHN 3 - 0 JPN. The opening match between LXR and MM is more crucial for CHN than JPN who may be depending more on their WS2, ST, to lift their hopes and spirits although,ultimately, the overall advantage is still clearly CHN's. We,spectators, are certainly in for a treat, I'm eagerly looking forward to it.
the problem for your lineup is to play the very talented but young/inexperience Sun Yu for the decisive final match, very risky. Also, I believe TQ/ZYL is higher ranked than MJ/WXL thus they have to play first.
I was thinking that WYH's pressure is no less worse than SunYu's inexperience vs Akane who is also inexperienced and JPN is prepared to gamble on her. My bad, I forgot about the CHN WD's ranking, it slips off my mind.
