i was expecting a much closer MD match. the match was quite one sided. credits to the Chinese for using the correct strategy. they leverage on their strong defense and kept Larsen attacking at the back. sooner or later, he will get tired. and the Chinese are really magnificent today. the Danes making more than their usual number of errors also didn't help. the Danes are also slow at getting the aggressive shots at the net. that seems to be the new trend now. even the Chinese ladies doubles have started net rushing much more. and the Danes are now a year or two behind.
Very obvious from attitude of of Denmark's coach as well as comments by the English internationals on Star that they have not been following progress of game in Asia. The English commentator actually believed that Chen Hong and Zhang/Zhang were pushovers!
the StarSports commentators are very obviously clueless. any of us here probably knows much more than they do. i always wish i can filter out the voice of the commentators without spoiling the other sound. the commentators are just way too annoying.
Re: English commentary It's only one commentator who said that. I wonder is she deliberately says that to create a bit more "animation" to the commentary. After all, an upset in a match is always interesting. Her match prediction are always based on World rankings; one always has to be cautious with the Chinese players in this respect.
Re: English commentary yeah. i think that's what she want to do. induce some excitement, however, the problem is that, she uses the same stuff all the time. it gets boring and annoying coz they start to sound very fake. eg. are: "and now we are back on level terms" "how on earth did she do that?" "that was just simply amazing" "do you think the net shots are the most important shot in MS nowadays?" "does Gong has a weakness?" (answer: no) "that was just incredible" "and OF COURSE that is a fault" (like she knows so much) "what do you think she got to do in the second game?" most of her commentry was just exclamations and question, seldom offering any insight to the game itself. most funny was one of the matches in the AE, i think XD finals, the Dane made a good kill, she exclamed "what an amazing shot!", then Darren Hall said, "yeah, excellent defense from the Chinese." i agree, the other commentators are much better...
most of the professional ones probably (or obviously) don't. but they try to pair them up with a previous or current player or coach, those are the best coz they give more insight. some better than others of course. i always find the Chinese coaches the best, but unfortunately, StarTV in HK don't air the Chinese commentary. they don't even have NICAM. some pro commentators are pretty good. Irene Chui who host the StarTV Chinese commentary is much more knowledgeable and don't pretent that she knows more stuff than her audiences.
Are you talking about Xu Meiyan? If so, I think she does a very credible job with Zhao Jianhua. Their commentaries BEFORE and AFTER the matches are far better than those DURING the matches. And I wish Darren Hall would stop saying, "He's/She's/They've got to be more POSITIVE." He sounds like a spokesman for one of those corny self-improvement books.
Yeah. Xu Meiyan. she is obviously not as knowledgeable as Zhao or Li. but as you said, she never boast about things and always stays humble and will genuinely ask questions when appropriate. actually, i learned a lot of Mandarin just watching all these badminton tapes. yeah. those positive talk by the English speaking commentators. like Gill always says, "these pair are impressive, but ONLY WHEN THEY ARE ON THE ATTACK." she says that every single time. almost can predict when she is going to say that. ugh. don't get me started again. one of the first thing to get badminton more popular is to get some better commentators.
