Actually it seems to me that most people who have seen the match agree it wasn't, and people who havent have just seen the scoreline and assumed.
If you watch auto racing (even bicycle racing), then you'll know teams with more than 1 driver/rider often time do this on purpose. And it's widely accepted by both the audience and competitors as a form of "team strategy". As long as they put on a good show, I don't really care.
I must have missed the thread. Notice that Susi mentioned sponsorship. China invests a lot of money to get where she is and Japan spends a lot of money. Except for England which has done sth have other Europeans contibuted much in terms of finance or are they always scheming to limit China's success? Camilla and Gade are just asking other Europeans to invest more to bear fruit, not just whining . Can anyone imagine badminton without China or Japan ? Remember how the game lost a lot of followers in the years 1993-1996, the lowest point in history..
Lin and Chen's matches Lin Dan 1 Kaveh Mehrabi 15-1 15-4 25min 2 Kasper Oedum 15-7 6-15 15-7 67 min 3 Aamir Ghaffar 15-4 15-11 27 min 4 Lee Hyun-Il 15-10 13-15 15-8 93 min 5 Wong Choon Hann 15-8 12-15 15-1 85 min 6 Chen Hong 15-8 5-15 2-15 74min Chen Hong 1 Martyn Lewis 15-8 15-9 30 min 2 Shinya Ohtsuka 15-11 15-10 40 min 3 Shon Seung-Mo 15-8 15-3 42 min 4 Bao Chun Lai 13-15 15-12 15-4 76 min 5 Lee Chong Wei 15-13 15-10 54 min 6 Lin Dan 8-15 15-5 15-2 74 min Who was having a good tournament, and who wasn't at their peak? Ghaffar had 2 3-setters for 60 and 80 minutes before his match with Lin. Beating 10th seed Dicky Palyama probably took it all out of Ghaffar. other than this match and round 1 vs someone from the qualifying rounds, Lin dropped a game in every match. Lin was 8-0 up in game 2 vs Wong CH before losing it. Did he do that on purpose also? To those who think Lin gave the final away, did Bao give his match to Chen Hong also?
- You'd think Lin Dan would want to follow on the footsteps of Paul Gascoigne instead of say Beckham. " Arrogant" (not naive) Li Yong Bo wouldn't giva away too much to rivals hiding from this tour when what he really wants is to win the Sudirman and maybe World Champs. I'm sure he wouldn't tell his boys to maul each other and let your rivals see what you've got and neither would the players themselves , injure each other and then miss the sudirman and Worlds?
another thing..CH has to beat tougher opponents on the way up to the finals in comparison to LD...so CH really did play well in this tournament..we might as well accuse all others who lose to him on the way up did it intentionally to make him win ,LD, alone cannot "make/allow" CH to become the champion in this tournament...
Maybe both Chen Hong and Lin dan trains together, thus allowing both of them to expose their strengths and weaknesses during training. Maybe Chen Hong exploited and analysed Lin Dan's weaknesses and it gave him the upper hand. Its very important to know about your opponents weaknesses.. even if they are your compatriots.. I still believe that Chen Hong deserves the title and the match is not "fixed".
The most recent results in IBF events have indirectly counteracted the views of adherents who said the match between Chen Hong and Lin Dan at the AE 2005 was fixed. Chen Hong won on merit and not that Lin threw away the match just because Chen was his teammate and close friend. Lin Dan was beaten by Taufik Hidayat at the Singapore Open and by Lee Chong Wei the following week at the Malaysian Open. Lin Dan is beatable! Bbn was right in saying the winner is the one who wanted the title most! Taufik exacted revenge on Lin for losing in the Sudirman Cup and 'kampong boy' Lee has once again proven that he was no pushover, even against the World No.1, on home ground. He rebounded on the verge of losing and stole the crown from Lin. He was more hungry than Lin. Let's see whether Lin proves to be the hungriest at the forthcoming WC!
Sorry I haven't read the entire thread, but has anybody considered that Chen Hong is like senior to Lin Dan ? or in Cantonese they call it "shi hing" for seniors. I believe that Lin Dan really didn't want to win against Chen just for that reason. Lin Dan probably has alot of respect for Chen and you can tell that Lin Dan wasn't making any fusses about losing points. Just from watching the match and judging from his reactions, Lin Dan was refraining from psyching himself up. (the Clench fist thing followed with the "OSU !". Sort of what the koreans do all the time). And when he did do it, he put his racket up in apology. Furthermore, I felt that Lin Dan was purposely flinging himself around the court and only making an effort on a few points. This was an effort to make the defeat more convincing and plausible. Though nothing is completely right, I think that we can safely say that Lin Dan didn't give it his all in the all england final. It's unfortunate, but it was the way things turned out. And To be honest, I don't think Lin Dan minds losing the all england to Chen Hong. Sorry if someone addressed this point already, but from what I read in most of the thread, most of the opinions were aimed at injury, and point manipulation.
yes, i agree with beckman..for people to not have even seen the match and call it fixed that's ridiculous. besides, if you heard it from the media, we all know who they like to twist things so it sounds better. i saw the game and it seemed a good, hard out fight between the two of them. Chen did play very well, especially at the net where he was just awesome. we also need to look back to the previous matches, in which Lin Dan took a long time and must have tired him out. and we all come back to his mental strength. for those who saw the last match, i bet he didn't like getting aced by Chen ah well. but really, is it all that surprising and important if Lin Dan loses? i mean, he's just another human, he ain't invincible, not by a long way. i think we should just appreciate the hard work he's done to get to his current status and just try to enjoy watching him play the game. why bother with wondering if it's fixed or not? does it really matter? for me, i'd rather turn a blind eye to whatever happens off court and just focus and seeing a wonder play his game
