The Indones should know more about HCA since they're quite successful playing infront of their home crowd. Guess they got a taste of their own medicine in the WC' 05 MD finals.
Vtec101 and Hcyong, I agree with you both. Howard's game is miles better than it was last year at this time. I have a video of him playing at the Olympics in Athens, against Jens and Martin, and they picked him apart. I felt bad watching them, and he admitted it in the post game interview. His game has come far. Tony can't do it by himself. In the second game Tony made a ton of errors, forced or unforced. Even the uneducated eye of my girlfriend said "Isn't he supposed to be the better player?" I assured her Tony's mental game was well intact, and he would not suffer more unneeded mistakes because of being shaken by a number of errors, no matter how many. But Howard's game was WAY faster and harder than previously. I don't know if he had all the "miraculous, unbelievable" shots that Tony had, but both me and my girlfriend on many occasions were thinking he might miss this shot or that shot, and Howard got to it, and played a good return. Both players earned the title, both players deserved the title, both players won the title. Tony and Howard. No fix, no conspiracy. They've come close to beating the Indo's before, and close to beating Jens and Martin, world number 1 before. This time on home turf they managed to. Nothing unsual. Just good badminton. Cheers to all! Cory
Hearing things are we? Perhaps it's time to seek professional help. Tell me, please, which is more likely, that Tony and Howard beat the #2 Indos in a major upset (after beating the #8, #1, and #4 teams) OR!!!! ...that the relatively poor IBF financed an INTERNATIONAL CONSPIRACY involving the Danes, Malaysians and Indonesians by offering them nothing except the chance to give the USA the glory. That's very egalitarian of them. Or perhaps they are sharing Tony's dream to really get badminton started in the US so that one day the US could take the badminton crown away from Asia and Europe... but that the members of this forum were able to feret out the real truth (tm). Ask yourself how much it would cost the IBF? You'll have to start with more for each team & coach than they could hope to gain by winning the tournament, and all the endorsement and perks that come along with that. Multiply that by the number of teams that Tony and Howard upset. Is the IBF rich to some level I am unaware of? Oh, no, it must be USA badminton. They have lots of money. They offer there players $4500 a year (about enough to pay for shuttles, and racket restringing and perhaps some shoes). Certainly, we can use the results of future tournaments to determine whether this tournament was fixed. There have been no previous tournaments where major upsets occured and then the players just dissappeared have there? I, for one, hope that after solving this conspiracy the The Great WC 2005 Conspiracy (tm) believers could start on the locations of... Elvis, JFK (he's not dead, I have secret evidence), Marylin Monroe, and Noah's Ark. These mysteries deserve such fine detective work.
j.a.s. "professional help"..?!?!?!?!...I used "whispers" to put describe a lesser number of talks...Yes, i heard a few non-chalant talks of this in the 3rd round(QF) or so from some people, which i ignored...people have ideas and wonderment, why can't they??.. see my post #193 for my answer...and see if you can answer those questions in that post??..About your comment "There have been no previous tournaments where major upsets occured and then the players just dissappeared have there?", hmm, it seemed like you haven't followed international badminton for some time. Noticed i mentioned the name Gopichand Pullela a few times, do a search and check him out on Google...
It's called schizophrenia They can, but it's called schizophrenia. Yes, exactly the point of my post. The IBF and USAB have everything to gain but not the money to finance it. What, again, have all the other conspirators to gain? Players AND coaches? It's got to be more money (for all of them collectively - at least 8) than they could earn in prizes, endorsements, and perks. And don't say only Candra was in on it. Because if that's true, then you are arguing that Howard and Tony had no chance against the #2 seed, whom they have played against well earlier, although they had already beaten the #1, #4, and #8 seed. Your theory is free of evidence but it has the side benefit of insulting the IBF, USAB, and the players of this tournament. Consider looking up the word sarcasm. I like www.merriam-webster.com Also, consider joining me in New Mexico. I hear Roswell is running short of conspiracy theorists.
ah well. i guess the topic was interesting. but looks like a certain member doesn't know what is the meaning of a civil and polite discussion. so from here on, this thread will be locked, and so will any attempt to revive it.
