I second (third?) that. Its always one of the highlights of any tournament for me -browsing these threads for abedeng's visual round-up with his unique style!
Abedeng What do you think of the atmosphere? I notice this time, the Malaysian venue has darkened the audience area to save energy. The side effect of showing the court better must be producing an intense atmosphere. The Germans' headgear is a nice touch. Something that BWF can encourage more of for other teams in team events?
The atmosphere did not achieve its desired result because the local crowd was just not there .... not even during Malaysia's cliffhanger match last night. Even the Malaysian Cheerleader was a lone wolf l Anyway, more on that later. It was a very exciting day last night, with Denmark vs Japan and the, ahem, "split personality" of Birgit Michels.
So, to the best match of the tournament thus far .....Denmark vs Japan. Let us start with Mixed Doubles. This is a pivotal match, where Denmark really needs to win, and on paper, it was supposed to be a comfortable one too. But Professor Park Joo Bong's charges came out with tactics so good, Joachim Fischer Nielsen had to spend almost the whole match twisting his aged body and dodging brilliantly angled shots. Luckily, his partner Christinna Pedersen had the presence of mind to take away some of the Japanese advantages. Co-commentator Morten Frost too looked in concern as his home team was being severely cut down by, err, Yonex samurai blades. Pics here ...... Maeda : Remember, hor. The Boss told us we must win this ..... Hashimoto : Has he had too much sake? Those guys are in the World's top four and we are only top in Japan ...... The piercing stare of Professor Park Joo Bong .... .... forced Maeda to lunge forward ..... ..... and concentrate on her defence ...... ..... which resulted in them winning game 1. Professor Park (to Hashimoto) : Stay positive, and you get to win the match without having to take off the shirt ....... Commentating legends Morten Frost and Gillian Clark watching in concern ...... Professor Park : Look at what you've done. Now I have to pay extra for laundry service ...... But with strong defending by Christinna Pedersen ...... .... Joachim Fischer Nielsen was able to soar once again ...... ..... and they turned the game around as how a World top four pair should. A show of appreciation from the Danish fans and squad .......
The next match was between the two gladiators, Jan Jorgensen vs Kenichi Tago. Jorgensen was in supremely confident mood. Why shouldn't he, since he had won their last 4 encounters. Plus some of his more illustrious predecessors Poul Erik Hoyer Larsen and Morten Frost Hansen are in attendance in their BWF President and, err, co-commentator capacities respectively. And so, ......... ..... Jorgensen started with his powerful attacks ..... ..... placing Tago in a desperate position ....... .... having to twist and turn his torso around. But with encouragement from Coach Keita Masuda, Tago regained focus and worked point for point. Yup, even when a bad line call placed him under heavy pressure while shouting blue murder ....... even prostrating on court to seek divine intervention. And indeed, divine intervention as well as crowd support turned towards Tago, and hence, we see this ...... .... Tago's victory celebrations. After saving a host of matchpoints.
Nicely done abedeng, really appreciate it. I like it how DEN and JPN team seat on the same area. Must be very intense that night. Sneaky Boe sat just behind of Endo lol
i hope he did shake hands before all that, otherwise Ms Clark wouldn't be too happy about it thanks for the photo, by the way.
He crossed over to Jorgensen's side to shake his hand. The pictures were upon the shuttle being called out and the match won.
More pictures: Tago crossing over to console Jorgensen ..... ..... after which he returned to receive Prof Park's congratulations. With the score at 1-1, both teams were at full battle mode. By this time most of the other courts were already completing or just started with their 4th match. That's how long it took for just two matches. And so, with the suspense ..... .... both teams were concentrated on the next action, Men's Doubles. Men's Doubles brought the Olympic silver medallists against Japan's Endo/Hirata. Another tough fight beckons. And although Prof Park's laundry bill went piling up yet again ...... .... the Danish Olympians were just too good - as shown by the flying Carsten Morgensen 2-1 to Denmark, and a new face called Line Kjaersfeldt came to oppose the redoubtable Sayaka Takahashi, winner of the Australian Open. Such a beauty, is Miss Kjaersfeldt .... may her star grow bigger .... ...... but once the match started, she got herself pushed to the base ...... ..... and pulled to the net ....... ...... although sometimes she could fire the occasional smash ...... ...... which Miss Takahashi very expertly covered ....... ...... until Kjaersfeldt ran out of ideas ...... ...... and had to take a towel break. Note the red cheeks, showing how hard she worked. Japanese Coach : See, your opponent is wilting already, soon she will collapse under your spell ...... ....... but it turned out it was Sayaka who went tumbling down .... ....... before she was able to recompose herself ..... ....... execute beautiful diagonal winners ........ ...... and celebrate her triumph. It is now back level, 2-2. And the baton is passed to Sayaka's elder sister Ayaka and her partner Misaki Matsutomo.
During the intermission between Men's Doubles and Women's Singles, I met pjswift while having coffee and predicted to her that the Danish Women's Doubles can win the tie, if they are patient in their approach ...... If they are not, well then ......... what happened happened. Just before the match was to start, I captured this photo between an, ahem, well-known PBSI liaison officer and the new BWF Supremo, Poul Erik Hoyer Larsen. I guess their conversation went this way ..... PBSI Official : Mr President, Sir. I have something urgent to tell you ..... BWF President: Yes, what is it? I am busy watching my team bully the Japanese. PBSI Official : I have intelligence that says that your women will fail, because they are not patient at using their power. Corroborated and posted to BC by our resident spy, codename abedeng. BWF President : Aww, shucks!!!! Now I have to use my influence to, err, guide the draw favourably .....
The final outcome ..... was this. The Danes started with heavy artillery ...... ...... and guns blazing ........ .... but the petite Japanese held their nerve, and stood their ground .... ..... with Misaki Matsutomo calling the shots from up front. This, of course, resulted in pure frustration from the Danes, and hence ...... .... the Japanese girls won deservedly. Nonetheless, both teams are at least semifinals material, based on the performances thus far.
Germany ..... What do we know about them? We know they build nice luxurious cars such as Audi, Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes Benz. Yup, I personally owned two of them, they are that good (and expensive in Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam at least). We know that they have won the football World Cup a few times. And this season's European Champions League is an all-German affair. We also know that as a badminton team (men's, women's or mixed), they had never beaten Malaysia. Until 21 May 2013. Their secret weapon, the splits ....... stay tuned for updates in the morning.
Just watched this on youtube. Very interesting that the players can go out themselves and eat whatever they like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNeOs5kCqrg
[MENTION=4302]abedeng[/MENTION] Love your descriptive commentary, enjoying every moment spent on this thread! Thank you!
More because of the camera's limitation at high ISOs ....... wakakaka. Canon Powershot HS series tend to have some purple fringing.
