I think it's only one reason, Lee C.W is always not confident when he meet Lin Dan. only that, Note my words!!!
Omfg. He meant that you have no sense of humor, as he took Cheung's comment about Lin Dan losing matches out of boredom to be a humorous remark. Personally I kind of agree with Cheung here - I wouldn't say he is bored, but lacks motivation at times, in tournaments that aren't as important to him....earlier in his career that was almost never the case, whereas now it seems like all that interests him are the 2 annual 'big ones' (WC+AE, and this year the AG too).
That is completely untrue. He got his ranking back up playing 5 tournaments prior to the AG, in his last completely active year (2012) he played 14 tournaments including the OG, so basically he had been competing as much as he usually would have in 4 months. Adding to that that he didn't go into his first tournament without training, we can assume he has been training consistently for the last 6-8 months, and has been playing throughout the entire last year. Also I really doubt Lin Dan was like "Whatever man" until 16-20 - there are ups and downs in matches. Him winning 22-20 was lucky (after all LCW could have found the net or the line just once in his 4 game points), but he really seems to thrive under pressure, be it expectations to win certain tournaments or being on the edge of losing an important game (tactically very important to win the first). I think the biggest difference these days between the two (apart from their obviously different mental capabilities) is that Lin Dan appears to benefit from competing less, showing little of what he's capable of in order to take LCW by surprise, if needed. LCW is probably depending on tournaments a bit more since he lacks decent sparring partners and can't really compose a reliable game plan against LD since there's so little of the guy to analyze....whereas the Chinese coaching team seems to have LCW profiled perfectly (after all Chen Long is basically their anti-LCW weapon, at times nearly suckering out against WR30-50 players he doesn't have a counter-gameplan for, but playing incredible, tactically perfect badminton against LCW).
Looks like I could not agree with what you said: 1. LD's inactiveness in competitions after OG, for a player over 30 yrs old, could be devastating if he is not professional enough. It could make him rusty. 2. LD's pts from 16:20 to 22:20 are lucky points? Why not saying LCW's first 20 pts are also lucky points? 3. It was reported that LD actually just return to badminton training after April or May this year (correct me if wrong), before that he was very active in commercials and media programs' exposure... One could not believe he could have time for secrete training (except some gym training). 4. Lack of decent sparring partners??? What about our new WS WC Marin, any decent sparring partners in Spain? I am Afraid even her coaches were not as decent as Datuk's.... 5. Game plan and opponent's analysis? These are open informations like videos of past competitions that any professional team could easily prepared... Yet I agree that Malaysian may be lack of a coach who really could analyze... As professional players, 1-4 about should not be the basic reason of inferior performance on court IMO.
Haha, noting that you have such a "dream" level of English comprehension now, I prepare to forgive what you wrote before.... poor you...
Yes, along with the fact that the two have played together for ten years now. I'm sure LCW and his coaches are well aware of LD's playing style and weaker points by now.
1. 'Rusty' only applies if it's your first tournament back after a break, not if it's the 6th...his break could've been fatal if he failed to get back to a decent physical condition, that is the real danger at that age (or of any prolonged break, really). He has so much experience that the mental aspect can be disregarded, he doesn't need to collect any more experience and one or two tournaments should be enough to get a world class player back to 'match fitness' as Gill Clark likes to call it. 2. I didn't say his points were all lucky points, either you misunderstand me on purpose or you have no idea what you're talking about. I said him clinching a game after being 16-20 down was lucky - there's a difference. Not having seen the match I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing not even one of those points was lucky. The thing is that LCW only needed 1 point more, and had 4 opportunities - a player of his caliber may choose to go for low percentage shots then, if he fears his opponent may outplay him in normal rallies, and chances are high he/she will succeed in one of the 4 rallies. 3. Do you really believe everything in the Chinese media? Even so, I'm rather certain he didn't stop training in the period before - I'm pretty convinced he trained part time before that and returned to full-time training after that announcement. 4. WS and MS are entirely different in that regard. A world class WS player can easily get high quality sparring by playing against any National level MS player (and still lose). The physical differences work to their advantage in that case. 5. Are you serious? You're implying that I could use a 2012 or even 2011 video to analyze Lin Dan's game now? Then suggest that to any world class coach and see what their reaction is....of course there are general things that stay the same (I'm pretty certain he still plays with his left!), but that's not what these guys are looking for when 2 guys are as evenly matched as these two. You're starting to look for little weaknesses, for opportunities to pull him out of position or situations he responds badly/awkwardly to. And no one has changed his game as much as Lin Dan in the last 2 years. I'm not saying that this is the entire reason LCW lost, far from it, but it is another small point to Lin Dan's benefit....the Chinese team take their video analysis pretty seriously, at the German Open 2013 they had 3-5 cameras on the courts all the time, throughout the whole day....and that was basically 2nd-grade competition, not SS/PSS. Compare the 2012 LD with the one this year.....he has changed his style of play pretty radically. Same for LCW from 2009-2011/12, I doubt a 2005 video of LCW would've helped you much in 2011!
In brief, LinDan and coaches have LCW's mojo. LinDan may have weaknesses but hardly any have been able to exploit it.
Wouldn't worry about it. The guy interprets objective statements of LinDan's abilities as "fanboy". Says it all about how seriously his comment should be taken
But they aren't. Man, it's not even all that close at this point. The only reason we think it is is because LCW is the only one we know to have a relatively respectable chance at beating him. (JOJ hasn't played him enough and two wins don't mean much.) This just isn't a point for debate any more. The pattern of wins v losses against each other throughout their careers has stayed pretty constant. It's 22-9 even excluding the Asian Games. I'm sorry, but unless you start sifting through every game making comprehensive excuses for LCW's continual failures against LD then you might as well start a new religion. All of their matches against each other aren't enough? All of the footage of LD's recent matches aren't enough? The man isn't an altogether new player. A badminton game goes for an hour and let's say there are about 80 or so points per game. Don't pretend you need some massive, continually refreshed compendium of matches to have a useful sample size. You do have some kind of point in saying LCW could be giving more away, sure, but this is just another excuse for what is blatantly obvious to anyone familiar with competitive sports. Actions speak louder than words, and in this context LD's actions are screaming and shouting while LCW's are getting closer to a whimper with every tournament.
No, it was just that. Lin Dan was like "whatever man" and then when LCW got to 20 points, LD was like "oh, I guess I should play for real now." LCW needed to clip the net or hit the line exactly to beat LD in the last 4 points - there was no way LCW was winning without luck. I can say this with confidence because LD did the exact same thing to Hu Yun at 13-20. The moment Hu Yun got to 20 points, LD decided to play for real and next you know, Hu Yun is scratching his head wondering how LD walked away 22-20. Note that this happened twice in the same tournament. If it only happened once, I can maybe believe it is luck. But because it happened twice in one tournament, I don't think it was luck.
You gotta give it to LD... he has a very good record of winning games by coming from behind being 5-6 match points down. Wonder if he does this on purpose to train his mental fortitude. Or he just has short lapses sometimes, then he wakes up and realizes oh gotta play for realz now... then it's turbo mode.
I remember when Gong Weijie said everyone knows Lin Dans weakness e.g. his backhand but it is one thing to know of your opponents weaknesses and another to exploit it on a consistent basis.
yea thats quite true... seeing how much sweat both players had... i sort of knew lcw was gonna lose even though i hoped he would win
LD letting lcw win the 2nd set ? LOL tats funny. When LD loses, he is being generous , when lcw loses he tried his best , canot make it, should retire early, lack of stamina & mental etc. LOL Im not convinced that ld is unbeatable in his new playing style. If it was true , if not it wouldnt have been 20-16 up for lcw , and the 2nd set 21-12 . Don't tell me ld being generous etc, we all know ld will always play his best against LCW after the lost incident in 2006 Asian badminton championship.
AG06? Yeah because it was Taufik who was still really good back then. The same Taufik who in his prime IMO is far superior to LCW.
IMO: 1&3. given both are top players, i will be surprised that a part time training LD (not to mention he was really present in many many commercials and TV programs that you could easily searched from website) could still be better than a competing athlete LCW, this could only simply prove LD's superiority in his ability in self regulating and conditioning, which is basic for a pro athlete; 2. again, these are the top two elite pro players, 6 pts in a row on the brink of losing a match point is purely lucky??? 4. as real pro players, like tennis players, would they rely on high standard sparring partners? no, only the pseudo professional sports like badminton will say so.... 5. are you kidding? all top coaches of top players and top sports teams nowadays all use videos to analyze opponents!!! and you also said for yourself, "the Chinese coaches take the video analysis very seriously". every top sports players may have revolution in their play styles, but this does not mean video analysis is useless... what i want to point out is that Malaysian coaches is really bad in doing this obviously.... and being rivals for over a decade with H2H over 30 matches, LCW should be the one most familiar with LD's play... all these could only indicate LCW and his team are really lack of ability of analyzing and responding to LD's game.
You miss the point. And based on your response, it's obvious you don't really understand LD's recent playing style. If LD wins the first set, he will always reduce his pace and reduce his smashes to conserve energy in the second set. Then he will increase his pace and his smashes if it goes to the 3rd set. He does it this way to conserve energy. LD didn't let LCW win the 2nd set. LD just conserved his energy in the 2nd set and forced LCW to expend more energy. If LD could get away with winning the 2nd set without using much energy, LD would have done that. LD has always allocated his energy for the full 3 sets. When you are 30 years old, you have to use such strategies because you don't have the stamina anymore. Insaint84, you do realize that even top professional badminton players don't have unlimited stamina?
The number of game point situations that LD has turned around leads me to conclude he is special (on match psychology). Gotta agree that the team behind LCW has its part to play. Although the individual wins the honours, there is a huge amount of behind the scenes work that we don't see. It's easy to imagine different countries vary greatly in their support and professionalism of their setup.
