Why do Badminton V bother uploading videos when they use such terrible quality options and encoding? Every bloody video they post has quality issues, stuttering, and blurring.
Because: they're from Videostream, and meant for live betting. The lag/stutter is due to the bandwidth and factors affecting the stream, while quality... it's just a camera set up for betting. BV just recaptures that feed and uploads the footage to youtube. Frankly without it, you can more or less forget about 90% of the matches that happen in a tourney.
That is Lin Dan's second defeat to Chen Long in a row, you can be sure he will want to avenge it the next time they meet, possibly in the upcoming Glasgow WC. Clearly, the decider in today's match could have gone either way. In G1, the two maestros seemed to be testing each other for most of the set before Chen Long suddenly raised his game a little to seal it from 17-16 to take the next four points on the trot and reached 21-17 for one game in the bag. Then Lin Dan in G2 stepped up his game, played with more urgency and didn't look back to equalize the score forcing the decider. In deciding G3, the two titans geared up for the final battle. In the first half, Chen Long managed to keep in the lead until 10-all as Lin Dan who expended quite a bit of energy to take G2 was a bit slower at first having to recover from the considerable effort earlier. However, after the mid-game interval break where Lin Dan held the slenderest one point lead, 11-10, he dug his heels in and relentlessly chipped away at Chen Long's stiff resistance and was able to maintain a small one- or two-point lead until he was holding two matchpoints, 20-18, in the home stretch. It's at that moment I imagined Lin Dan felt somewhat relieved, relaxed a little and just barely took his foot ever so slightly off the pedal for a breather and that was enough for Chen Long to come charging back to force deuce. As the deuces changed hands, Chen Long finally wrapped up the hard-fought high-quality match with a 23-21 victory for a place in the semifinals. Without a shadow of a doubt, every time any two of the Super Trio, namely, Lin Dan, Chen Long and LCW, face off in a tournament, it never fails to heighten intense excitement, generate huge interest and create much hype to the viewers and multitude of fans across the badminton world. Small wonder that the tournament organizer never let up any opportunity to make the most of their much-awaited encounter. Indeed, no other matchups are such crowd-pullers, nowhere near.
At 21-20, Lin Dan had a Golden oppurtunity to seal the match when he was set up beautifully for a cross court smash. This is where he should have opted for the lines knowing fully well that Chen Long retrieves everything that isn't close to the line. But he opted for a nice angle and Chen Long somehow despite getting late to the shuttle scrambled it back and with that the match was gone. But as I have said it earlier as well, Lin Dan no longer leaps that high aka London Olympics LD, nor does he go for the lines. This makes his smash a little bit predictable. This is one area where there is a scope for a major improvement that can lead him to a World Championship title. I am fairly satisfied with his movement and defence but I think he can do much more with his smash by going for low percentage smashes and improving the accuracy.
I just thought if he were fitter , and stamina-wise as well,he'd be playing more aggressively and defend even better from the get-go which is what's really needed against a player of Chen Long's caliber, esp when the latter is on top of his game. Tactically,I believe there is no problem for Lin Dan in terms of technique and experience, particularly his ability to anticipate his opponent's shots, it's just that his shot selection is taken in consideration of his physical ability at that moment as he has to be wary of his powerful opponent's return shot and follow-up. If he thinks he's up to it, he may go for riskier shots to force the issue knowing he can cover all his bases in case his opponent returns with interest and/or counterattack him. But if he thinks otherwise, then he would prefer to go for safer shots. That's just my thought.
For posting this I must give you daily a like in the evening, nay I will give you one in the evening one in the morning.
Showboating, exhibition stuff, playing to the gallery, Lin Dan's creativity, wizardry on display. An irrepressible character, ever scaling new heights. The problem with Lin Dan nowadays, particularly post-LOG'12, nay post-Rio'16, is he not only put his family first, has nothing to prove, no more peaks to conquer except perhaps a third OG gold but also age is against him as he is at the end stage of his career, and in his twilight years. I must say, it's obvious he is no longer as dedicated, committed, single-minded, totally focused, highly motivated and target-driven as he was in his younger days, esp in his heyday. His career goals are now centered on planning for his future, after retirement, and as he is fully aware of his current limitations, he has to set realistic specific aims based on what he is still capable of for which he must stay injury-free, not overstretched himself, and strive to achieve the necessary results ,such as winning certain titles occasionally, so as to maintain his huge fan base and fulfill his sponsorship obligations. Whilst we can say Lin Dan is in a similar situation as his two famous old foes, LCW and Lee Hyun Il, he is in the enviable position of having the luxury of going easy on himself and only required to do the minimum necessary to stay relevant until it is time to finally hang up his racquet for good. Let's face it, for the extraordinary position and unique status that Lin Dan is in possession of, how hard do you think will he do his training and competition? Only what is necessary, no more. I reiterate (as I've repeated many times before, forgive me), the lack of sufficient motivation is his own worst enemy. I daresay say , what drives Lin Dan on at this stage is more his undying passion for the sport than the motivation and desire to win greater honours. Just my thoughts.
@Justin L Lin Dan was so disappointed yesterday that he rejected the scheduled interview. Do you think he can improve and win the Worlds title in Glasgow?
Yes, just as he proved his critics wrong and swept aside the so-called jinx of not being able to win in Southeast Asia to grab the MAS Open title from none other than LCW's hands, I believe he , aware that time is not on his side, will set his mind to capture another world title. That will be Lin Dan's crowning glory for this year, if only to satisfy his legions of fans and the big sponsors as both are very important to him, the raison d'etre for his badminton life. He will make hay while the sun shines and strike while the iron is hot. I'm looking forward to it.
To add, like I said, Lin Dan hates to lose to Lee CW and Chen Long. As we know by now, he wasn't too bothered, never lose sleep over it, whenever he lost to anyone other than his two archrivals. Earlier this year, he lost to Emil Holst at the GER Open and Shi Yuqi at the All England though he was annoyed with himself for the manner he lost to Qiao Bin when holding a hefty lead in G3 at the CHN Masters; otherwise , he couldn't care less as he had already attained his objective of qualifying for the World Championships. Still, never expect Lin Dan to keep losing to the same player whoever he may be, at most twice in a row is the limit for him, I think. Maybe that partly explains why he spread his 'goodies' around to different players excluding the two aforementioned,of course. Just speculating.
Holding three match points against Chen Long is hardly going downhill. More like making the mistake of turning back in a 200m race to look where your opponent is instead of sprinting towards the end line. @Rob3rt, Graduate from the Department of how to finish close matches will want to have a say on this
You rarely see LD being unable to finish a match when he has match points. But I don't think he was unlucky, Chen Long was playing the last few points very well, playing good tight net shots and controlling the net.
A younger, fitter Lin Dan won't fail to convert the two matchpoints or at least wins the deuces. I suspect, after the strenuous effort to maintain the slender one, two point lead all the way to matchpoints, he felt a sense of relief and only just so slightly relaxed a little and that was enough for the unyielding and athletic Chen Long to seize his chances to force deuce and even take it in the end. Understandably,Lin Dan is pissed off with himself.
RE the video of LD destroying opponents. Do you know what the difference is between LD and LCW when they toy with their opponents? When LD showboats, both players on court smile. Heck even the umpire smiles.
