So the situation is:
Chinese team A loses in final match of round robin, so if Chinese team B goes 3-0 in Round Robin, then they will face Chinese team A in quarterfinals.
After an intra-team huddle, Chinese team B agrees to lose their final round robin match so that they don't have to teamkill Chinese team A, and can face a much weaker Euro team.
However, their opponents in final round robin match, the South Korean team A, also don't want to face Chinese team A, because Chinese team A is ranked #2 in the world, and because their coach wants the two Chinese teams to teamkill each other, as that increases the chances that her two teams will get the gold medal (since the Chinese teams are ranked #1 and #2).
So then they try really hard to lose, but they fail at doing that, and Chinese teams successfully "lose".
Then South Korean team B doesn't want to face Chinese team B in quarters, either, because Chinese team B is ranked #1 in the world. So South Korean team B tries really hard to lose to Indonesian team A in their last round robin match. Indoniesian team A doesn't want to face Chinese team B in quarters either, so they try to lose too.
The result is audiences really, really fed up with watching two straight matches of teams trying to lose, and then the Badminton World Federation and London Olympic Committee trying to save face by banning all 4 teams.
My question here is, why didn't the Chinese team B just simplify things by faking an injury in their first match? It would have made things much, much easier for everyone (other teams, tournament directors, etc.) involved. Just something dramatic enough that it stops the match/gives a clear excuse for poor play, without it being something permanent enough to arouse suspicion when they return to excellent form the following day. For example, a sprained ankle.
The other beef I have is with the organizers themselves. It seems they made a round robin format to give weaker teams more of a chance, then said that all players have "try to win every match". Why? These two choices are mutually contradictory. Either make the hard choice and make everything single elimination (sorry Australian badminton fans that your team will get knocked out on Day 1) or drop the bullshit about trying hard all the time.
Or if you're doing that, why not punish this sort of behavior ALL THE TIME? The Japanese football coach did this just yesterday with the entire women's football team... and even had the gall to admit it to the international media, and nothing is happening to their team.
And badminton was not the only sport in which teams trotted through a preliminary-round game. On Tuesday, in Cardiff, Wales, the Japanese women’s soccer team, the 2011 World Cup champion, played to a scoreless tie against a much weaker South African side.
The tie, as opposed to a win, meant that the Japanese, who had already qualified for the knockout round, avoided having to travel to Glasgow to play France in the quarterfinals. Instead, they will remain in Cardiff and play Brazil.
Afterward, Norio Sasaki, Japan’s coach, said he put in substitutes and told them to keep possession of the ball. The players, he said, “were on the same page as me.”
Sigh, this is just stupid. But what the heck, at the end of the day, what can we do? |
Store
Empyrean August 02 2012 15:09. Posts 16299
