ASIAN GAMES Men’s Team SF – Korea vs. China, Vol 2 and 3!

A promising final is around the corner as both Korea and China entered the men’s team badminton final at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games after splendid performances, making two Korea-China team finals at these Games and also a 3rd Asian Games in a row that these two men’s teams have played off for gold.

By Tarek Hafi, Badzine Correspondent live in Incheon.  Photos: Don Hearn (live)

 

Team Korea proved to be no match for its opponent of the day, Chinese Taipei, rushing to the finals after convincingly winning the first three matches of the encounter. Meanwhile, on the adjacent court, despite disputed match, China still managed to get rid of the recent Thomas Cup finalist Malaysia in three matches.

Chen Long proved once more to be Lee Chong Wei’s main and sole nemesis after another superb win for the recently crowned World Champion. The Hubei-born twenty-five year-old played with high confidence during the whole encounter, both players displaying their large repertoire of shots.

“I remained very focused the whole match, not trying to think about the result, but about my game,” commented Chen Long after his three-game victory 21-17, 19-21, 21-11.

It was China’s two mixed doubles specialists Xu Chen and Zhang Nan who had the job of taking on Tan Boon Heong and Hoon Tien How.  The Malaysians are well known to be fierce men’s doubles players, but they could do nothing much to destabilize the best mixed doubles players at the moment. A first game loss and the Chinese duo found the right way back to conquer a second point for China.

This was followed by the current Olympic Champion and living legend Lin Dan, who again showed the irrelevance of his comparative lack of competition experience over the past two years, outplaying Chong Wei Feng in straight games to give China the final victory and a ticket to the Asian Games final.

Just beside them, the home country provided a similar show, taking good care of Chinese Taipei who created a major upset a day before when they defeated Indonesia.

Son Wan Ho, who is having his last days in the Korean army while playing for his country, left no chance to his opponent Chou Tien Chen and took a bit more than half a hour to seal the first point and will be set to meet Chen Long in tomorrow’s final.

Keeping the mood positive, superstars Lee Yong Dae and Yoo Yeon Seong took even less time to defeat Taiwan’s best men’s doubles pair Lee Sheng Mu and Tsai Chia Hsin in a complete lesson o f high-level badminton.

“This was a very good performance today.  Our plan worked out really well despite all the wind in the hall,” commented Lee Yong Dae surrounded by an armada of journalists, many of whom came out just for this match and left a few minutes afterward.

Lee Dong Keun took the torch and all the honours with it. Looking in complete control from the beginning, the twenty-four year-old player did learn well his lesson and followed his team-mates with a splendid win over Hsu Jen Hao, keeping his consistency and calm throughout the encounter.

“I was not nervous at all and kept the pressure on him thanks to a good control of the wind,” commented a smiling Lee Dong Keun after his match.

A tougher task is ahead for the Korean, as a powerful team China is waiting in Tuesday’s final with the return of Super Dan and Olympic champions Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng.

All results HERE