Japan wins first badminton gold in women's team doubles

"They are very tall so we needed to use our brains to fight them,” Takahashi added.

The old trope.

A thrilling match! I wonder if they ever dreamed of this happening when they attended badminton club in high school.

A thrilling match! I wonder if they ever dreamed of this happening when they attended badminton club in high school.

I was just watching them on the news, and Matsutomo said "it's always been our goal to win gold at the Olympics, but I didn't actually think we could do it".

Good on them.

And Matsutomo is pretty cute too, not that that has any bearing on anything.

And Matsutomo is pretty cute too, not that that has any bearing on anything.

It matters if it makes you more of a fan

It matters if it makes you more of a fan

Not really - I'd never even heard of her before this morning.

"They are very tall so we needed to use our brains to fight them,” Takahashi added.

The old trope.

You do realise that in badminton players have use different tactics to beat their respective opponents?.

Both the Danish players are much taller than the average height of female badminton players, so it stands to reason the Japanese would use different tactics to beat them. Because the Danish pair have longer reach and and are taller they can hit the shuttle at a higher point in the air, so if the Japanese players play them the same way they would play a shorter pair they would probably get beaten.

The old trope. You do realise that in badminton players have use different tactics to beat their respective opponents?.

Seeing as they are Olympic gold winners, I would imagine they know more about badminton than any poster on this site, or any other site really.

The old trope is that foreigners are largely big and gormless, winning unfairly due to size, while Japanese are small and quick-witted. Same in all sports. Don't have to know anything about badminton.

That was a superb match. There were a lot of long rallies and I liked the feints executed by Matsutomo. Great strategy on her part to put in timely feints where she would make like she was going for a smash, but would gently tip it over for a point. Congratulations to Japan and Denmark for playing a very exciting match!

By the way, why are there several bad posters on this site that simply can't give congrats, but needs to create a whole bunch of negativity? Shame on them.

Well done to these ladies! A very well-deserved gold.

The old trope.

Moonraker:

This 'old trope' seems to be used a lot by the defeated. It's not very unusual. Read the article on the U.S. men's basketball team beating Spain in the semifinals and the Spanish coach, Sergio Scariolo said:

“With our defense, we managed to slow them down,” “The key to the game was their defense, their athleticism, their size. They made our offense get difficult. Intimidation. Seven blocked shots [plus] minimum of seven changed shots. Their size in the wings is so huge. They are bigger than us at every position. At the end of the day the difference in athleticism is what made the difference.”

quoted from Yahoo News:

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/the-talent-gap-between-team-usa-and-the-rest-of-the-world-is-smaller-just-not-small-enough-224449148.html