Day 2 comments - Aki 2017

[Kaikitsune Makoto 189]

Technical beauty of the day was perfectly timed and clean susoharai by Kyokutaisei against Daiamami who was surprisingly strong last basho. Nicely timed two phase susoharai indeed. Rare event.

Gagamaru lost/dropped some weight and looked pretty good today against Homarefuji but it was Homarefuji he was up against so...in any case his sumo at this level is based on whether he can keep his feet along with opponents retreat and circle away pulling him.

Ryuden has started well with classic first step dominance against both Toyohibiki yesterday and Kyokushuho today. Fumikomi is a nice and concrete term to describe the significance of the first step inside opponent's defence. Often the main reason why injured rikishi have lot of problems as their fumikomi is not fully functional and may be timid. Ruyden beat Kyukoshuho in the first strong step and easily won with morozashi yorikiri. Ryuden reminds me of Fukuoka (Ikioi) when he was in makushita/juryo.

Kotoyuki lost much of his bulldozing sumo along with his knee injuries. At the same time some of his aggression went away too. Today was a good bout to compare him now to his prime when he was really blasting out foes and doing his owl and looking pissed at everything on the dohyo. He had good tachi-ai against Azumaryu but had to reposition and attack again showing some good thrusts at the end but when he got this type of tachi-ai before, he beat foes like Azumaryu in 1-2 seconds.  Hopefully he can still do sumo without knee reservations and could entertain the world with his aggressive bulldozing.

Aminishiki showed most of his moves against Sokokurai. Head leaning dashinage, pivoting nage attempts, good mobility, running the show and in the end very familiar glimpse from the past when he yanked than dashinage and escorted Sokokurai out. Haven't heard much whether his achilles has healed so that he has no obstacles there. He does look fatter and has signs of muscles getting smaller and aging fat accumulating.

Yutakayama went back to his Natsu Makuuchi debut sumo by being totally late and off in every move against Miyogiryu. Of course it is difficult to defend against Miyogiryu when he does his fast grip surging sumo but not much to offer this time by Yutakayama.

Endo looked good although still no real pressure on his ankle. He beat Asanoyama in grip battle and dominated the bout from the start. Failed sumo by Asanoyama.

Okinoumi showed great strength in hidariyotsu. Tokushoryu is at his best in this stance but never got good outside grip though and when Okinoumi got that, he muscled out Tokushoryu with ease. Promising start by Okinoumi,

Takanoiwa's footwork is now solid. Looks much better and could well be on his way to 10-5 or 11-4. Chiyoshoma even got good outside grip and went for some moves but was smothered and simply outpowered by stronger rikishi.

Kagayaki pushed and pushed but most of his pushes were ineffective, slippery and just not in rhytm. Ikioi didn't have much problems withstanding that and proceeding in easy victory. This was weak sumo by Kagayaki.

Shodai remembered he is not at keikoba where weakness much prevail and winning is an anomaly. Forward manly sumo. Ichinojo looks often like a heavy tree trunk that one needs to push hard to move but usually doesn't move away and it is easy to just push with everything you got.

Nasty knee buckle well shown in slow motion. Already injured leg and Ura-like no matter what kind of ultimate resistance causing tremendous stress on the knee and you can see something give away there. With such tension, it might well be a total ACL-rupture or other full ligament rupture. Ura does this kind of sumo and doesn¨t give in an inch voluntarily. Even to healthy leg, that pressure would have been dangerous. Takakeisho has been dominating Ura which is no wonder since Ura can't do much of his dives against oshi rikishi with also such low posture and short height.

Shohozan vs O3 was predictably morozashi battle since both have such tendency. Fast grip changes, fiddling and this kind of predictable sumo this time ending in Shohozan's victory. Good start by him with 2-0.

Chiyotairyu....second bout in a row where he does his best sumo. Boom boom and powerful yank. Perfect sumo. I'd say mostly his goodness and not Mitakeumi's fault. When things go right for Chiyotairuu, this is how it looks like. Interestingly there was a comment some years ago that his grip power is very strong so overall he must be strong physically. Too bad it doesn't show that often in his sumo when it is not in this kind of ridiculous flow as today and on shonichi. It is impossible to say anytning about Mitakeumi's form yet. He has lost twice fast but against very good moves by opponents.

21y and 35y olds had exactly the kind of fierce bout one might expect although Onosho almost screwed it up by ill adviced decision to pull. Well ok it was not a decision but a dumb and bad reaction. Good stuff and you can always rely on Yoshikaze to be ready for such dance. There is quite a contrast in the image one gets of him on the dohyo and in the short document (30min or so). Quite easy going character in that. Also an interesting detail was his 160-165kg bench press evidently many many years ago.

The bout and topic of the day is of course the ultra rare double injury bout between Takayasu and Tamawashi. Takayasu is definitely out. Whether it was inner thigh injury or knee, no doubt about the fact that it was quite bad. I don't believe one bit that Tamawashi is "daijoubu" either like he claimed in post bout interview. The ankle twist was quite clear and walking was difficult enough. Tamawashi dominates Takayasu at honbasho like he did today.

Kotoshogiku did his sumo and while Terunofuji didn't look weak, he did look rusty and enabled Koto to get into his own game with that famous gappuri yori with left hand inside grip. It is very difficult to beat Koto from that position. 13-2 yusho then for Terunofuji if Kintamayama is always right.

Hokutofuji challenged Goeido with his usual spirit but was outskilled today. His initial tactics of not letting Goeido get inside worked but Goeido simply did it with second attempt while Hokutofuji¨s pushes and moves were largely from suboptimal angle and without accurate target. Very solid Goeido sumo. He even looked content after the bout.

Tochinoshin couldn't ask for more than left hand outside grip. Yet he was skillfully thrown by Harumafuji with shitatenage.

More withdrawals for sure but now you can concentrate on enjoying some very good sumo by the remaining ones. Even honourable Kintamayama can refine his eyes to see all sorts of cool details of grip changes, defensive blocks, mawashi stains and flexible foot scenes. 

Prediction: Takayasu and Ura out for sure, Tamawashi out with 75% probablity and if he comes back, he is not going to do well.

[Jakusotsu 4,993]

1 hour ago, Kaikitsune Makoto said:

Ryuden reminds me of Fukuoka (Ikioi Okinoumi) when he was in makushita/juryo.

fixed

[Kaikitsune Makoto 189]

4 minutes ago, Jakusotsu said:

fixed

Indeed

But then I should have written: Ryuden reminds of me Ikioi (Ikioi) when he was in makushita/juryo as I meant Ikioi but Okinoumi is not that far fetched either.

[Taka 33]

What a great blast from the past (and into the present) getting to read these again!

 

[rhyen 1,619]

Was

2 hours ago, Kaikitsune Makoto said:

 

Tochinoshin couldn't ask for more than left hand outside grip. Yet he was skillfully thrown by Harumafuji with shitatenage.

 

 

There was nothing that Tochinoshin could do to counter Harumafuji, even with his favourite grip?

[Bumpkin 438]

O3?

[Asojima 2,839]

11 minutes ago, Bumpkin said:

O3?

Ozan > Ozone > O3

[Bumpkin 438]

16 minutes ago, Asojima said:

Ozan > Ozone > O3

Tochiozan and Shohozan? So, 03 v 03?

[Kaikitsune Makoto 189]

3 hours ago, rhyen said:

Was

 

There was nothing that Tochinoshin could do to counter Harumafuji, even with his favourite grip?

Well looked like Harumafuji didn't exactly give much time or chance to work on anything immediately since Tochinoshin didn't get his right hand into play much at all. Different game if he had also gotten his right hand inside grip. Harumafuji's best part always was his explosive reactions and moves to any direction.