Nagoya Basho 2018 Discussion [SPOILERS]

[Rocks 1,492]

What?

It's true. Hakuho out

https://www.hochi.co.jp/sports/sumo/20180711-OHT1T50115.html

Edited July 11, 2018 by Rocks

[Akinomaki 28,797]

Miyagino-oyakata is guest at NHK in makuuchi today and told the story: Hakuho slipped in the shitaku-beya on day 2 but there was nothing grave at first. It gradually got worse and today the pain was intense and he needed pain-killers - he also thought about going on like that till the end, but after a hospital check and the oyakata advice opted for kyujo.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Akinomaki

[WAKATAKE 1,883]

Well I guess it's down to Kakuryu vs. Tochinoshin again.

[Ryoshishokunin 182]

With the late withdrawal of Hakuho from Day 5, we get to see how volatile the torikumi really is--of the 20 makuuchi matches scheduled for day 5, only three of them remained the same after they re-did the torikumi.  Often when there's a withdrawal after the torikumi is made they try to 'patch' it, but this time it looks like they just started over, though there are some weird things in the new version: I assume they were rushed.  (In particular, Kakuryu's opponent got changed away from the usual pattern for the top Yokozuna, I assume to bodge something else.)  

 

[yutarotanaka 104]

Ikioi kinboshi!!!

Kakuryu was depressed by Hakuho's kyujo hence his heart wasn't in the match today...

[Ack! 167]

22 minutes ago, WAKATAKE said:

Well I guess it's down to Kakuryu vs. Tochinoshin again.

Pretty much, but I'll throw in 4-0 Mitakeumi as a dark horse candidate, just to keep it interesting.  I don't think Takayasu and Goeido are worth consideration this basho.

[Tsubame 312]

12 hours ago, ALAKTORN said:

I’m gonna predict a Hakuhō 15–0.

We found the culprit. He jinxed Hakuho!

Prepare the forks!
Heat up the tar!
Gather feathers!

[Eikokurai 2,272]

1 hour ago, Tsubame said:

We found the culprit. He jinxed Hakuho!

Prepare the forks!
Heat up the tar!
Gather feathers!

Or thank him. I much prefer the unpredictable to yet another 15-0 Hakuho cruise to the yusho.

[Jakusotsu 3,729]

2 hours ago, Ryoshishokunin said:

Often when there's a withdrawal after the torikumi is made they try to 'patch' it, but this time it looks like they just started over,

There's no way to 'patch' it in this case. You can't remove a piece of the puzzle from the top and leave the rest untouched unless you're happy with a M4 vs. M14 pairing.

[Akinomaki 28,797]

Hattorizakura after his 2nd career win (111 losses, one absent), smiling: "It made me happy. I thought that I wanted to do my tachi-ai." As he had hurt his neck, he couldn't do a proper impact. "All kinds of things happened, but I never thought about quitting. Next I'll aim for kachi-koshi." The oyakata: "With that as a start, I want him to go for the 3rd, 4th win."

o o o

 

[Rocks 1,492]

Tough about Hakuho. I didn't expect him to go 15-0  but I did think he would win the yusho.

Tochinoshin seems to be settling in well. Looks like Kakuryu took that head smash at the tachiai worse than Ikioi. Nice win for Ikioi.

Mitakeumi looks very strong but he usually does for the first half of the basho. Goeido really recovered well, tough luck to slip but he's a tough luck kind of guy.

Ichinojo? Who the heck knows what is up with him? Hokutofuji''s leg does not look good.

[Akinomaki 28,797]

On 10.7.2018 at 07:06, Kawabata said:

I had faith :)

Though his performance art piece is now ruined...

Hattorizakura had completed one beautiful piece of art: a 1-111-1 record with day 1.

He can go for 2-121-2 next and aim for 2-222-2 on the way to finish his career with a 3-333-3.

A 5-555-5 would be the ultimate piece of art though.

 

Edited July 12, 2018 by Akinomaki

[Morty 1,252]

1 hour ago, Eikokurai said:

Or thank him. I much prefer the unpredictable to yet another 15-0 Hakuho cruise to the yusho.

It's been a year now since Hak did the 15-0 cruise. I'd love to see it just one more time to prove that, even in his declining years, he can still do it and is, now and forever, the GOAT.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Morty

[Morty 1,252]

Yoshikaze, and I hate to say this because he is one of my faves, looks increasingly like a man who has had too many blows to the head. I'd kind of like him to give it away before he ends up real punchy.

[Eikokurai 2,272]

14 minutes ago, Morty said:

It's been a year now since Hak did the 15-0 cruise. I'd love to see it just one more time to prove that, even in his declining years, he can still do it and is, now and forever, the GOAT.

A year isn’t much time at all really, and he’s had two 14-1 yusho since then as well. I didn’t mean the 15-0 to be taken entirely literally. My point was about Hakuho running away with a championship without much competition. I’ve seen more than enough of that. 

[Jyuunomori 222]

54 minutes ago, Morty said:

Yoshikaze, and I hate to say this because he is one of my faves, looks increasingly like a man who has had too many blows to the head. I'd kind of like him to give it away before he ends up real punchy.

I think he mentioned in one of the interviews that he is starting to lose his passion for Sumo at the start of the year. If that is the case it shows in his records.

Anyway:

On Tochinshin: Talk about a reverse situation of Goeidou. Who usually does well in Keiko and crumbles in actual Basho. Not to say Goeidou hasn't done well this basho. Tochinoshin looks determined and more energetic on his fourth day then he did on his first two. I just love watching this guy, thanks to his huge injury he is an inspiration to us all and should be respected by doing what I thought was impossible.

On Mitakeumi: Our second leader. Showing us strong Sumo (which he has done for a year now) at least in the first week. I think it is a matter of time before he hits a massive stride and becomes an Ozeki. He has the goods, now he needs is to hone his skill and a bit of luck.

Edited July 11, 2018 by Jyuunomori

[Dwale 419]

Oh, Hakuho is out? Guess it's Kakuryu's to lose, then.

Kakuryu: *immediately loses*

Huh...

Would love to see Mitakeumi stay in contention, but I don't think he has the focus just yet. Of course, he is most welcome to prove me wrong if he can.

[Yamanashi 1,495]

Ikioi brings home a kinboshi to his new bride ... KAWAII!

[YoungSumo 93]

This day shakes things up a lot in my eyes. Hakuho out is of course massive for the race. Even though I didn't see him as the favorite to win he's always in contention. Not only that though but the one I actually saw as the frontrunner, Kakuryu, took a real ugly loss and this might become another basho like January where all the competition drops out but he still can't close it. On the other hand Takayasu finally showed life again with an impressive, quick victory over Shoudai and since he managed to minimize his losses so far he's definitely back in the conversation.

Tochinoshin now the man to beat though. Mitakeumi may also play a factor but he always starts really well and dips the second half of the basho so I want to see him keep this up for longer than a few days to really start believing in his chances.

[Ryoshishokunin 182]

5 hours ago, Jakusotsu said:

There's no way to 'patch' it in this case. You can't remove a piece of the puzzle from the top and leave the rest untouched unless you're happy with a M4 vs. M14 pairing.

Sure.  But you can change six bouts or something--it's obvious that they completely started over, rather than just re-pairing people as they found new opponents.  They also 'had' to reduce the number of intra-sanyaku bouts from 2 to 1, which presumably complicated matters.  Still don't understand why Kakuryu's opponent changed...

[ALAKTORN 346]

I’m sad… Hakuhō can’t catch a break.

[Gurowake 2,424]

7 hours ago, Ryoshishokunin said:

Sure.  But you can change six bouts or something--it's obvious that they completely started over, rather than just re-pairing people as they found new opponents.  They also 'had' to reduce the number of intra-sanyaku bouts from 2 to 1, which presumably complicated matters.  Still don't understand why Kakuryu's opponent changed...

Yeah, I don't know why Kakuryu's opponent changed either; my best guess is that they still determine the matches by shuffling papers around, and they were in a mad scramble to get it done and some got mixed up but no one noticed until it was too late.  It's not like it really matters.  They do enough weird things that I swear sometimes they are intentionally being unpredictable because they can.

[Gurowake 2,424]

3 hours ago, ALAKTORN said:

I’m sad… Hakuhō can’t catch a break.

Yeah, a guy with 40 Yusho can't catch a break...

[Fujisan 365]

Now we have a question who goes intai 1st......

Two types of yokozuna here...

The old guard trying.to win as many yushos as age and injury allow him....

The younger Yokozuna who fought to get to the top ranks only to flounder when he he got there..

How many times have we seen that in sumo?

It is the way of sumo.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

e

[WAKATAKE 1,883]

I think there's two things Hakuho is determined to accomplish the most before he retires. Do the dohyo-iri for Tokyo 2020 and get that Japanese citizenship to get his ichidai-toshiyori status. At this point he's hanging on to get those. Tokyo is still 2 years away.