Aki 2022 discussion (results)

[Katooshu 3,079]

Tanji looking seriously promising for someone who just turned 16

[Yarimotsu 513]

Glad to hear some actual cheering in Juryo again, for the first time since the first tournament I watched. Hopefully those fans aren't reprimanded.

[Seiyashi 4,068]

The musubi was pretty noisy yesterday too, so I think they're not that fussed any more. At any rate, it was reported today that Japan might also be lifting most travel restrictions by this week or early October, so it seems like Japan is just quietly learning to live with COVID.

Hiradoumi is having a pretty good debut. 2-0 and looking solid too.

[Jakusotsu 5,725]

 

1 minute ago, Seiyashi said:

Hiradoumi is having a pretty good debut. 2-0 and looking solid too.

Yup, quite convincing so far.

On 06/09/2022 at 07:59, Jakusotsu said:

More like between Kotoeko and Daishomaru for me, but we'll see...

I have to admit, I mistook him for Tohakuryu.

[Seiyashi 4,068]

Some broadcast trivia: Kokonoe (ex-Chiyotaikai) was commentating on NHK today, and he was ranked sekiwake and won the basho the last time there were three sekiwake and three komusubi.

[Kaninoyama 1,650]

10 minutes ago, Seiyashi said:

Some broadcast trivia: Kokonoe (ex-Chiyotaikai) was commentating on NHK today, and he was ranked sekiwake and won the basho the last time there were three sekiwake and three komusubi.

And he went on to win the yusho. 

[Yokozuna Hattorizakura 149]

Yesterday's Chiyosakae v Tokushoryu match was their second meeting. their first meeting was in maezumo all the way back in 2009, 13 years ago. Was a pretty stacked maezumo class too. Six future sekitori, and all except chiyosakae made it to makuuchi. even has a few guys who could've possibly made it if not for outside circumstances like recently retired Nogami, and Takanohana's first troublesome twins, Takatoshi and Takageppo.

[Kaninoyama 1,650]

37-year-old Tamawashi looks like he'll still be shoving opponents out of the ring in joi when he's 47. 

Edited September 12, 2022 by Kaninoyama

[Seiyashi 4,068]

Someone's duck keeps quacking.

Also bonus points for the bout replay including Ichinojō, who extended his arms in a preemptive effort to keep Kotonowaka rolling off the dohyō entirely.

Edited September 12, 2022 by Seiyashi

[Seiyashi 4,068]

Is it just me or does Shōdai actually look much calmer and more relaxed before his bouts? 

Unfortunately for him, Kiribayama is far more nimble and far less vulnerable to the same move he put on Terunofuji last basho. A lack of clinicality screwed Shōdai over. 

[Benihana 1,900]

Wow, some exceptional moves by Kiribayama, win well deserved. But to set it straight, i don't think Shodai did a bad job here.

[rhyen 1,799]

Shodai shoddily shod Shodai.

[Benihana 1,900]

And we have a Whacky Aki 

Tobizaru takes the kinboshi, 10 (9 without Abi) guys in sanyaku, but Mitakeumi the only with 2 wins after day 2. 

Edited September 12, 2022 by Benihana

[Yarimotsu 513]

ahahaha

I didn't believe it was possible, then Midnight showed the replay of some years past where Tobi actually beat Teru. And then it happened again? Wow

[Seiyashi 4,068]

Something ailing Terunofuji? He was defending well and then uncharacteristically just gave up the fight. 

[Seiyashi 4,068]

4 minutes ago, Benihana said:

Wow, some exceptional moves by Kiribayama, win well deserved. But to set it straight, i don't think Shodai did a bad job here.

He started well, but had two opportunities to send Kiribayama straight out. He wrongly assumed gravity and momentum would have done the work for him. Even a simple push after the first exchange would have been an okuridashi. Then he went in hot for the second push except he didn't bracket Kiribayama sufficiently, letting him escape. 

[RabidJohn 1,629]

Hokutofuji and Onosho gave what I thought was a very entertaining yotsu bout today. Onosho even tried a throw at one point - wtf?

I had to smile at Sadanoumi's 2-can-play-that-game response to Endo dragging his heels.

That was some fantastic movement from Kiribayama today.

And if no one else is going to say it, I am. Congratulations to Tobizaru on his hatsu kinboshi. The crowd seemed to appreciate it too, but have they nailed the Kokugikan zabuton down now?

[nagora 88]

4 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

Something ailing Terunofuji? He was defending well and then uncharacteristically just gave up the fight. 

I'm not sure I accept that. It seemed overconfident to me and tried to do that old Hakuho thing of "I'll be the immovable object and you just bounce off me" but he's not Hakuho and after a few bounces Tobi worked out what was going on and laid into him.

What is Japanese for "bouncy castle"?

[Benevolance 2,453]

Shodai does sometimes seem reluctant to give that extra shove. 

[Yamanashi 3,675]

Nishonoseki: "Tamawashi, great effort today!"

Tamawashi: "Thanks, sonny."

[Rocks 1,802]

1 hour ago, Benevolance said:

Shodai does sometimes seem reluctant to give that extra shove. 

I think this is just him being overly cautious after losing to Kiribayama the last two times they met. The best way to not win is to try too hard not to lose. 

[Gurowake 3,873]

16 hours ago, Gurowake said:

It looks like they goofed (or at least changed their pattern in dealing with these things) with Tomokaze, provisionally giving him a sekitori opponent for Day 2, but then it turning out that a single sekitori withdrawal means he's left without an opponent for either Day 1 or Day 2.  They'll presumably make it up eventually, but this missing of a bout usually doesn't happen in Makushita because they take a Makushita rikishi that fought the previous odd day for a sekitori fill-in opponent if one is needed for the following even day; this is why typically all the Makushita joi is in action on odd days until the last round.

Well, if he's actually withdrawn, it wasn't reported in the usual thread, so I assume the above is what happened.  It's consistent with the single sekitori fusen day 1 and Tomokaze being the second available makushita rikishi to be taken for a Juryo match.

Following up on this, there's no odd man out near the top of Makushita based on the Day 3 pairings that suggests they're being saved for Tomokaze Day 4.  This makes some sense, as they wouldn't know what record the rikishi needing to face him would be, though one might say that's hardly worth concerning themselves about since they're already one match behind for him compared to everyone else, and they should have tried to make it up as soon as possible so that he'd be on par with everyone else; that is one might rather see there be 1 match half-off (same number of wins, but one rikishi facing one less opponent beforehand) followed by 1 match with a 50% chance to be all the way off (rikishi with different number of wins) than 6 matches half-off.  Maybe they don't care about being half-off because it happens all the time in Jonokuchi to make up the numbers, but that's clearly unavoidable and matters far less than the top of Makushita.

So my guess is their plan is to treat him as having an absence until they need to bring someone up for Juryo again.  If that's on an odd day though, they're left with the same problem as before in terms of who they should plan his opponent to be on the even day to make up the match.  So perhaps they'll skip him if the next time a sekitori fill-in is needed is on an odd day, and they'll hope another is needed on the next day.  If they don't manage to fit in another match for him before the last round, they'll just plan an additional crossover match Day 14 or 15 for him so that they won't need anyone to do an 8th match unless the normal circumstances for that happen (that being an odd number of sekitori withdrawing Day 14).

Well, that would be my plan.  Given that they already screwed this up, who knows?

Edited September 12, 2022 by Gurowake

[Gurowake 3,873]

7 minutes ago, Gurowake said:

Following up on this, there's no odd man out near the top of Makushita based on the Day 3 pairings that suggests they're being saved for Tomokaze Day 4.  This makes some sense, as they wouldn't know what record the rikishi needing to face him would be, though one might say that's hardly worth concerning themselves about since they're already one match behind for him compared to everyone else, and they should have tried to make it up as soon as possible so that he'd be on par with everyone else; that is one might rather see there be 1 match half-off (same number of wins, but one rikishi facing one less opponent beforehand) followed by 1 match with a 50% chance to be all the way off (rikishi with different number of wins) than 6 matches half-off.  Maybe they don't care about being half-off because it happens all the time in Jonokuchi to make up the numbers, but that's clearly unavoidable and matters far less than the top of Makushita.

So my guess is their plan is to treat him as having an absence until they need to bring someone up for Juryo again.  If that's on an odd day though, they're left with the same problem as before in terms of who they should plan his opponent to be on the even day to make up the match.  So perhaps they'll skip him if the next time a sekitori fill-in is needed is on an odd day, and they'll hope another is needed on the next day.  If they don't manage to fit in another match for him before the last round, they'll just plan an additional crossover match Day 14 or 15 for him so that they won't need anyone to do an 8th match unless the normal circumstances for that happen (that being an odd number of sekitori withdrawing Day 14).

Well, that would be my plan.  Given that they already screwed this up, who knows?

The other possibility is that they give someone else in Makushita their Round 3 match early.  But if they were going to do that, they could have done that Day 2.  Maybe they just didn't realize it until now.

Edited September 12, 2022 by Gurowake

[hakutorizakura 581]

3 hours ago, nagora said:

What is Japanese for "bouncy castle"?

Bounchinojo.

[Reonito 1,295]

21 hours ago, Reonito said:

I think they're in too far over their hands to have workable plans against mistake-free Ozeki.

This ... did not age well.