Nagoya 2024 discussion (results)

[Jakusotsu 6,188]

Kotozakura took a page out of his old man's book today.

(no, not the stalling, but the forceful uwatenage)

[RabidJohn 1,944]

Hiradoumi is really growing on me. Fair chance of a KK as a shin-komusubi, though I don't expect him to ever rise higher than sekiwake. I've got him in the same category as Tobizaru, Ura and Midorifuji; nearly always entertaining and rarely disappointing. They're safe bets for fandom, unlike ozeki...

First Mitakeumi, now Kirishima. If I were superstitious, I'd feel cursed.

[dingo 1,388]

Onokatsu with three losses in a row in juryo. Did someone accidentally flipped the off switch or did he get injured?

Hokutofuji leveraged his bigger weight well against Chiyoshoma, even though he's not much of a grappler. Important win in order to stay in makuuchi.

Likewise important win for Endo over a desperately wriggling Churanoumi. This time he summoned the vigour we saw last basho in juryo, was aggressive and kept trying different moves until Churanoumi ran out of energy to resist. 

After a small sparkle yesterday, Nishikigi is unfortunately back to his ineffective self this basho. Kagayaki shouldn't be able to yori him out that easily, but Nishikigi offered very little resistance. 

Bouts like today make me think that Wakatakakage is at times a bigger and stronger version of Midorifuji -- almost as agile and fast, but better equipped to deal with larger rikishi. That speed and agility was on display as Wakatakakage amazingly outmaneuvered Midorifuji and pushed him out from behind. 

Takarafuji won his bout by simply standing there as Tamawashi defeated himself. Though it showed on his face for only a second, Takarafuji's reaction was a funny mixture of bewilderment, disbelief and slight concern that his fellow veteran didn't hurt himself slipping down, replaced by his usual stoic expression a moment later. 

Ura seems to be a mystery to Oho, who lost again and seemingly can't solve the puzzle of how to beat Ura's low stance and quick movements. It's good that Oho tried forward moving sumo but it's obvious that it doesn't work so maybe it's time to try something else, like more cautious big man sumo and try to overwhelm Ura with his larger body. 

Angry shrew Hiradoumi dropped Wakamotoharu today like it's business as usual. Like many have commented his explosive sumo is great to watch, though probably quite demanding on his body. 

Takakeisho lost by a split second, with Abi managing to stay on the tawara only a moment longer. To be honest it's not Takakeisho's first time to lose like this. The remaining five days will show whether this loss proves decisive or not. 

Kotozakura all fired up but at the same time was carefully executing his strategy of keeping his distance with Onosato and waiting for an opening to close in on the mawashi. It worked well enough to prevent Onosato rushing him out, though Kotozakura almost lost balance mid-throw, but recovered well and got a well deserved win. Onosato's bad start of the basho is starting to catch up with him and might ruin his chance for completing an ozeki run in September. In fact he still has work to do to reach even 8 wins... 

No chance at all for Kirishima against the yokozuna. With his back against the wall and five days to go, what will Kirishima manage to do? To me it seems that if he wants to return to ozeki he will have to start all over again, this time with Onosato chasing him down. 

Looking forward to see what Onosato and Kotozakura can do against Terunofuji. Can they make the yusho race interesting? 

[Akinomaki 41,181]

Hope we'll get a promotion thread today - looks like there won't be much there. Kiryuko at last will force the shimpan to promote him, in spite of being the son of disgraced Tokitsuumi. Daiseisan is a sure one as well. Takerufuji is safe, Tsushimanada will go down, likely Nabatame and maybe Tochitaikai, if Oshoumi gets some more.

From juryo only the 2 on top look good enough, Tokihayate and Onokatsu. Asanoyama goes down, likely NIshikigi - Takayasu will be safe, Chiyoshoma may be in peril to go down for a possible 3rd one. Shishi has to win out to have any chance at all, quite unlikely.

[Sakura 1,509]

33 minutes ago, Akinomaki said:

Hope we'll get a promotion thread today -

I'm planning on it in about 15 hours

[Tochinofuji 390]

I must say it's been great to see Wakatakakage back in makuuchi, however since his return it seems like his footwork is still just a step behind where it was when he was tearing it up as a sekiwake. I appreciate this is likely a consequence of a bit of ring rust and getting the confidence back on his knee, but it really would be great to see him keep his feet under himself a bit more and get a touch of his old stability back. 

[Benevolance 2,519]

[pauses reading sumo script]

Terunofuji has been so awesome this tournament, that it will be EPIC when Kotozakura steals the yusho. 

[Octofuji 387]

So many fantastical bouts today with either Houdini acts or sudden slippiotoshis. Great fun to watch. 

Endo perplexes me, he put more effort into that match with Churanoumi than all his other bouts put together.

[Reonito 1,613]

Posting this here in case people are looking for it; fairly bare-bones but it's a start now that we're through Day 10. 

 

[Reonito 1,613]

12 hours ago, Sakura said:

I'm planning on it in about 15 hours

I jumped the gun, it's here but quite rudimentary, please go ahead and add your usual excellent contributions: 

 

[Reonito 1,613]

12 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

From juryo only the 2 on top look good enough, Tokihayate and Onokatsu. Asanoyama goes down, likely NIshikigi - Takayasu will be safe, Chiyoshoma may be in peril to go down for a possible 3rd one. Shishi has to win out to have any chance at all, quite unlikely.

Onosho is also toast; Takayasu is on the bubble but should just be okay given the current state of the exchange picture.

[Kaninoyama 1,866]

The basho becomes interesting if Onosato can redeem himself today with an upset of Teru and Kotozakura continues his winning ways, setting up a showdown to potentially even things up. 

[Akinomaki 41,181]

The last matta wins - after a false start competition to distract the opponent, Kotokuzan made the last deciding move and had Kazenkeno unfocused enough to easily put him down. He did it first, Kazekeno retaliated with the same matta, but Kotokuzan refused to be have his plan disturbed and put one on top.

[Kaninoyama 1,866]

8 hours ago, Kaninoyama said:

The basho becomes interesting if Onosato can redeem himself today with an upset of Teru and Kotozakura continues his winning ways, setting up a showdown to potentially even things up. 

Onosato did his job, but Kotozakura didn't get the memo. 

[Seregost 139]

Best effort from Kirishima, who finally has awaken (let's see if in time) and dismantled Kotozakura in a blink. Onosato maybe has still hangover because of the celebrations, but today defeated the undefeated easily. 

[RabidJohn 1,944]

Yay, purple rain! I hadn't realised how much I was missing it. Delightful.

---

End of the Oshoma-Roga bout: Roga bowed properly and turned to leave, but the gyoji stopped him and made them both bow again... Wut?

Where has that Kirishima been hiding?

Brilliant escapology from Hoshoryu, after completely whiffing his tachi-ai.

[The Fat Cyclist 32]

19 minutes ago, RabidJohn said:

Yay, purple rain! I hadn't realised how much I was missing it. Delightful.

---

End of the Oshoma-Roga bout: Roga bowed properly and turned to leave, but the gyoji stopped him and made them both bow again... Wut?

 

Yes that was an epic purple rain! The fans have still been a little too quiet for me since covid. It was nice to see their involvement.

I was also confused by the gyogi making both Oshoma & Roga bow again. If anyone knows why I'd love to find out.

[dingo 1,388]

Nishikigi has exceeded my expectation, getting a second win against Takarafuji. Nishikigi has been a little bit livelier the past few days, can he do a miracle turnaround and save his maegashira rank?

Endo had an epic struggle with Kinbozan, trying henka, throws, leg trips and escaping from a dangerous position until Kinbozan didn't catch up with Endo's legwork and was dropped on his bum. Good effort from both, unfortunately for Kinbozan his efforts this basho haven't paid off.

Hokutofuji apparently took some cues from Terunofuji, getting a kime hold and nudging Ryuden out. Seems like yokozuna technique does produce results.

Oho had a reasonably good tachiai but couldn't capitalise on that as he let the shorter Churanoumi in under him and change grip to inside. Not much chance for him after that, but with two more wins Oho could get close to joi next basho from his current M6 position.

I was rooting for Shodai to win against Takanosho and grab his kachikoshi already but who am I kidding, Takanosho is in good shape these days and Shodai is nowadays notoriously ineffective against big rikishi who move forward well. Oh well, Shodai has 4 days left to get his kachikoshi. Now watch him waste them...

Mitakeumi out pushed by Tobizaru at the tawara? Just your average Mitakeumi nowadays, the Onosato win was really just a small sparkle in an otherwise unremarkable basho so far.

It's a mystery to me what is Ura actually attempting to do, making a stand at the dohyo edge? He's done it many times and maybe my memory fails me, but usually he's not been successful. Instead of trying to go head to head at the tawara, I think he would find more success moving sideways and evading the final push. But maybe he feels it's not honorable enough. 

Kotozakura couldn't find the answer against Kirishima once again. This time the strong sideways slap moved him off balance which Kirishima exploited well. Didn't seem like a decisive loss, just Kotozakura being a bit below par and facing an uncomfortable opponent. 

I winced at the head first collision between Takakeisho and Gonoyama. Although he got the win, that couldn't have been good for Takakeisho's neck condition and he was visibly not well after the bout. I wish he wouldn't risk his health so much but I guess that's sumo for you. 

After his bout with Abi, Hoshoryu had the smile of someone who knows they got away lucky. I understand he wanted to be careful against a potential henka but he almost paid for it, getting thrusted to the edge and managing to escape by a small miracle. 

Onosato! As I thought, Terunofuji loses at least one. Kotozakura is left to Rue his loss to Kirishima today, and suddenly Hoshoryu is at least theoretically in the yusho race! This basho has it all -- a dominant yokozuna, ozeki gunning for a first yusho and a young upstart mixing up the cards. Next few days will be exciting! 

[Jakusotsu 6,188]

1 hour ago, dingo said:

After his bout with Abi, Hoshoryu had the smile of someone who knows they got away lucky. I understand he wanted to be careful against a potential henka but he almost paid for it, getting thrusted to the edge and managing to escape by a small miracle. 

If you watch closely, though, Hoshoryu was always in control of the situation. It appeared much closer than it actually was.

[Tochinofuji 390]

2 hours ago, RabidJohn said:

Yay, purple rain! I hadn't realised how much I was missing it. Delightful.

---

End of the Oshoma-Roga bout: Roga bowed properly and turned to leave, but the gyoji stopped him and made them both bow again... Wut?

Where has that Kirishima been hiding?

Brilliant escapology from Hoshoryu, after completely whiffing his tachi-ai.

I thought it was because Rouga bowed and was heading to leave effectively before Oshouma was ready to bow himself. The gyoji likely wanted them to bow to each other/sync up on that front.  That said I just watched the digest and so may not have seen the wide angle of the first bow. 

(ignore the tag below: I tried to say it was Kintamayama's digest, but the tagging process seems to have caused my browser to throw a fit and now won't let me delete the tag! 

@Kintamayama@Kintamayam@Kintamayama's@Kintamayama@Kintamayam@Kintamayama's) 

[Katooshu 3,416]

Terunofuji really took a spill there. Looked like he put everything into moving forward and winning a power battle, and was not expecting Onosato to be evasive like that. Onosato's hopes for an ozeki promotion this year have taken a big hit, but overall I think this should be a good learning experience and despite the so-so record (hard to believe I'm saying that about a guy who's 6-5 at sekiwake in his 4th makuuchi basho), he's still shown good potential to be up there with the ozeki and yokozuna eventually. 

Ironically, Teru's lead becomes even stronger with the 2-win cushion remaining and only 4 days left now. Kotozakura just cannot figure Kirishima out, even when the former is on form and the latter isn't.

Edited July 24, 2024 by Katooshu

[Yamanashi 3,988]

3 hours ago, The Fat Cyclist said:

I was also confused by the gyogi making both Oshoma & Roga bow again. If anyone knows why I'd love to find out.

When I saw it, I assumed that Roga's bow (which seemed respectful enough) had occurred before Oshoma was properly lined up.  I'm not sure if Abema captured anything more than that camera angle.

[Gurowake 4,123]

3 hours ago, Katooshu said:

Ironically, Teru's lead becomes even stronger with the 2-win cushion remaining and only 4 days left now.

I wouldn't necessarily say that, because now there are a bunch of people 2 wins behind instead of just Kotozakura.   There's a significantly higher chance of being caught from 2 ahead by 5 people in 4 days than by 1 person in 5 days (roughly 55% vs. 17% assuming 50% win percentages and no matches between candidates, which I acknowledge are both terrible assumptions, but it's actually possible to calculate easily using those assumptions).  I suppose if we were to take into consideration all the people still able to catch up that the one loss combined with Kotozakura's loss might not be all that much of an increase in the chance to not win outright, but compared to the alternative of both Terunofuji and Kotozakura winning, Terunofuji is clearly in worse shape now.

 

Edited July 24, 2024 by Gurowake

[Bunbukuchagama 827]

4 hours ago, Katooshu said:

Onosato's hopes for an ozeki promotion this year have taken a big hit

If he gets a KK now, a smashing performance in Aki should still get him the promotion. There will be no more "M5 start to the run" hurdle then.

[Bunbukuchagama 827]

20 minutes ago, Gurowake said:

I wouldn't necessarily say that, because now there are a bunch of people 2 wins behind instead of just Kotozakura.   There's a significantly higher chance of being caught from 2 ahead by 5 people in 4 days than by 1 person in 5 days (roughly 55% vs. 17% assuming 50% win percentages and no matches between candidates, which I acknowledge are both terrible assumptions, but it's actually possible to calculate easily using those assumptions).  I suppose if we were to take into consideration all the people still able to catch up that the one loss combined with Kotozakura's loss might not be all that much of an increase in the chance to not win outright, but compared to the alternative of both Terunofuji and Kotozakura winning, Terunofuji is clearly in worse shape now.

 

Both Hoshoryu and Kotozakura will have the pleasure of being entertained by the Yokozuna. In a way, their fate is still in their hands (if they help each other, of course).