Nagoya 2024 discussion (results)

[Tigerboy1966 1,433]

16 minutes ago, Akinomaki said:

2 hours ago, Tigerboy1966 said:

My cat Bob sometimes catches shrews. Shrews are tiny little mouse-shaped creatures which makes Bob's inclination to catch them perfectly understandable. However, the shrew is actually a super-aggressive mini-predator whose natural instinct is to attack, kill and eat anything that crosses its path. This leads to a conflict of interest. Bob is saying "Hey mouse, why don't you either die or try to run away, as is the custom?" Shrew replies "Ah screw you you big smelly b*stard, I wanna fight!".  It sometimes ends badly for the shrew but more often than not Bob thinks "sod this for a lark" and beats what he intends to be taken as a dignified retreat.

Hiradoumi is the shrew.

So we can expect some good things from Hiradoumi - and some bad

On 25/09/2021 at 19:04, Tigerboy1966 said:

My cat Bob likes to hunt for mice and voles. It's pretty easy work for him as millions of years of evolution have equipped him perfectly for the task. Occasionally he will pounce on a shrew by mistake. Shrews are about the same size as a mouse but are mini-carnivores with bucketloads of meanness and aggression. The results are a whole lot of squeaking, a startled and discomfited cat and, eventually, a dead shrew. It's a bad day for Bob, who might need a trip to the vet for an antibiotic shot, but it's a worse day for the shrew, who is resting in peace at the bottom of my wheelie-bin. Terunofuji is the cat. Takakeisho is the shrew.

Oh boy. I am getting old. Recycling my own laboured analogies.. If I make another Bob vs Shrew comment in 2027 please feel free to shoot me in the ear.

[Kaninoyama 1,738]

More bad luck for Asanoyama. Hurt his left knee during his bout with Ichiyamamoto and it doesn't look good. Couldn't get up under his own power and had to be wheeled back to the dressing room. 

[Akinomaki 40,271]

Juryo drop imminent for Asanoyama after getting wheeled out

[Akinomaki 40,271]

I was surprised that Endo had won in the 2nd half, I thought I saw him in the first: the NHK announcer confused Ura with him, maybe without noticing it at all. Atamifuji as usual lost with Isegahama commenting on NHK - after the one-time recent win in spite of that

[Akinomaki 40,271]

That was a shrewd move by Hiradoumi

Edited July 17, 2024 by Akinomaki

[Koorifuu 939]

13 hours ago, Tigerboy1966 said:

Oh boy. I am getting old. Recycling my own laboured analogies.. If I make another Bob vs Shrew comment in 2027 please feel free to shoot me in the ear.

No no, please keep it up. Sounds like Bob's slowly learning a lesson about shrews over time, would love to hear how he does in a few years' time.

[lackmaker 437]

The shrews have Bob on partial retreat he needs a better tachiai.

[Akinomaki 40,271]

Miyagi specializes in incorrect tachi-ai - no hand down so far this basho, but there is no Konosuke clone in makushita. If Nakamura gets away with going against the NSK policy of enforcing the proper tachi-ai, he might be able to show that his way reduces the risk for injury.

[Akinomaki 40,271]

8 hours ago, Akinomaki said:

Juryo drop imminent for Asanoyama after getting wheeled out

Actually makushita drop is looming. He can't stand up on his own, said Takasago.

Asanoyama was brought to a hospital as an emergency with a special car of the hyper rescue task force. Again the knee, the left this time, he injured the right knee at the jungyo in April and sat out for the Natsu basho: "This time it feels worse" was his comment, which Wakamatsu oyakata told the press. https://www.sanspo.com/article/20240717-T5OWURYMAZIB5N6YEJWCAJS54U/

o

Edited July 17, 2024 by Akinomaki
knee again, but not the same

[dingo 1,251]

A quite disappointing day for several rikishi today, especially ozeki and ex-ozeki. 

Endo is still finding makuuchi much harder compared to juryo. Seems his newfound fate is to yoyo between the two divisions until he declines too much and falls out of juryo. Sad, but that's what it looks like.

Continuing on a sombre note, Asanoyama's luck lasted until the 4th day, and he's once again injured. So much for the yusho chance. Seems to be the story of his sumo career recently, him and Takayasu both. It's really unfortunate to see.

Hokutofuji and Nishikigi were apparently matched up to find out who's the more diminished rikishi among those two. Neither looked good but Hokutofuji managed to rally enough to beat a totally weakened Nishikigi. I sincerely hope those two manage to bounce back but at their age you never know. 

Midorifuji did great to scramble against Oshoma and give him the first loss of the basho. I already guessed at the tachiai that Oshoma's unfamiliarity with Midorifuji might give the smaller rikishi an advantage and Midorifuji used it to perfection, waiting patiently for his opening and using his short stature as an advantage to get under Oshoma and upset his balance. To his credit, Oshoma lasted pretty long. 

Wow, Shodai A showed up today! (if I may borrow Kintamayama's invention) He's really taking Kaisei's mantle in the sense that you never know which version you get. I suppose that's one way to keep opponents guessing. 

Tamawashi defended really well against Kinbozan after exhausting his initial attack, something that we don't see too often. Well deserved win for the ironman. 

Oho with a great throw at the dohyo edge, though Sadanoumi has nothing to be ashamed of, driving the younger rikishi back with a strong tachiai. Short but excellent bout! 

Ura with a master plan, executing it perfectly once again from the slight dive at tachiai to get a favourable position under Atamifuji's huge body until pulling him down with great timing. It's somewhat strange to say but Atamifuji didn't stand a chance. 

I was wondering if Kirishima would consider shifting at the tachiai but he decided to take Daieisho head on, and it obviously was the wrong decision. Nothing is wrong yet for Kirishima but I guess when he starts getting close to his final wins or accumulating too many losses we might see the sidesteps coming into play. 

Now Hiradoumi didn't have any scruples to show Kirishima what he should've done :D Onosato's margin to get at least 10 wins is getting awfully thin awfully fast. I'm still positive he'll get kachikoshi, but it's hard to predict the numbers. I also think Hiradoumi is getting flung to the upper seats of the Kokugikan next time they meet. 

Abi lasted a bit longer than Onosato, but neither of the sekiwake is having a good basho so far. 

Takakeisho doesn't look like he's getting to 8 wins this basho. I'm sure he'll try until the last moment because of his ozeki pride and also cause in his current condition 8 is significantly easier to reach than 10, but that might seriously be it for the ozeki. 

Kotozakura and Terunofuji both showed very strong sumo today and I would guess are the main yusho candidates. Despite being seemingly back as close to full power as possible, I'm still not convinced Terunofuji can actually take the yusho. Let's see if he can prove me wrong. 

Edited July 17, 2024 by dingo

[Yubinhaad 11,626]

Today was Satonofuji's 637th honbasho performance of the yumitori-shiki, equalling the record set by Edonohana. All being well, tomorrow he will begin a new record.

[Sumo Spiffy 550]

The slo-mo replay of Asanoyama's match looks... bad. 

[Yamanashi 3,820]

Hiradoumi's shift-henka was pretty good, but I'm surprised to say that it wasn't as good as the one by ... Kotoshoho??

[Kintamayama 44,988]

Asanoyama seems to have seriously injured his left knee today in his loss to Ichiyamamoto, after he fell awkwardly to his first loss of the basho. This comes after he missed all of last basho with a right knee injury. The way it's looking at the moment, it will take a while for him to recuperate, meaning he may soon find himself in Makushita. Asanoyama, who was pushed down and lost after collapsing on his left knee, looked to be in great pain as he tried to stand up once, but was unable to and was on all fours again on the dohyo. He got on the wheelchair provided, leaning on the shoulders of some Oyakata and yobidashi. He was transferred to an ambulance at the infirmary inside the venue, but the ambulance that arrived could only accommodate a weight of up to 130 kg, so they had to wait for about an hour for the Hyper Rescue Team's special vehicle so they could head to the hospital. Wakamatsu Oyakata, former Maegashira Asanowaka, coaching at Takasago, rushed to the infirmary and revealed, "It was his left knee that was injured". 'I heard a sound. It feels worse than last time," said Asanoyama himself." The "last time" was on April 25th during the Jungyo in Kisarazu, Chiba. He had injured his right knee, which caused him to miss the entire May basho. If he "heard a sound," and it was a torn ligament, a long-term absence is inevitable. If he misses the remaining 11 days, and then misses both the September and Kyushu bashos, he will drop to Makushita for Hatsu.(Actually, if he doesn't return this basho and misses all of Aki, he should be in Makushita in Kyushu, I guess..) Asanoyama was suspended for one year for violating COVID-19 guidelines. He fell from Ozeki to Sandanme, and made his comeback at the 2022 Nagoya tournament, getting the Sandanme yusho. After morning practice that day, he expressed his gratitude to the fans, saying, "I will never forget the cheers of 'Welcome back' that time." And now, he faces more difficult times ahead.

 

Edited July 17, 2024 by Kintamayama

[Athenayama 1,019]

What a waste.

[Leoben 127]

Oh man, could be an ACL or MCL injury. We may be looking at a Wakatakakage timeline. Fingers crossed it's not that bad.

[Sumo Spiffy 550]

14 minutes ago, Leoben said:

Oh man, could be an ACL or MCL injury. We may be looking at a Wakatakakage timeline. Fingers crossed it's not that bad.

The shift in the knee wasn't huge, so he could get lucky and just have a sprain. Even then, it seems like he has to be kyujo for the rest of this basho. No Takerufuji-esque reason for him to stagger up there again.

[Tochinofuji 378]

2 hours ago, Kintamayama said:

Asanoyama seems to have seriously injured his left knee today in his loss to Ichiyamamoto, after he fell awkwardly to his first loss of the basho. This comes after he missed all of last basho with a right knee injury. The way it's looking at the moment, it will take a while for him to recuperate, meaning he may soon find himself in Makushita. Asanoyama, who was pushed down and lost after collapsing on his left knee, looked to be in great pain as he tried to stand up once, but was unable to and was on all fours again on the dohyo. He got on the wheelchair provided, leaning on the shoulders of some Oyakata and yobidashi. He was transferred to an ambulance at the infirmary inside the venue, but the ambulance that arrived could only accommodate a weight of up to 130 kg, so they had to wait for about an hour for the Hyper Rescue Team's special vehicle so they could head to the hospital. Wakamatsu Oyakata, former Maegashira Asanowaka, coaching at Takasago, rushed to the infirmary and revealed, "It was his left knee that was injured". 'I heard a sound. It feels worse than last time," said Asanoyama himself." The "last time" was on April 25th during the Jungyo in Kisarazu, Chiba. He had injured his right knee, which caused him to miss the entire May basho. If he "heard a sound," and it was a torn ligament, a long-term absence is inevitable. If he misses the remaining 11 days, and then misses both the September and Kyushu bashos, he will drop to Makushita for Hatsu.(Actually, if he doesn't return this basho and misses all of Aki, he should be in Makushita in Kyushu, I guess..) Asanoyama was suspended for one year for violating COVID-19 guidelines. He fell from Ozeki to Sandanme, and made his comeback at the 2022 Nagoya tournament, getting the Sandanme yusho. After morning practice that day, he expressed his gratitude to the fans, saying, "I will never forget the cheers of 'Welcome back' that time." And now, he faces more difficult times ahead.

 

You'd think maybe as part of standard injury management protocols they'd have ensured  transportation was on hand that can accommodate a fairly standard sized rikishi. Not that it's likely an hour wait for transfer to the hospital would have made any difference in this case, but it's easy to envision cases where it might. 

[Koorifuu 939]

Quite frankly, we all heard the sound. It was awful.

[Sumo Spiffy 550]

1 hour ago, Tochinofuji said:

You'd think maybe as part of standard injury management protocols they'd have ensured  transportation was on hand that can accommodate a fairly standard sized rikishi. Not that it's likely an hour wait for transfer to the hospital would have made any difference in this case, but it's easy to envision cases where it might. 

I was thinking this but forgot to bring it up. Generally speaking, sanctioned events for MMA or other combat sports in the U.S. (or at least some states) have an ambulance already on-hand in case it's needed. I grant that there's a higher chance of injuries which require a speedy trip to the hospital as compared to sumo, but even when we have a double card with muay thai and MMA, you're looking at maybe sixty fighters.

A day of sumo has ten times that. The quote says "the ambulance that arrived", which suggests they didn't even have one on hand to start with; if that's the case, that's madness. But I have to imagine that is what happened, because there would be no reason to have an ambulance on hand that could only accept half the wrestlers. WTF.

[Asashosakari 19,193]

Today's Hokuseiho impression brought one thing to the forefront to me: I do not understand what has made Oshoma more successful the last couple of tournaments than he was while stuck in juryo for two years.

[Yamanashi 3,820]

36 minutes ago, Asashosakari said:

Today's Hokuseiho impression brought one thing to the forefront to me: I do not understand what has made Oshoma more successful the last couple of tournaments than he was while stuck in juryo for two years.

I was noticing that a couple of basho ago.  It must have been an injury.  While he was in "The Hell of 8-7 7-8" his main tactic was almost exclusively hatakikomi-type techniques.  Understandable, maybe, for a guy with a defensive style; however, his 11-4 Juryo Yusho had only one hatakikomi (against Enho), 6 -dashi moves, 3 yorikiri and 1 uwatenage.  5 of 21 wins by hatakikomi over the previous two basho. 

[Note: he sure wins a lot by okuridashi]

[Benevolance 2,484]

Aside from day 1, Terunofuji's matchups mostly looked like helpful wrestlers lending their chest to the yokozuna for warm up. Are they worried about injuring him with any rough movements? Do they know he is done, and this is a friendly send off? Did Terunofuji finally perfect the "Sumo Moth" technique, which mesmerizes rikishi and draws them in to a double-hand belt grip? 

[WAKATAKE 2,650]

I hate to say it but unless he’s really trying to get a kabu then might be time to cut losses. He’s young enough to have other careers ahead of him

[Reonito 1,408]

I recall Asanoyama being relatively injury-free before his suspension. You'd think the time off would have enabled him to fully rehab any lingering issues and work on his strength, so I didn't expect him to fall apart like this after coming back. I wonder if it's age, bad luck, or some effect of the layoff...