Nagoya Basho 2021

[Eikokurai 3,437]

1 minute ago, Jakusotsu said:

I guess this is a good deal since he is Maegashira actually.

Ah, yeah, I forgot he’d been demoted. Cheers.

[Mightyduck 67]

25 minutes ago, Eikokurai said:

Wakatakakage is proving himself to be something of a nemesis for Shodai. A 3-1 record against the Ozeki so far.

Takanosho is having one of those typical week ones for a junior sanyaku – fighting well but not closing the deal. He had Hakuho today and should have finished him off. Daieisho is having himself a similar basho.

Shodai's real nemesis is Shodai. Think he will be make-koshi this time.

 

Chiyonokuni could be a dark horse for the yusho. Whilst he is recovering from injury, he is way below his 'natural' level.

Hakuho's face said it all, you could tell he enjoyed that chaotic bout. Fingers crossed we get to his showdown with Teru.

[Seiyashi 4,075]

1 hour ago, Eikokurai said:

Wakatakakage is proving himself to be something of a nemesis for Shodai. A 3-1 record against the Ozeki so far.

Takanosho is having one of those typical week ones for a junior sanyaku – fighting well but not closing the deal. He had Hakuho today and should have finished him off. Daieisho is having himself a similar basho.

Funny you don't mention Meisei, who unlike his fellow shin-komusubi is having the typical welcome to the sanyaku. Then again, his schedule to date is probably the worst on the entire banzuke, so he might yet pull a KK or marginal MK out of the bag later on in the basho, especially what with 2 of the 3 remaining ozeki absent and 1 misfiring.

Edited July 7, 2021 by Seiyashi

[Jakusotsu 5,953]

28 minutes ago, Mightyduck said:

Chiyonokuni could be a dark horse for the yusho. Whilst he is recovering from injury, he is way below his 'natural' level.

The problem is that Chiyonokuni will probably break down again before long, like he always does.

[Gaijingai 1,574]

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2021/07/07/sumo/terunofuji-yokozuna-potential/

John Gunning story 

[Rocks 1,809]

Terunofujo and Hakuho escaping close calls there. Teru has Hokutofuji Day 4 too who is looking good at 3-1. Even the loss against Mitakeumi was close. 

I don't expect Ichinojo to give Hakuho much trouble despite his doing well.  Tamawashi should beat an ailing Aoiyama easily to stay undefeated but you never know if Aoiyama manages to get him turned around. 

Dark Horse is Mitakeumi who looks very good and seems to enjoy being in Nagoya if past performances are any measure. 

Takayasu looks surprisingly good for the late start but with back issues that could turn on a dime. I hope he keeps it up though.

Edited July 7, 2021 by Rocks

[Yamanashi 3,836]

After day 4, the 7 Mongolian-born Makuuchi rikishi are 23-5; Japanese revival in Sumo on hold for now.  OTOH, only one is below 25 years old.

[Joaoiyama 308]

If Terunofuji keeps distributing dameoshi someone will dameoshi Terunofuji in return and it will end bad.

[Seiyashi 4,075]

37 minutes ago, Yamanashi said:

After day 4, the 7 Mongolian-born Makuuchi rikishi are 23-5; Japanese revival in Sumo on hold for now.  OTOH, only one is below 25 years old.

Well, one of the great Japanese hopes wined and dined his way out of the basho, and the other potentially had his life saved by a Mongolian.

[Masunofuji 36]

Please stop calling it dame-oshi while the opponent is still in the ring...

[Iwayama 25]

18 minutes ago, Masunofuji said:

Please stop calling it dame-oshi while the opponent is still in the ring...

In this case, though, Diaiesho was out before the dame-oshi.

[dingo 1,262]

Shodai is really a mystery. The first two days he did good sumo and won, but his last two bouts have been a total turnaround in the worst possible direction. 

[Eikokurai 3,437]

1 hour ago, Masunofuji said:

Please stop calling it dame-oshi while the opponent is still in the ring...

If an opponent has clearly stopped resisting and a rikishi pushes harder than is strictly needed to finish them off, that could come under dame-oshi. Granted, in the heat of battle a rikishi may not readily be able to ease up, but I’ve definitely in my time seen guys guilty of what the NFL calls ‘unnecessary roughness’ on the bails.

Edited July 7, 2021 by Eikokurai

[Kaminariyuki 499]

2 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

Well, one of the great Japanese hopes wined and dined his way out of the basho, and the other potentially had his life saved by a Mongolian.

Exactly what I was going to say, except not as eloquently, I suspect.

I need to go look up who said that Takayasu's back injury wouldn't be too bad and that he might even come back the first week That was some impressive prognostication, there.

Hakuho and Terunofuji seem to have their mojo on full throttle. 

Wakatakakage may not yusho this month, but I'll bet he does eventually.

And, Ishiura wrestles like he wants to stay in makuuchi. Gambatte kudasai!

[Tochinofuji 380]

5 minutes ago, Eikokurai said:

If an opponent has clearly stopped resisting and a rikishi pushes harder than is strictly needed to finish them off, that could come under dame-oshi. Granted, in the heat of battle a rikishi may not readily be able to ease up, but I’ve definitely in my time seen guys guilty of what the NFL calls ‘unnecessary roughness’ on the bails.

Sometimes it's clearly in the flow of the match, and fair enough. Other times, it's clear that it's about pushing the opponent off the dohyo for emphasis and ego, rather than just out of the ring for the win. Given the risk of injury, I tend not to be a big fan of the latter, and am with @Eikokurai that it can definitely come under the umbrella of dame-oshi depending on the severity of it. 

[Kaminariyuki 499]

On 02/07/2021 at 09:56, Gurowake said:

A herniated disk isn't necessarily going to keep Takayasu out the whole tournament.  He could easily be back for week 2 and get only light exposure to the sanyaku because he'd already be MK or close to it.  They're a major problem that keeps you from being able to walk the first day or two, but they heal within a week or so.  Given it's a couple days before tournament actually starts, he might be ready to go by Day 3 - it would still hurt, but his range of motion might be back that fast.  That at least gives him the opportunity to rensho from there and still get promoted.  I'd still rate that more likely than a Mitakeumi promotion.

Nicely done on the crystal ball side of things. Takayasu certainly looks like he can KK, some chance he could fight his way into the yusho race. When I tweak my back, there's no sumo for me the next week...

[Kaminariyuki 499]

1 hour ago, dingo said:

Shodai is really a mystery. The first two days he did good sumo and won, but his last two bouts have been a total turnaround in the worst possible direction. 

I wonder if he could be injured? Really, it looked like his footwork wasn't up to snuff today and he let Wakatakakage get under his chest with the perfect angle oshi away. I haven't gone back to look at it again but that's what I thought when watching the NHK highlights just now.

[Seiyashi 4,075]

1 hour ago, Tochinofuji said:

1 hour ago, Eikokurai said:

If an opponent has clearly stopped resisting and a rikishi pushes harder than is strictly needed to finish them off, that could come under dame-oshi. Granted, in the heat of battle a rikishi may not readily be able to ease up, but I’ve definitely in my time seen guys guilty of what the NFL calls ‘unnecessary roughness’ on the bails.

Sometimes it's clearly in the flow of the match, and fair enough. Other times, it's clear that it's about pushing the opponent off the dohyo for emphasis and ego, rather than just out of the ring for the win. Given the risk of injury, I tend not to be a big fan of the latter, and am with @Eikokurai that it can definitely come under the umbrella of dame-oshi depending on the severity of it. 

And sometimes you don't even need to be on the bails or to push the opponent off the dohyo for it to be a definite dame-oshi. Remember that infamous Asashoryu-Hakuho staring match?

[Gurowake 4,046]

1 hour ago, Kaminariyuki said:

Nicely done on the crystal ball side of things. Takayasu certainly looks like he can KK, some chance he could fight his way into the yusho race. When I tweak my back, there's no sumo for me the next week..

Because I tend to downplay my misses as "I was just offering probabilistic forecasts", I think I need to downplay my apparent precognition here.  I wouldn't have rated it highly likely to have happened by Day 3; my average guess for him to return would have been probably Day 5, with Day 8 about as likely as Day 3 and Days 9-15 (or not entering at all) being maybe 5% of the total distribution.  But I suppose that being the only person to have even suggested the possibility is worth something.

[Tochinofuji 380]

1 hour ago, Seiyashi said:

And sometimes you don't even need to be on the bails or to push the opponent off the dohyo for it to be a definite dame-oshi. Remember that infamous Asashoryu-Hakuho staring match?

An absolute classic. Not sure who the colour commentator was, but I always enjoyed the last line of the clip below, "if this hadn't been on the dohyo, that would have really gotten things started!" (loose and poor quality translation)

 

[Kaninoyama 1,777]

5 hours ago, Yamanashi said:

After day 4, the 7 Mongolian-born Makuuchi rikishi are 23-5; Japanese revival in Sumo on hold for now.  OTOH, only one is below 25 years old.

Indeed, suddenly things don't like as promising for the Japanese rikishi as they did even a few basho ago.

Scouting the landscape for the next Ozeki/Yokozuna hopefuls, I'm seeing more Mongolians than Japanese. 

[Benevolance 2,501]

6 hours ago, Yamanashi said:

After day 4, the 7 Mongolian-born Makuuchi rikishi are 23-5; Japanese revival in Sumo on hold for now.  OTOH, only one is below 25 years old.

And the Mongolian wrestlers hold an average of 7 yusho each! 

[Yamanashi 3,836]

6 hours ago, Joaoiyama said:

If Terunofuji keeps distributing dameoshi someone will dameoshi Terunofuji in return and it will end bad.

Yes, but you have to push him out first!

[Eikokurai 3,437]

1 hour ago, Benevolance said:

And the Mongolian wrestlers hold an average of 7 yusho each! 

 

Reminds me of this one. 

On 24/03/2021 at 20:52, Eikokurai said:

50 yusho exactly between them. I wonder if Kakuryu used to tell people "We Yokozuna have an average of 25 yusho each."

[Kaikitsune Makoto 209]

9 hours ago, Kaminariyuki said:

I wonder if he could be injured? Really, it looked like his footwork wasn't up to snuff today and he let Wakatakakage get under his chest with the perfect angle oshi away. I haven't gone back to look at it again but that's what I thought when watching the NHK highlights just now.

Against Wakatakakage it is not that uncommon to look bad since Wakatakakage is already so strong and sharp that when he starts the bout well, it is always difficult to fight him. Shoudai didn't look especially bad in that bout in my opinion. Just lost to Wakatakakage's fast and sharp attack with many rapid changes in attack angle and arm positioning. Sometimes it is just is so that when rikish with this much quality does his best sumo it is not opponent¨s weakness to lose, no matter if it ozeki or not.