Thomas Cup, held once in every two years is no doubt one of the sport tournaments that Malaysians are very much looking forward to. Our country had won the tournament five times, including the first three in its history of over 65 years (first Thomas Cup was in 1949). The record looks great to Malaysia. However, in recent years, with presence of many other competitive countries in this particular sport (especially China) and the feeling of our badminton team’s dropping performance, Malaysians did not harbour much hope as compared to the good old days.
The Thomas Cup, the international male team badminton championship together with the Uber Cup (for female) is held at New Delhi, India in 2014. Uber Cup, our women team have lost. That’s predicted. So now, topic only on Thomas Cup. Placed in Group C, Malaysia won all the matches (against South Korea, India, and Germany) to top the group and succeeded to the quarterfinal. Winning the first few rounds would be quite expected for our team. There should be no major concern or resistance on the way. Then, Malaysia went on advancing to the semi final after defeating Denmark. That’s a good achievement. And I would think that Malaysia’s journey would ends soon.
I was wrong this time, but I was happy for the result, which is quite surprising. In the semi final yesterday, our team delivered a strong performance and successfully defeated Indonesia, our old rival in 3-0 and is now ready for the final against Japan tomorrow. Yes, I didn’t type it wrong. We are against Japan in the final. But where is China? China had been winning Thomas Cup from 2004 to 2012 (five times) consecutively. The most surprising of all is that China was defeated by Japan in their semi final match. Very unbelievable. Lin Dan is not even given the opportunity to turn things around as he is fielded as the third singles (last match) but Japan had already scored 3-0. This marks the first time Japan entering into the final in Thomas Cup’s history.
They are proven to be a team to watch out for. We cannot take it easily. Hmm…I predicted that it would be a tough match tomorrow in the final tomorrow. Very excited to watch it. Of course I’m rooting for my own country, Malaysia. We had last entered the final back in 2002 (lost) and the last time we had won the cup was way back in 1992 (22 years ago). We would love to celebrate the moment of winning the cup again! To be honest, I have never predicted they could go to this far. With only Lee Chong Wei being the most confident on securing a point for us, other players are mostly unfamiliar, new and not experienced enough. Their performance in this tournament took me by surprise completely.
Good luck and wishing all the best to our Malaysian badminton team! ‘Malaysia Boleh’ spirit is still there! Very excited for the final between Malaysia and Japan tomorrow at 3pm (India time) – that means 5.30pm here in Malaysia.
Vincent Loy's Online Journal 