- He lost the first set.
Early in the second set, he was trailing 0-5.
Typical Malaysians? They’ll cheer and be all happy when we win, but are all too quick to give up and jeer when things are not looking good. Yes, jeer. When you should be doubling your cheering, willing the player to tap into his reserves, dig deep, and beat that Dane, bring Malaysia into the Thomas Cup final.
At least those who were there in Tokyo were cheering. Those at the restaurant where we had dinner (chosen because they had a tv & showing the match, btw) were, like I said, so quick to pronounce our Thomas Cup chances as over. Including a parent of mine.
It makes me so mad and ashamed, all at the same time.
It ain’t over till the final point has been played, y’all!
And Kuan Beng Hong tried. He tried. He came back! Of course, when he fought back to tie at 18-18, everyone around me was cheering him on again lah.
Friggin fair-weather folk!
In the end, he went down 19-21.
Hey, for a rookie in the totally unenviable position of being the deciding match, I think he played quite well. Lots of long rallies, excellent defense, so many jumping smashes… of course, he also threw away SO MANY points lah, and for a while in the second set it didn’t seem like he was giving his all… he probably needs a lot more exposure to high pressure games, and needs to work on mental toughness.
But hey, I willed for him to just do his best.
I think sending such positive thoughts his way was just so much more, errr, *positive* than sitting back and jeering, eh?
(For those who are blur: I'm talking about the Thomas Cup badminton championship, currently ongoing in Tokyo)
I didn't watch the Thomas Cup. But I think, the players did put up a fight going down. What matters in sports is the fighting spirit; but what ultimately is, in sports, is the prize, and the price paid to achieved it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it seems the price Malaysia paid for the level of achievements so far is "tidak munasabah".
It seems that for some folks, it doesn't matter whether you played well or not as long as you win... nothing else matters. After all, everybody loves a winner, and nobody remembers a loser. And that is sad...
ReplyDelete