Team Tachiai won’t be live blogging the day 1 NHK World live stream, but please feel free to comment on the matches here.
Bruce
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Team Tachiai won’t be live blogging the day 1 NHK World live stream, but please feel free to comment on the matches here.
Bruce
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
What time do Makuuchi matches start? I am in the central time zone, but I don’t know if DST is a thing in Japan.
Japan does not do the crazy time change BS.
It takes Onosho a couple of attempts to do so, but he gets Endo out of there in the end. Let’s hope he’s back in condition and can rack up a good score this time: he was a big disappointment at Aki.
Which one?
Only half-joking as sadly, Endo seemed rather out of ideas fairly quickly. He seemed healthy, like he’s not nursing obvious injuries but he did not seem to have a game plan.
This match was definitely weird in that Onosho was a bit off-kilter in general and, as you stated, Endo had no plans whatsoever. I hope both of them improve their sumo in the coming days.
Pronouns typically refer anaphorically to the subject of the previous sentence so I meant Onosho. Apologies for getting on my high grammar horse: his name is Syntactico and he lives i my back yard so he doesn’t get much exercise.
Aoiyama shoves Okinoumi to the bales but the man from Shimane-ken easily escapes. Big Dan then goes into retreat and steps out tamely. Poor start from a man who really should be hoovering up the wins from M12.
Always sad to see how hapless he is on the belt. Okinoumi had an outside grip only, but easily moved him out of the ring without much resistance.
I think we’re going to see Aoiyama start a downward trend and eventually end up in Juryo before he gets his haircut. His knees have given him problems for awhile and if he doesn’t have power anymore, it’s pretty much over for him.
Local hero Kotoshogiku gets some chanting going from the crowd, but doesn’t treat them to the big stretch. I’m still hoping we’ll see it one more time. In the match he does what he does and takes care of Takarafuji easily enough after a matta.
He gave it up when he fell out of the San’yaku. I hope he brings it back when he climbs back up to the named ranks. Which I hope he shall! :)
Really lucky call by the Shimpan for a matta there for Kotoshogiku. He was doomed because of that slip.
No sign of Abi’s expanded repertoire today. He stands up high and thrusts with both arms. Kagayaki looks not in the least by bothered by this, sidesteps and gets Abi out of there with the minimum of fuss. Come to think of it, Kagayaki never looks the least bit bothered about anything, does he?
Great response by Kagayaki to Abi’s “spider attack”. I bet everyone else is going to pay close attention to Kagayaki’s strategy against Abi here.
Good news- Yoshikaze’s unsightly skin problem seems to have cleared up. Doublegood news, he beats Chiyotairyo. Not quite so good news, the pair of them land on top of Tomozuna-oyakata, who looks deeply unimpressed by the experience.
If Yoshikaze performs like he did today for the rest of the basho, he’ll definitely move up the banzuke!
I got here late and just missed Raja’s explantion of where he’s been these past two previews, darn it!
Ichinojo seems to be sleeping at the tachiai, but luckily the bales put a stop to his marsh backwards. Nishikigi running out of juice to move the big boulder the last few inches, gets simply overpowered and slowly marched backwards and out.
I was encouraged by Ichinojo as he didn’t give up on the edge. That ankle of Nishikigi couldn’t take the pivot after they got back to center. A few sekitori seem they’ll be kyujo for a couple of days.
Ichinojo isn’t going to get that lucky against a lot of other rikishi. “Ho hum sumo” won’t win him many matches.
Oh dear. Not auspicious, Mitakeumi.
Best Tachiai of the day, though. A real thwack!
There were a couple of riskihi who seemed overeager and inattentive. Mitakeumi was definitely one of them. This match should have been a win for him.
Youthful enthusiasm and strength overcome by veteran smarts and technique. Tochiozan looked pretty good here and I think he fancies at least one more sanyaku run.
Before that Shodai made good of his promise of an improved tachiai and got both hands inside. Not getting a full grip with both hands he is still in full controll of the battle and finishs Ryuden with Shitatenage after a bit of back and forth. Ryuden clinging so tightly to him at the edge that he makes Shodai fall of the dohyo as well … hopes he didn’t hurt his shoulder.
Ryuden can’t afford to be losing against the likes of Shodai in this basho.
Shodai is a really weird case. I didn’t think Ryuden would win against him because 1) this is Ryuden’s highest rank ever, so there are skills he won’t have yet and 2) Shodai is incredibly good at everything but tachiais. He’s incredibly underrated because he hasn’t been dominant against the upper San’yaku.
LOL Ryuden is nowhere near Shodai’s league.
Barring a miracle Mitakeumi’s Ozeki run is over. He seemed in control of the fight from the tachiai and then just steps past Tochiozan and out of the ring. Not much Tochiozan had to do except a tiny sidestep at the edge. Tuskiotoshi …
Nishikigi gives it his best shot, which is all you can ask from him at this level. He drives Ichinojo to the bales but the big man wakes up in time. Nishikigi tries a throw, but Ichi survived and smothers Nish out for yorikiri.
Tochinoshin just gets blasted out of the ring by Tamawashi in less than 2seconds. Tochinoshin taking his time at the tachiai, but then is simply too slow to get off. Good start for Tamawashi, who looked very genki. Tochinoshin Yusho predictions just took a big hit.
Yeah, that was just not a great tachiai from Tochinoshin and it went downhill from there. A traction issue or…?
Agreed. He didn’t look relaxed at all beforehand. Very unsettled.
There were a lot of cobwebs that needed to get busted today. Tochinoshin was not the only victim. Everyone should finally be in gear by Monday!
I think it’s mental. His next win gets him the record for most wins this year and I’m betting that’s causing him to try too hard to win.
Tamawashi used his long thrusts to keep Tochi away from the mawashi. Tochi made one desperate grab for the belt but lost his balance base in in the attempt. Then it was easy for Big Tam. Not a big surprise given the stylistic clash.
I’m enjoying Raja and John on commentary tonight. Wish they paired them up regularly for the daily highlights.
Takayasu looking good in his first bout. I am quietly hopeful for a great basho from him.
Agreed, but he didn’t really got challenged today. When all the talk is about Tochinoshin, we shouldn’t forget, that Takayasu wants to follow Kisenosato to the Yokozuna ranks as well.