November Tournament 2015

November 2015, Day 2: Damn It!

Andy November Tournament 2015

Harumafuji lost a belt match against Osunaarashi, meaning I need to update my gold star tally page again. He did not look like a yokozuna today. Osunaarashi dispensed with his usual forceful blows and both wrestlers immediately grabbed the other’s belt. Then, after a long, patient wait, Osunaarashi overpowered Harumafuji to pick up a yorikiri win and another feather in his cap.

Instead, I was hoping Tochinoshin would bring down Kotoshogiku but I should have known better in front of a Kyushu crowd. Kotoshogiku showed his usual jackrabbit kicks but they’ve just lost their potency against a lot of these guys, including Tochinoshin. However, before Tochinoshin could counter, Giku brought him down with a tsukiotoshi.

Hakuho had a rather straight forward win over Ichinojo and Kakuryu was able to bounce back against the man-mountain, Aoiyama. However, in another stunning upset, Yoshikaze took out Kisenosato. I’d thought for a few seconds about calling that for my “upset of the day” but maybe I was secretly hoping Kisenosato would carry on in yusho contention for a while.

Instead, Goeido joins Kotoshogiku and Hakuho at the top of the leaderboard on day two behind his decisive defeat of Toyonoshima and Terunofuji coming up lame against Tochiozan. Terunofuji must have aggravated his knee injury because he had nothing against Tochiozan. It will be torture to watch him struggle to get 8 wins.

Further on down the banzuke, Endo still can’t crack the geezer. Aminishiki won with a throw after an entertaining bout. Ikioi beat Amuru to advance to 2-0. Including his time in Juryo, when he wins his first two bouts, he’s always picked up at least nine wins. Gambare!

My West team is getting crushed, 8-4 on day two.

November 2015, Day Two: Preview

Andy November Tournament 2015

The matchup of the day for tomorrow is Harumafuji v Osunaarashi. Heavier guys seem to be able to outlast Osunaarashi by powering through his blows and winning on the belt or with a grip on his body. Harumafuji is much lighter and won their last match with his speed. Osunaarashi will need to be aggressive from the start. This will be a very interesting match now that both seem to be healthy. This match has the potential to be the upset of the day but I’m really hoping Harumafuji will be in the title race so he needs to win.

On paper, it would seem the upset of the day would be Toyonoshima over Goeido but Goeido has won their last 4 bouts and 8 of their last 11. Toyonoshima had a sly win over Tochiozan today but Goeido is kadoban so he’ll be careful not to make mistakes. Instead, I’m calling Tochinoshin to get a win over Kotoshogiku for the first time since May 2011.

November 2015, Day 1: 大風

Andy November Tournament 2015 , ,

Sumo’s back! The best part is, we had strong performances from just about all of the top wrestlers today. All three yokozuna are back. If all stay healthy for the duration, it will be the first time since January to have all three yokozuna in it. Obviously, we don’t have “Leaders” yet, so I’ll start with my highlight match: Terunofuji v Ichinojo.

The matchup lived up to its billing. Ichinojo put in a strong performance but Terunofuji was able to counter every move made by his compatriot. The ozeki weathered several charges from Ichinojo before trying to make his own move, waiting for the big guy to tire. He put a lot of my doubts about his condition to bed as his final, winning drive showed his knee is certainly strong enough to compete this tournament. Tomorrow, Terunofuji will face Tochiozan and Ichinojo will take on Hakuho.

My upset of the day was on the mark. Yoshikaze has been blowing things down for a while now and today’s target was reigning chumpion, Kakuryu. Kakuryu didn’t pull a henka, which may have been a mistake. He went after Yoshikaze with a strong, forceful tachiai. But then he settled back, like he wanted to toy with Yoshikaze with just some upper-body slaps and pushes. When you watch the replay (thanks Kintamayama), his body is too vertical and he’s just using his arms to try to keep the komusubi at bay. Screenshot (143)This gave Yoshikaze a huge opening to charge from a low position with superior leverage. The effect was to make the yokozuna appear to have been blown off the dohyo. It’s clear my next kanji-related post will be about 風. I feel it’s overdue given Yoshikaze’s brilliant performances of late. He faces Kisenosato tomorrow, while Kakuryu will try to recover against Aoiyama. More updates from Day 1 below…

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Terunofuji v Ichinojo, Preview

Andy November Tournament 2015 , ,

We start the November Tournament with some key match-ups on Day One, headed by Terunofuji vs Ichinojo. While Terunofuji has the decisive 5-1 winning record, he is coming off injury and Ichinojo is not exactly a creampuff. If Ichinojo were to win, it could take Terunofuji out of championship contention very early in the tournament. They know each other very well, having met in every tournament over the past year. Early on in their rivalry they seemed evenly matched but since their epic water-break bout in the Spring, Terunofuji has been dominant. But with Ichinojo’s size, he can certainly play spoiler.

Likewise, Kisenosato has the dominant historical winning record against Osunaarasahi but I would not count the aggressive Egyptian out. If healthy, this has upset written all over it. However, my upset call is going to be Kakuryu vs Yoshikaze. Yoshikaze can make a strong impression early by taking down the yokozuna. Kakuryu holds a slim 6-4 lead in their match history with an even more even 2-2 head-to-head over the last two years.The komusubi has won the latest two bouts and I think the crowd would go bananas if Kakuryu tried to henka his way to a quick win here. Even so, I’m still calling a sloppy henka win for the yokozuna.

I’m also going to be watching for Tochinoshin to finally beat Hakuho on the 20th attempt. If Tochiozan wants to keep his ozeki hopes alive, he’ll need to get winning early. Also, Myogiryu will be facing the gold-star ATM, Harunamfuji.