crazy formations that may shock China

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Germany:
1. Ovtcharov
2. Timo Boll
3. Christian Suss

Reasons: Ovtcharov actually has a good chance against Wang Hao and Zhang Jike which China is probably going to field. He won 2 sets against ZJK in 2010 World Cup, 3 sets in the 2011 World Cup, and defeated Wang Hao at the World Cup Team Championships. The risk is of course if China fields Ma Long/Ma Lin as the no.1 player coz they absolutely destroy Ovtcharov's style. Christian Suss might be able to win matches if he gets his shots in, he has a dangerous close-to-table playing style with fast counters. Baum/Steger are too slow to win against the Chinese.

Japan:
1. Maharu Yoshimura
2. Seiya Kishikawa
3. Jun Mizutani

Reasons: Maharu Yoshimura is a wildcard which the Chinese players have not played against. He has good serves, the dangerous BH over-the-table loops, very good power on both wings, that may just shock the Chinese top players. Jun Mizutani hasn't won against anyone in the CNT except for Ma Lin and ZJK (both who would absolutely destroy him on a normal day), and he hasn't improved enough to prove that he can. Kishikawa at least has the fast BHs which may cause trouble, and he has won over Ma Long once before in a team championship.

Korea:
1. Joo Se Hyuk
2. Kim Min Seok
3. Ryu Seung Min.

Joo Se Hyuk has given threats to Ma Long and Zhang Jike recently and I think he has a good chance of generating upsets. Kim Min Seok should be used too as he has an unorthodox style which the Chinese may find hard to deal with(sudden FH loop kills, good serves and good BH over-the-table loop). Ryu Seung Min can surprise anyone as he plays the best in pressure situations.

I think if the Germany, Japan and Korea teams change their formation, they could really give a nasty surprise to China instead of relying on the same old formula which frankly didn't work at all....
 
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But I agree if talking about China, Suss has biggest chance to do something..
Anyways, I dont think that Germany will be able to beat China..
If I were Liu Guoliang, I would put Ma Long at the position No. 1. . Noone can beat him. Second spot would be Xu Xin.
I dont really believe that Dima or Timo can beat Xu..
And Zhang can go on the third spot. Thats it.. 3:0 for China.

Not that good against Korea, thats why my vote went there.
If Joo will be in a good shape, he really can beat Zhang and Long..
He has no chance against Wang Hao or Xu Xin.
Ryu can beat Ma Lin and Wang Hao, but not really the others..
And Oh .. well he has no chances..
New faces on Korea team can beat Zhang. I had spotted, that Zhang really has trouble playing good players that he never played before.
He lost several times to completely unknown players, right now I remember Tomas Konecny from Czech rep.
Simply - Zhang cant think that well during a game. That is why Ma Long is so much better..
If Liu will not tell Zhang what to do, many players would tactically beat him. Too bad there still IS this Liu..
So if Joo can get 2 points on the board, some new face can have chance to beat Zhang.
Or Ryu can beat Wang Hao..
But if I were LGL, I would put Wang Hao and Xu Xin as 1 and 2 position. And Ma Long on 3rd. And thats it.. 3:0 or 3:1 for China..

For Japan..
That Yoshimura (according to what I have said above) can beat Zhang. Koki Niwa can beat anyone, I believe in him.
He is awesome! He can really surprise.. I dont expect him, though, but I know he can.
Mizutani would be able to beat Ma Lin or Wang Hao, but dont think he can beat anyone else.. Maybe Zhang, yes, Zhang had troubles beating him..

Well from all this I think, really, Korea has best chance to beat China..
 
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Indeed Korea has the best chance overall. But Germany has two players who could take 2 matches. I'm not so sure about Korea on that one. Korea has 3 players that can all win a match, Germany is missing that 3rd player capable of winning a match. Japan is not strong enough yet, but this team can go like 10 more years, so who knows what they can do in the future :) Mizutani is just lacking a killers instinct. He can cause trouble sometimes, but he won't really win the match in the end. Many players have brought Zhang in trouble, but he always turned it round in important matches. He has some extra gear if he is really motivated. That is why I think he won't lose to anyone this tournament.
But it will depend on the line-up. Xu Xin is possibly the player most certain of winning his matches, except against Korea maybe. He had quite a lot of trouble with Kim Min Seok at the Team World Cup. For the rest people seem to find it extremely hard to break his rythm.
 
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Steger has a better track record against the Chinese players than Baum, he has great games against Jike. I don't see Japan causing much threat after their performance against Poland lol and Korea almost lost to Chinese Taipei. It will be interesting!
 
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Joo will not win any of the penholders, he doesn't like their forehand ;)

Great point, Joo has a terrible track record against penholders, and not just the Chinese ones, he has a poor record against Ryu Seung Min and Lee Jung Woo as well!
 
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