It is, but it’s not any good. You can be thrown out of low short, Always crouch tech with cr. mk, except for under certain circumstances.
Ok I HAVE HAD IT with ZANGEIF!!! Hes going to make me break my stick >> Found out the guy I was playing his gamertag is (Josh Numbr) was training by VANGIEF >> <_<! Hes been handing me my ass all morning. I need to buy a camera and show you guys these matchs. Im sure you guys could help me out with what I need to do and what im doing wrong. I just can’t seem to beat zangief anymore. Im having more problems with zangief then with balrog and bison and blanka now.
Must get stronger!!! I will try and get a camera and show you guys my matchs! Then you guys and break me down and so and so lol. I must improve!!!
Zangief matchup isnt that easy how some people really think. Sure, Gouken has definitely the tools to zone out Zangief.
But Zangief has the life lead and in the right hands he will get you in one move, if you do a mistake. Most zangiefs are trying to get their first Meter as fast as possible. In this moment you can choose between throwing out fireballs to get meter on yourself or getting close to zangief and pushing him into the corner.
But as soon as they got the first Meter you cant do your fireballs anymore. You can do them only on the right distance but in order to get the right distance you have to sell out your positioning. Against a good Zangief player you can do maximum of maybe 4 Fireballs. After this you will be stucked in the corner xD. So the key of this whole matchup is, to win the footsie momentum. And more important is to have more patience than your zangief opponent already has.
Its a pretty demanding matchup and not many people believe that Gouken got a hard time against Zangief xD.
“”""" In this moment you can choose between throwing out fireballs to get meter on yourself or getting close to zangief and pushing him into the corner.
But as soon as they got the first Meter you cant do your fireballs anymore. You can do them only on the right distance but in order to get the right distance you have to sell out your positioning"""""
SOOO FREAKING TRUE!! This happens so much when I fight zangief! They ALLWAYS walk me to the corner and im like FUCK! I have to ex tastu away or find another means of getting away. Hes like a brick wall. A wall that can grab you in 1 fucking frame!!! Hes is becoming my worse matchup now surpassing balrog, blanka and bison. Dont get me starting on lariet! Cant do any demon flips because of it.
zangief can os you to death pretty good on wakeup, it’s a tough matchup no doubt.
I’m not saying it’s an easy match at all. It’s a tough, demanding matchup that requires lots of patience and split-second judgment. You can lose in 5 bad seconds and Zangief can EX Green Hand through fireballs on reaction at certain ranges. But it’s not that Gouken’s bad against Zangief, that’s just playing against Zangief in general.
Unlike shotos Zangief really can’t hit Gouken’s hands with the EX Green Hand and punish the fireball so that limits its range.
Gief can be kept out of Gouken’s space very easily via tons of fireballs, well-timed far standing RHs, some far standing FPs, some far standing MKs, and sweeps. Some special moves that tend to work really well are well-spaced low-kick.GF sweeps, the auto correct Tatsu on wake up (use sparingly), and air tatsu in your defense. If Gief has you cornered, try to stay random with some pokes and blocking if you get the chance to, as not to make it obvious that you want to jump out. When you feel you have the chance, air tatsu out of the corner and start your zoning game again.
On a lot of medium-sized/faster characters, air-tatsu out of the corner is bad becuase you get horrible recovery; enough time for the opponent to walk up and sweep you on your landing, resulting in a 50/50 mid-screen. But against gief with his slow walk speed, this is a great way to start over.
As he advances towards you, use a mix-up between immediate (no charge) and different variations of delayed and full charged low punch fireballs to keep him guessing his lariat timing. As he approaches, use a combination of high-punch and medium punch fireballs. Both will hit him out of the air (big hit-box) at mid-screen ranges, and as he gets closer with lariat, mp.hadou hits him in the forhead. Just be wary of meter and the distance that he can hit you with ex.greenhand; You do not want to get knocked down. Otherwise he can’t hit you with anything that you can’t see coming as long as he’s not between mid to close-range.
As was said by others, punish ex.GreenHand on block with a full gouken punish (backthrow ultra or cr.fp into combo, finish it with palm to get him away), if they’re ignorant enough to use lp/mp/hp green-hand, punish on hit or block the same as you would a blocked ex.greenhand (lp/mp/hp versions of greenhand are all punishable on hit OR block). If you’re in range to land a low-kick.GF-sweep, try it seldomly. Most Gief’s think that Gouken is jumping in and they mash lariat as an AA. You score a knockdown and get the chance to reset the spacing.
All-in-all, Gouken has a wider variety of tools to keep Gief out than Gief has to get in solidly. Any advancement Gief tries to make with a special that isn’t grapple-range is punished by Gouken. As for his normals, other than his far-standing roundhouse (as Gouken), you shouldn’t be within enough range to be hit by them, because you should be zoning.
If you play the match-up like this, it’s very hard for Gief to do anything. Watchout for surprise focus attacks when he’s in range for those, otherwise you can remain fairly safe in this match-up.
If anything I’ve posted sounds ambiguous, let me know and I’ll explain further. As a Gouken player, my strongest match-ups are usually against Gief players mainly because for about 1.5-2 years of playing Gouken, Gief was my hardest match-up. 
Oh I forgot to post this before. Far s.hp stuffs turn punch cleanly and you get an easy counterhit combo into sweep. This is easy to do on reaction and will make you feel extremely awesome. This is the best answer to random turn punch I’ve found.
Also you can backthrow Balrog out of EX Overhead on reaction before it comes out.
I grab rogs all the time out of EX overhead but Im going to have ot try Far s.hp so sweep on turn punchs. . That sounds freaking awesome lol
Thank you for your words of advice! Actually thank you all for your words of advice! I really wish I could record my matchs and upload them on youtube so you guys can c the matchs for yourselfs. My main problem is I let gief scare me. I let gief walk me to the corner. I do fine when he has no meter but when he gains that meter I can’t throw projectiles and im trying to bait out his ex green hand. The gief player i was playing who was trained by vangief was smart and never fell for my baits and allways walked me to the freaking corner. I need to get better at standing my ground and anti airing. I also need to get the timming down for the auto correct ex tastu. Once geif gets me on the ground I panic and things go down hill.
I will read over your advice and try and apply it as best as possible and I hope i can get this matchup down eventually. Its starting to really get on my last nerve.
Once again thank you all for your advice! Fought the dude this morning again and I was actually beating him and I applyed all the information you guys told me. I feel much better
Zangief has a lot of trouble dealing with neutral jump HP. Learn EX Hand range and bait him with st. mp and punish him. Throw FB’s from a distance, and neutral jump when he has EX Meer, bait, and occasionally use lp hado to keep him honest.
GF Grab beats lariat on wake up.
EX Flip dive kick at point blank range can beat lariat as well.
If he’s meterless you can safe jump him. If he has EX, EX throw can’t be safe jumped.
Use st. hk and cr. fp to keep him outta your space.
On opponent’s wakeup:
Max range meaty cr.short > T + Strong (overhead)
Max range meaty cr.short > cr.strong xx fireball
Max range meaty cr.short > cr.roundhouse
If you do it from the absolute max range, the meaty cr.short will ALWAYS hit on it’s last active frame, giving you +2 frame advantage on block. You can then frame trap with his low pokes. Against Shotos, the range set up after the blocked cr.short is max range for their cr.forward. If you link the overhead straight after the recovery of the cr.short, their cr.forward whiffs and the overhead lands. Will trade with sweep if I remember.
It will actually only be +1 because it can only hit 3 frames meaty.
Ah yes, sorry.
This. I also like to use parries when they eventually get in after i’m knocked down. Most of the time they will spam a few normals to catch a jump.
Remember. Gief can and Will rush you down. They don’t care how much damage they take as long as they get in, especially on gouken. So keep that in mind and stay out of corners.
I don’t like giefs or kens. Every other bad matchup can(sorta) be dealt with by being extremely defensive(not doing much, staying away, and just punishing mistakes), but these guys were made to open you up. I gave up on those two a long time ago. i just play lame and i don’t give a fuck if i lose. Sad but true haha
I’m assuming you’ll be also good against short ranged cr. lp like ryu’s?
Air Tight Block Strings (not counting 2 in 1’s)… I’m trying to compile a list of these for each character that has them, since there are certain situations where you can’t interrupt your opponents block strings with kongo, EX Flip, etc.
For example:
Ken: **Cl. lp, far. lp, far. mp **= +4 on block, can be followed air tight w cl. lp, far. lp, cr. lp, cr. lk.
Seth: cl. lp, far lp, = +4 on block, can be followed air tight w cl. lp, cl. hp, cl. lk, far. lk, cl. lp.
Every one doesn’t have air tight strings, but I think it’s a good idea to know and list the ones who do to help us with how we play the match ups.
what?? how can they follow up with a close attack if it ended with a far one on the +4 side??
don’t understand much of it as o matter o fact
yes it can!! just do a late dive kick, it will beat EX SPD but not Lariat