“[Umehara] was too strong [to the point that] I laughed during the match.” (laugh)
"[Umehara’s] fending and the way he uses hop kick and crMK>Hadoken were amazing."
“All I can say is he was great! I completely lost!” (laugh)
(When pointed out that Sako used to use Evil Ryu) “I think there’s no better Evil Ryu than [Umehara’s]”
“Umehara’s Evil Ryu should be illegal.” (laugh)
(His wife asks “What if you use Evil Ryu, too?”) Sako thinks if he uses Evil Ryu the score may change, but outcome will be the same. “Sadly, I don’t feel like winning (Umehara).”
“I will train hard to close the gap.” (between himself and Umehara)
“Fighting game becomes fun when you get to fight Umehara.”
I think Sako is right he hit big combos which is cool and all but he just abused vortex. Daigo’s E. Ryu has better footsies and a stronger fireball game. Fundamentals > cheap vortex bullshit.
Sako didn’t just win with Evil Ryu because of “cheap vortex bullshit.” He’s a top player because his fundamentals are solid as well. I’m as big a fan of Daigo as the next guy but talking shit about another player and belittling his skill is another thing. Sako is a god, and so is Daigo.
They’ve just got different strengths and weaknesses. Sako definately has better execution and is better at picking apart the game. Daigo has better fundamentals and reads, and is probably better at abusing the most useful things himself and others find in the game.
Funny that he says this and then Daigo goes on to lose a long set against Xiaohai in the Evil Ryu mirror. Daigo definitely has a better Evil Ryu than Xiaohai, but it looks like he needs to put in a little more work on the mirror match. I don’t think he played the match as optimally as possible and his refusal to jump made him a little more predictable. Xiaohai burnt meter on EX fireballs just to gain a bit of damage and was willing to jump a lot. He got a good read on Daigo’s fireball patterns and though he got DP’s quite a bit, it was well worth it because he was landed a lot of jump ins that did near half life damage.
Basically what I’m saying is that Sako doesn’t have to have the better Evil Ryu, he just needs to be better at the mirror match(or shoto match if you want to put it that way) to beat Daigo. But after Canada Cup I’m sure Daigo will brush up on the mirror match the same way he did against Evil Ryu after losing to Choi at EVO.