"Dogy, how do I fight Sakura?" "She's too good, heeeeeeeeelp" "Her mixup is too strong!" I hear this way more than a mediocre commentator should hear, but time and time again I have people come to me for Sakura help like I'm some all-knowing seifuku-wearing champion. It's weird. But it's also very funny.
Especially when people make Sakura sound like she's some complicated character. She's really a whole lot of ill logic, some shake'n'bake, and good part of "meh, why not, it might work anyway." I mean heck, her original back story is she see's Ryu do a Hadoken, so she tries and she can do it too. She's really just a walking box of BS.
And, for all intents and purposes, that's how she functions. She's fundamentally designed to want to stand in somebody's face and press buttons (the amount depends on the game, thus determining how many are good), but she generally struggles to reach her destination. That's how she, as a character, works in EVERY game. How easy or hard it is for her depends on the system of the game itself. Sure she can do other stuff (usually her other areas of play revolve around the system mechanics again), but at the end of the day, tries to march in and hammer on some buttons.
So, what do you really need to know about SF4 Sakura? You really have 2 goals in this matchup. One of them is "DON'T STAND NEXT TO HER, SHE HITS LIKE A BUS", the other is "STOP LETTING HER JUMP ON YOU". Most problems you have in the matchup, on either side (offense or defense) and with anything you want to accomplish, probably comes from one of those two things. Those 2 positions are where she really gets anything of merit happening for her.
Don't let her jump on you is fairly obvious to most people, because you don't want ANYBODY jumping on you. Some of the ones who do, though, are discouraged by the fact that she has some retarded, logic-defying jump-in attacks in this game. Like jumping fierce. That move is stupid, I'm not going to lie. But you've got to figure out how to make her stop jumping in on you. I'll give you a hint, you don't HAVE to AA her, there are other ways to go about it. If you don't have something to fight that nonsense, don't be there.
THAT'S THE TL;DR VERSION IF YOUR AAS ARE BAD. Just replace "Piss" with "Jump'd On"
If you limit that from happening, you take away a large portion of the other goal, which is "Don't stand next to her." The concept of this is pretty simple; if you stand next to a Sakura player, you cannot blame us for literally ramming our head into our sticks and rolling with WHATEVER BUTTON HAPPENS. It'll probably be 4 frames, if not 3. Hell, you're assuming we don't have 2 of them together and either throw you, or focus. And you're assuming we don't spin the stick either just to get a panoramic view of Saku~~~
~~WAIT WAIT! THE THROW! TAKE THE THROW. If you don't have a good idea of what they're doing (or they've shown they can and will look for your escape options), you're probably better off taking the throw and being in the same position instead of taking a close FIERCE! and being in the same position. *General tip to help you vs any heavy damage close range character who can put you back in hard KD*
But yeah, don't stand next to her is fairly obvious on all except for one point to most people; when you start putting pressure on HER. No, I'm not telling you to never put pressure on her. If it's airtight she can't weasel her way out with a button or ex shoo'oh, but what you have to consider is if you go for resets or from your hard KD.
Lemme explain the logic I've derived from Uyro, seen emulated by DBJoseph, and can but a method behind for myself. If you put a Sakura on her back and stand next to her on wakeup (or jump at her), you're still going to wind up next to her. Our lives suck, but you're helping us out. Yes, if you actually DO A DAMN MEATY we can't do anything (except ex shoo'oh and pray, or Ultra if we're desperate). However, if you give us any reason to believe you're going to mistime (read: "delay") the setup or NOT go for something at all, you give us every damn reason to press a button. Here's where it gets scary, though. Your average, timid Sakura is going to crouch tech because if you're close enough, it can still lead to Ultra for 1 meter (c.short -> c.jab -> c.fierce -> ex shunpuu -> ultra). But if you stand the same distance against a brave Sakura (i.e. Uyro), they're going to throw cl.FIERCE!. And why not? It's literally JUST AS FAST as the OS tech, and if you get hit, you lose ~1/3rd of your life and more. It'd be crazy for a Sakura NOT to try it if you're doing funny business on her wakeup.
The same exists in reset situations, just with a faster turnaround. If you've shown that you're trying to look for stuff like CH sets after a reset, why NOT think about calling you on your timing?
No, it's not the best idea one can have (in fact, it *IS* dangerous), but if somebody did staggered setups on you, wouldn't you consider DPing? Same idea.
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And that, in short, is a very simple, watered down guide of how to NOT LET THE DUMB, PLOT-DEFYING DIMWIT WALTZ AROUND PRACTICING FOR HER FIELD DAY EVENTS.
That's... it, I guess.
Peace.
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