Floorball title a stepping stone for S'pore team

The Singapore team celebrating after beating Thailand 4-1 in the final of the Women's Asia-Oceania Floorball Confederation Cup.
The Singapore team celebrating after beating Thailand 4-1 in the final of the Women's Asia-Oceania Floorball Confederation Cup. ST PHOTO: KHALID BABA

The Most Valuable Player award went to Singapore goalkeeper Fariza Begum Mohamed Zabir for her 24-save effort in the final of the Women's Asia-Oceania Floorball Confederation (AOFC) Cup.

But the 29-year-old told The Sunday Times after the Republic's 4-1 win over Thailand at Our Tampines Hub yesterday: "I believe that it's a team effort. The whole team deserved the championship win, not just me."

Head coach Louise Khng, 36, agreed, saying: "We stuck to our game plan where we capitalised on the open spaces in their defence.

"Our team's fighting spirit was on show today and everyone could see it."

Singapore captain Amanda Yeap, 24, led by example just one minute into the game when she flicked the ball into the opposition net to open the scoring. She too credited her team-mates, saying: "I could not have done it without them sticking to the formation."

The Thais levelled through Tikhamporn Sakunpithak two minutes later and the scores stayed that way till Shannon Yeo broke the deadlock in the 18th minute.

Thailand's lightning-quick distribution on counter-attacks down the flanks caused early problems for Singapore, but it was the visitors who were eventually undone by their adventurous endeavours.

The Thai defence was caught off guard by two clinical counter-attacks, and Siti Nurhaliza Khairul Anuar and Debbie Poh eventually put the game beyond their reach after scoring the third and fourth goals with less than 10 minutes to spare.

Khng is looking ahead to December's World Championships in Prague, noting: "Almost half of the squad is new to the national team set-up, it is a very young team where our average age is below 25.

"For us, this is just the start."

Japan beat Malaysia 4-3 after overtime to secure third place.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on June 24, 2018, with the headline Floorball title a stepping stone for S'pore team. Subscribe