SINGAPORE - It is back to the drawing board for the national men's floorball team, who are looking to bounce back from a disappointing outing at the World Championship that saw them finish last for the fifth consecutive time.
A 4-2 defeat by the United States on Wednesday (Dec 8) condemned world No. 16 Singapore to a winless campaign in Helsinki and they missed their goal of finishing as the top Asian country at the 16-team biennial competition.
While Singapore's first international competition since the 2019 SEA Games began with a narrow 9-8 loss to world No. 11 Canada, they fell to heavier defeats against 35th-ranked Philippines (9-4), as well as 10th-ranked Estonia (13-2) and 14th-ranked Thailand (11-6).
Captain R. Suria told The Straits Times: "We started the campaign on a high note. However, as the games progressed, we did not do as well as we aimed for."
The 29-year-old believes slow starts to matches and the mental aspect of their game were what contributed to underwhelming performances this time. They were also let down by complacency, especially in the games against Canada and the US, when they took the lead first.
He said: "We learnt that we should give our 100 per cent from the start of every game and not in the last period only. If we have the right mindset, we can control the game.
"As a team, we intend to work on basics with the mindset that our opponents are taller and bigger than us. Individually, we need to work on our mental strength as we tend to get complacent once we are leading."
But Suria also noted that most of Singapore's players have not played in league games or competitions in the past 20 months owing to the pandemic. In contrast, the Philippines and Thailand have a number of players who ply their trade with Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish clubs.
He said: "The other Asian countries have players who actively play in competitions in Europe which helped them to keep up with the pace. We did our best given the circumstances but it was not good enough.
"We will keep training and improve and come back stronger."
Veteran Syazni Ramlee, who was honoured after his last match for the national team on Wednesday, said: "Even though the results do not reflect this, I still feel it was a fruitful journey for me to contribute as much as I could for the team."
