Floorball: S'pore wrap up world qualifiers with 4-3 comeback win over Australia

SINGAPORE - Don’t think so much, just take the shot.

National floorball player Nicholas Chua stepped onto the court at the OCBC Arena on Saturday (June 4) with that brief from his coaches, and it paid dividends when the 23-year-old fired home the golden goal in 16th-ranked Singapore’s 4-3 win over Australia.

The victory helped Singapore end their Men’s World Floorball Championships (WFC) Asia-Oceania qualifiers on a high, finishing third in the eight-team competition.

They had secured a place at the Nov 5-13 championships in Switzerland with a win over South Korea on Friday.

The winning strike was particularly meaningful to Chua, who has been plagued with an injury to his right meniscus for the last six years, which has seen him go under the knife thrice.

His last surgery was in 2020 and kept him out of action for two years.

Little wonder he was moved to tears as his teammates mobbed him during the celebrations.

He told The Straits Times: “When I scored, my first thought was that I had made my coaches proud.

“They trusted me (after injury) and gave me a shot here, and just before my shift (into play), they told me to trust myself and just take the shot, because that’s my strength.”

World No. 13 Australia drew first blood after just 54 seconds through Tomas Gartner, but the Republic did not let their heads drop and were rewarded when Lee Chee Yong equalised.

In the second period, Gartner swept home inside the first minute of the restart. His twin Daniel then put Australia firmly in control with a penalty on 26 minutes.

But backed by over 850 vocal supporters, Singapore staged a late comeback through Cheang Jia Qing and then Lim Jian Hong to force extra time, where Chua netted 2min 32sec in.

Describing forward Chua’s winning goal as “beautiful”, skipper Kumaresa Pasupathy said the result has given the team a major boost as they prepare for their Swiss assignment in five months. 

Singapore will be aiming to better their 16th-place finish at the last edition of the World Championships, in Finland last December.

“We came back from the last World Championships and reflected as a group, including the coaching staff and trainers... There are a lot of people in this picture, beyond just the 20 of us on the court,” said Pasupathy.

“There are a lot of people in the backroom staff putting in a lot of effort to help us improve our rankings. Ultimately this (competition) gives us a sense of belief.”

Singapore and Australia join group-stage winners Thailand and the Philippines at the biennial world meet. The Thais topped the qualification competition after a 6-4 win over the Filipinos in the final on Saturday evening.

Besides the Swiss and defending champions Sweden, the other teams who have qualified for the World Championships are Canada, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Finland and Denmark.