Zero wins, one solitary point and a whopping 24 goals conceded in just six games. Another World Cup campaign has passed and Singapore’s football team just can’t seem to make the leap to the next stage.
Mind you, the next stage being the third round of qualifying, and not the World Cup proper. That, according to the powers that be who govern Singapore sport, is a realistic goal only by 2034. Though I’m sure they might be tempted to “push the goal back” another 16 or 20 years after watching Singapore get trounced 7-0 by South Korea last week.
Local football fans like myself set our targets a little lower. And while the recent qualifying campaign went up in flames, there’s a silver lining in all the ensuing smoke – at least we made sure our regional rivals Thailand didn’t advance either.
Despite losing 3-1 to the Thais in Bangkok on Tuesday, Singapore’s solitary goal through Ikhsan Fandi meant Thailand could not leapfrog China in Group C and join group winners South Korea in the next round.
With South Korea claiming a 1-0 win over China in Seoul ahead of the Thailand-Singapore game, the Thais needed to beat Singapore by three goals.
China, who were level on points and goal difference with Thailand, advanced owing to a better head-to-head record after beating the latter 2-1 in November.
This, of course, has made us millions of new friends in China. In fact, so delighted were Chinese football fans here that they flocked to goalkeeper Hassan Sunny’s Muslim food stall in Tampines the day after the game.
Against Thailand, the 40-year-old custodian saw a total of 35 shots fired at him, 13 of which were on target. The keeper also made a crucial save in the dying minutes when the Thais were throwing everything they had at him.
His stall, which sells nasi padang, saw a long queue of Chinese customers on Wednesday morning, with many taking selfies with the stall’s signboard in the background, while some also spammed online reviews with five stars.
Chinese fans also flooded social media platform Weibo to thank Hassan. “I suggest that this year’s Chinese Footballer of the Year award be given to Singapore goalkeeper Sunny,” a post with more than 1.7 million likes said.
Scorer Ikhsan received some love too.
Chinese fans swarmed the striker’s Instagram, commenting that he was the “saviour of Chinese football” and calling for him to join the Chinese Super League (CSL).
Apparently, one hashtag on Weibo that has been viewed more than 15 million times showed that searches for trips to Singapore from the mainland had increased by five times by Tuesday night.
Football has served this country well, indeed.
Meanwhile, India, like Thailand, painfully missed out on the third round as well, after losing 2-1 to Qatar in Doha in controversial fashion.
The Indians needed a victory and for Kuwait not to win their match against Afghanistan. They led for 73 minutes before the referee judged Qatar’s equaliser as fair even after the ball appeared to have gone out of play.
Learning from the sidelines that Kuwait were leading 1-0 in their match, India poured forward, leaving gaps at the back for Qatar to score the winner.
If Singapore were playing Kuwait instead of Afghanistan, things might have turned out differently. Then we would have been the toast of Indian social media.
