Singapore floorballers squander two-goal lead at World C'ship
Singapore's men's floorball team were so close to exacting revenge on their Canadian counterparts, but had to settle for a 4-4 draw in their World Floorball Championship (WFC) Group D encounter in Prague yesterday.
| CANADA | SINGAPORE |
| 4 | 4 |
Singapore fell 2-1 to Canada in their last meeting at WFC 2016 and last night's clash was expected to be tightly contested at the Arena Sparta in the Czech Republic.
The match was delayed by 10 minutes after the referee asked the Canadians to change their jerseys. But the glitch didn't faze them.
In fact, they started the quicker of the two sides, applying pressure from the get-go.
And it took only two minutes for that pressure to pay dividends.
Canada's Marc Landriault robbed Singapore defender Renji Lee before unleashing a shot into the top-right corner of the Singapore goal.
That goal, however, spurred the Singapore side on and, within six minutes, Mazran Sutiman found R. Suria, who struck first-time for the equaliser.
In the 14th minute, Mazran burst through on the right flank and fired a powerful shot into the bottom corner as Singapore ended the first period with a 2-1 lead.
That lead, however, lasted only six minutes into the second period, when Canada capitalised on a foul by Akmal Shaharudin, who was banished to the stand for two minutes.
In the ensuing powerplay, Brandon Barber scored but Singapore produced two quick-fire goals from Ng Juin Jie to bring the score to 4-2.
Canada's star player Valtteri Viitakoski, however, restored parity in the third period after he scored twice from two powerplays.
Singapore, ranked 17th in the world, pressed for the winner but had to settle for a draw.
It was the Canadians' second game of their campaign, after the Group D opening game ended 12-3 in favour of Slovakia on Saturday.
Today, Singapore will meet world No. 16 Japan, who lost 15-1 to Slovakia yesterday.
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