FLOORBALL
Asia Pacific Floorball Championships 2007 (APAC)
Singapore A vs Korea
Sunday, 9th December 2007, Sunday, 5:00 pm, Woodlands Sports Hall
Story by Muhammad Hannan. Pictures by Shaun Chook.
Singapore, featuring players still in school, defended their Asia Pacific Floorball Championship title by trouncing South Korea 7-3 on Sunday.
Singapore started with a bang when #21 Joshua Leroy Brown, voted into the APAC All-Star team, scored unassisted as early as the 3rd minute after intercepting a Korean free hit. Singapore then got another goal courtesy of #16 Johnson Sivalingam who rounded the back of the Korean goal before placing it nicely past the keeper for a 2-0 Singapore lead.
The Koreans failed to recover and suffered another blow when Singapore's #3, Muhd Shameer, and Man-of-the-Match for Singapore, received a pass from team mate #90 Ahmad Afzal in the middle and let fly his shot into the top left hand of the Korean goal.
Singapore then added another two in quick succession. Ahmad Afzal assisted by #7 Mohd Hafeez scored to make it 4-0 and then Joshua Leroy Brown assisted by #5 Jovyn Low found the net for a 5-0 lead at the end of the first period.
Period 2 started with Korean on the front foot for the first time in the game and controlling the play well. A good attacking build up by the Koreans handed them a shot at goal by #77 Kyoung Hoon but the outstretched legs of Singapore goalkeeper, Rajiv Makalingam denied the Koreans their first goal.
Korea were handed an easier task of scoring when a Singapore player was penalized and forced to sit out the game for two minutes, leaving Singapore a man down. However, the Koreans were unable to capitalize on this advantage and were left still looking for their first goal.
The first goal in Period 2 came from Singapore when a deflected shot from Singapore's Ahamad Afzal fell nicely for Singapore's Muhd Shameer to slap shot the ball into the Korean net for a 6-0 lead.
Korea got the breakthrough late in the second period when Singapore received another 2-minute penalty. Capitalising on the man advantage, Korea’s #2 Sang Ki drilled one into the goal after a lay off from team mate Kyoung Hoon. Korea then got their second at the end of the period when a defensive mistake by Singapore gifted Korea player Kyoung Hoon a chance at goal and he bulged the Singapore net to make it 2-6 at the end of Period 2.
Period 3 started the same way as Period 2 with Korea coming out more physical, tumbling over some Singapore players. The rough house tactics adopted by the Koreans weren’t favoured by the referees as Korea #27 Sung Pill was penalized for pushing and sat out the game for 2 minutes. Korea however with a man down, managed to get another goal via Sang Ki. The Korean managed to slip the ball under the Singapore keeper after racing down the middle despite the attention of two Singapore defenders to make it 3-6.
Singapore then woke up from their nightmare of conceding two easy goals with a goal of their own. Singapore player Joshua Leroy Brown found an unmarked Johnson Sivalingam in the Korean keeper's blind spot for an easy tap in to make it 7-3 for Singapore to confirm their crown.
Singapore – 7
Scorers: Joshua Leroy Brown (2), Johnson Sivalingam (2), Muhd Shameer (2), Ahmad Afzal
Assists: Joshua Leroy Brown, Ahmad Afzal, Muhd Hafeez, Jovyn Low
Korea - 3
Scorers: Sang Ki (2), Kyoung Hoon
Assist: Kyoung Hoon
Man Of The Match: Muhd Shameer (#3, Singapore)
Korea Man Of The Match: #2 Kim Sang Ki
APAC 2007 All Star Team
Goalkeeper – Lee Young June (KOREA)
Defender – Sean Huang (SINGAPORE ‘A')
Defender – Yutaka Nakai (JAPAN ‘A')
Centre – Joshua Leroy Brown (SINGAPORE ‘A')
Forward – Kenta Furuyama (JAPAN ‘B')
Forward – Mohd Hafeez Md Kassim (SINGAPORE ‘A')
wow mr hafeez is my teacher last year!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D.
i think that the best floorball player amongst the all star team of apac 2007 is SEAN HUANG JUN HONG the best left defender!!!!!!!
I THINK HE IS MY IDOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SEAN- U ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
kudos to singapore mens team!
and not forgeting singapore u 19 team who came in a respectable fourth position.
well done!