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Asean Para Games: Singapore cerebral palsy football team wins bronze over Malaysia

Singapore cerebral palsy football team wins bronze over Malaysia, 8th Asean Para Games. Photo: Heikal Heinz for Yahoo Singapore.
Singapore cerebral palsy football team wins bronze over Malaysia, 8th Asean Para Games. Photo: Heikal Heinz for Yahoo Singapore.

The Singapore Cerebral Palsy registered a hard fought 2-1 victory over their Malaysian counterparts to bring back the bronze medal at the Asean Para Games on Wednesday (9 December).

Describing the mood in the dressing room, goalkeeper Peter Kam said players were elated with the victory, and team mates were crying and laughing at the same time.
 
“This is a great achievement for the team and it is great to win bronze at home,” he said.

Shafiq Ariff opened the scoring for the host nation with a neat finish after just 51 seconds.

The lead lasted only for four minutes with Malaysia scoring the equaliser via a thumping effort from Sobri Ghazali.

Mubarak Rastam nearly put Singapore ahead but his daisy cutter from outside the penalty area flashed wide.

Both sides then had a number of chances in the first half but were unable to add to the score line.

Malaysia started the second half brightly and Sobri tested goalkeeper Kam with a stinging shot in the 35th minute only to see his effort blocked.

Singapore though, got the winner in the 43rd minute when Mubarak twisted and turned his way into the penalty box before unleashing a shot that went in off the post.

The host nation almost got their third goal in the 56th minute but Shafiq’s effort went wide.

Singapore cerebral palsy football team wins bronze over Malaysia, 8th Asean Para Games. Photo: Heikal Heinz for Yahoo Singapore.
Singapore cerebral palsy football team wins bronze over Malaysia, 8th Asean Para Games. Photo: Heikal Heinz for Yahoo Singapore.


Half time talk spurred Singapore on

Singapore’s head coach Zainudeen Mohamed said he was disappointed with his team’s first half performance especially after taking an early lead.

During the press conference after the match, he added that he blasted his
team during the half-time team talk.

“I think we were just sitting back and allowing Malaysia to come at us. Sometimes you need to wake them up and close down the opponents,” he said.

Singapore cerebral palsy football team wins bronze over Malaysia, 8th Asean Para Games. Photo: Heikal Heinz for Yahoo Singapore.
Singapore cerebral palsy football team wins bronze over Malaysia, 8th Asean Para Games. Photo: Heikal Heinz for Yahoo Singapore.


Singapore were the better team

Coach of the Malaysian team, Tarmizi Abdul Wahab said his team were dealing with injuries and were not able to give their best.

“Singapore also had the home ground advantage and they played well. My players made some mistakes that cost us the game,” he admitted.

Malaysia’s Technical Director of Football 5-A side, Loo Wai Keong said preparation is already underway for the ninth edition of the Para Games hosted by Kuala Lumpur in 2017

Loo said that bulk of the current team will be dropped due to their age and the Malaysians will begin their scouting process soon.

“We do have some internal problems and were only able to register only 11 players instead of 14 but we will be back stronger in 2017,” he said.