SINGAPORE — No heart. No zest. No ideas.

That sums up Singapore’s dismal 1-1 against Laos in their opening match of the 27th SEA Games football contest at the Zeyar Thiri Stadium in Naypyidaw in Myanmar last night.

On a night when Group A opponents Vietnam, one of the favourites to advance to the semi-finals, mauled Brunei 7-0 in an earlier game yesterday, one would have expected Singapore to play with more urgency and focus on piling in the goals in a match that they needed not only to win, but to win big.

Things even got off to a promising start for Singapore after Laotian defender Saychon Khunsamnarn was sent off in the second minute of the game for a late challenge on striker Shahfiq Ghani.

Twenty five minutes later, it looked like Singapore were on their way to a comfortable victory when Sahil Suhaimi connected with Zulfahmi Arifin’s lob to put the ball into the net.

Unfortunately, that proved to be the only bright spark of the game.

Instead of further capitalising on the extra-man advantage, Aide Iskandar’s men not only struggled to put the ball into the Laos net yesterday, but even eventually surrendered their 1-0 lead by conceding an equaliser against a spirited 10-man Laotian side in the dying minutes of the game.

Singapore’s lack of bother that the clock was ticking finally returned to haunt them when Laotian substitute Khuanta Sivongthong punished them with a beautifully-taken header in the 86th minute.

Only then did Hariss Harun and company pick up gear. But it was too late by then — not even the four minutes of added time could help.

In fact, if it were not for some stout defending by Safuwan Baharudin and Afiq Yunos, the Laotians would have walked away with at least another goal.

Singapore will next meet the Vietnamese tomorrow and if the Young Lions put up a similar performance against them, they can forget about medals and start making plans for an early return.

Thanks to their shock result yesterday, Laos are now the team Singapore must hope to cause damage to Vietnam and Malaysia and thwart their chances of making the top two in the group and into the semi-finals.

That could be a tall order judging from Laos’ display yesterday.

However, Singapore’s own performance suggests that Aide also has his work cut out for him in lifting the spirits of his players and turning the team around in time for the game against Vietnam.