SINGAPORE — With seconds left on the clock, and a deadlock to be broken, Khairul Anwar Kasmani received the ball at his feet. He looked up from a distance, put his left foot through the ball and hoped for the best.

A split-second later, as the ball spun while nestled in the right-hand corner of the net, so was Khairul’s head. “My mind exploded,” said the defender of Singapore’s cerebral palsy football team, whose late winner gave the Republic a 1-0 win over Indonesia at their ASEAN Para Games round-robin match at the National Stadium today (Dec 3).

“I have played football for many years and have scored goals. But today is the first time my mind went blank after scoring. I did not expect to score and I didn’t know how to react.”

Neither did his Singapore team-mates. After Khairul scored, his teammates went crazy. Some dashed towards the team bench in celebration, some were jumping up and down in ecstasy, and a few were rooted to the spot in disbelief.

The 29-year-old defender said their reaction showed how much the win meant to them. “This is a triumph for my whole team and a dream come true for us,” said Khairul. “I grew up watching Fandi Ahmad and Indra Sahdan at the National Stadium and dreamt of scoring just like them one day. Now it has happened, I can’t believe it.”

Buoyed by support from the 1,730-strong partisan crowd — a promising number considering the match was on a weekday morning — Singapore were stronger than their opponents in all departments. Their forages upfront were thwarted only by the alert Indonesian goalkeeper, Amin Rosyid, who made several good saves to keep his team in the contest. 

“We were frustrated we couldn’t score,” said Khairul. “But we didn’t give up. We never stopped believing. We kept trying.”

Khairul was a shining light on the pitch, leading his backline gallantly, and impressed with tenacious interceptions. The Indonesians posed such little attacking threat that he had time and space to charge upfield to take shots that Indonesian coach Fadilah Umar described as “cannonballs”.

“I am quite disappointed, of course, to concede a goal so late in the game,” said Fadilah, who also played down injury concerns to key player Habib Saleh, who was taken off the field for five minutes for treatment. “But we still have three matches left and we will maximise our chances to win them all.”

Singapore’s next match is against reigning ASEAN Para Games champions Myanmar on Saturday, while Indonesia will meet Thailand next.

Singapore coach Mohamed Zainudeen was pleased with his boys’  fighting spirit.

“When the score was 0-0 at half-time, I told the boys to keep trying and never give up. And they showed that in the second half. I am very proud of them,” he said.

“We are looking for a stronger performance against Myanmar. They are a top side and it will be a good test for us.”