Singapore is showing itself more and more as one of Asia’s upcoming floorball countries. We spoke with national team player Vignesa Pasupathy.
Vignesa Pasupathy is a member of the national team of Singapore. This 23 years old forward made appearance at two World Floorball Championships (2016, 2018) as well as the SEA Games (2015) and the AOFC Cup (2017, 2019). At this year’s AOFC Cup, he even was one of the leading scorers.
Singapore played in the Pro category at the Czech Open 2019, which is the middle category below Elite but above Open. We spoke after Singapore’s 6-3 win against Florbal Chomutov (from 2nd highest Czech league) about this tournament, floorball Premier League in Singapore and the national team.
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What can you say about this victory?
I think it was a good result for us. We were trying to prepare for this game because earlier in the day, we lost our first game [3-2 against Sokol Královské Vinohrady, from the Czech Superliga], so we really wanted to win this game, so I think it was a good result in our favor.
You really run a lot in your game. Is it something you build your game on, something you practice a lot?
In Singapore, we work a lot on our fitness in order to be able to really do what our coaches want us to do. We believe that if our coaches want us to press, you have to press no matter what, even if you’re tired. You press, you got tired, you change, someone else is fresh and then he can do the same job.
What do you think about the tournament, the competition level, what are your goals here?
Our goal here is to do the best that we can and to see how far we can go at this level of play. We know that in the Pro category, we have a lot of tough opponents and strong teams, like this one we played just now. So it is a test for us to see how far we have come after our training.
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What do you think of your performance after the first 2 games, how far do you think you can get?
We hope to do well in our group, I don’t know about other opponents, so it’s hard to say how far we can get. After our first game, we felt that we could have gotten a better result so we will be a bit more focused and we hope to get ourselves a good result in the future.
This interview was done during the tournament. The Czech Open is now over and Singapore lost the final of the Play Down B. Winning this final would have brought them to the quarterfinals.
Back in Singapore, you play for Black Wondersticks and you currently hold 2nd position in the Singaporean Premier Floorball League. Can you tell something about your season in Singapore?
In Singapore, our league games are played every weekend. Now the regular season just ended with us, the Black Wondersticks, taking the 2nd place and we are going to transition to the playoffs. There are two groups of four, and the top 2 of every group will go to the semifinals. After we come back from the Czech Open, the playoffs will start and it is going to be very interesting in Singapore in the league to see who is going to make it to the semifinals.
Where do you see the differences between Singaporean Premier League and this kind of European competition?
In my opinion over here in Czechia and all the teams that have come here, the level of play is a lot higher. We always have to be at 100% to match up to everyone. In Singapore, there are also lots of technical players and good teams, but over here, if you make a mistake, that results in a goal, so what we learned here and what coaches tell us is that team that makes the least mistakes win.
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You’re already quite an experienced national team player. Singapore is for sure one of the favorites to qualify to WFC 2020 from Asia-Oceania. Singapore’s last 3 appearances in the WFC resulted in 16th (last) place. What do you think Singapore needs to improve to get a better result?
I feel like mainly we need to work together as a unit, because I feel like we have players that are very good technically, individually, but as long as we can play together as a team, as a unit, we can get better results. So our aim is to make sure that collectively as a unit we can execute what our coaches want, so it is not about one person, but about a whole team as a whole.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I think that this Czech Open tournament is a very good tournament for many clubs and countries, for us to come and see where we are against good opponents and to learn from these tough matches, so I am very happy to be here.
This article was written by Petr Havej. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at info@floorballtoday.com.
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