Nepal defeated Singapore at the latter’s home in a friendly played at National Stadium in Kallang on Friday. There was only one goal to separate the teams which was scored by Gillespye Jung Karki in the 12th minute.

The win was a special one for Nepal in many ways, one being the debut game for new head coach Matt Ross. Furthermore, it was the first win for Nepal over Singapore after losing thrice and drawing once. Yet, all the previous four fixtures were played 36 years ago.

Nepal’s first encounter with Singapore was back on May 5, 1982, during the King’s Cup. Nepal had lost 0-2.

Nevertheless, Nepal could restrict Singapore to a goalless draw while hosting them in the Nepal Panchayat Silver Jubilee Cup in 1986, a tournament participated by Nepal, Singapore, Denmark, Bangladesh, South Korea, Malaysia and Beijing. Only Nepal and Bangladesh had a complete national squad then.

Later, Nepal suffered two more losses to the senior Singapore side in 1989 during the World Cup Qualifiers. Nepal lost 0-3 and 0-7 in the two legs played on May 27 and June 5.

Thus, Karki’s goal on Friday marked Nepal’s only goal against Singapore.

“I trust these players,” Ross said during the farewell to Singapore on March 19. And it seemed that Ross was happy with the game of his squad, especially the performance of goalie and skipper Kiran Chemjong.

Playing his 104th game for the national team, Chemjong prevented what could either have been a draw or loss, against Singapore. Ross also had teenager Subash Bam Thakuri make his senior debut against Singapore.

Nepal was on the safe side with an early goal while Singapore kept on attacking.

After the 80th minute alone, Chemjong made several saves, including a 1v1 against Harhys Stewart. When it was not Chemjong, defenders were sliding and keeping their bodies on the line. Even the crossbar was on Nepal’s side saving the free kick by Faris Ramli in the seven minutes of injury time.

“We want to keep this momentum,” said Karki, adding that they will take it against Malaysia in the next few days.

Struggle to watch

Nepal would not have been in Singapore if Dasharath Stadium had been deemed fit for international games by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

Nepal exchanged the away fixture with Malaysia, which was due in November, with the home game slated on March 25. The friendly with Singapore was a result of Nepal travelling to Malaysia.

The All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) drew severe criticism from Nepali fans when they found that Nepal were not playing their home game at home again.

Yet, ANFA signed an agreement with AD Release Pvt Ltd on March 17 to broadcast the friendly with Singapore and the FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifier game against Malaysia live in Nepal.

However, the fans were disappointed to not see the friendly against Singapore properly due to poor visual quality.

But the team had good support in the stadium with Nepali fans in Singapore turning up in significant numbers physically.

Broadcasted live on the YouTube channel of ADR Sports and the TV channel of Action Sports HD, viewers could not watch it live as the feed was disturbed throughout the game. Nepalis could not even watch Karki’s goal properly.

As a result, netizens expressed concerns about the possibility of repeating similar issues while watching the game against Malaysia.