'Like a dream': These 2 Team Singapore female footballers are raring to go for 2022 SEA Games in Hanoi

SINGAPORE — Ernie Sulastri, 33, first played football when she was just five years old, while her ex-schoolmate Noor Kusumawati, 31, was a netballer until Sulastri urged her to try football.

They are now teammates in the national women's football team and also at the club level with Lion City Sailors.

And for both of them, representing Singapore at the 2022 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Hanoi, Vietnam in May is a dream come true.

This is the first time since 2003 that women’s football is included in the biennial Games. 

Football runs in the blood for Sulastri, who started playing as a kid under the guidance of her father, who himself was an ex-goalkeeper with Police Football Club (now Lion City Sailors Football Club). 

But as football was not offered as a co-curricular activity in her school, she simply had kickabouts at the void deck with her male friends.

She was only 13 when she began playing in the women’s league for the Singapore Armed Forces Football Club (now known as Warriors Football Club), being the youngest in her team at the time.

In 2013, she went on a two-year stint to Japan, playing in country’s Division One and Two, before returning to Singapore to be closer to her family.

Speaking to TODAY in an interview on Friday (April 29), Sulastri, who plays as a centre-back or a holding midfielder for the national team, said she has always dreamed of a career in football. 

She made her national debut in 2010 and is currently the national team captain and its most capped player with 44 caps.

She has always wanted to don national colours at the SEA Games and is raring to go for the upcoming tournament.

"I feel honoured. I always dream about when I can go to the SEA Games," she said.

“(Now) I can’t wait and at the same time (I am) nervous.” 

Kusumawati was similarly thrilled that she will be representing Singapore in Vietnam.

"It's a very blessed thing to happen to the team, we are really looking forward, it's like a dream, it's like (being) in the World Cup," she said.

For Kusumawati, her introduction to football was quite by chance.

She was a netball player when she was attending the Institute of Technical Education, before Sulastri, who was a schoolmate, recommended her to play football.

The football team then was short of a goalkeeper, and as Kusumawati being a netballer was good at ball catching, the team wanted her to play as their goalkeeper.

Kusumawati soon made that role her own, progressing from representing her school to playing at the club level with Lion City Sailors and making her debut for the national team in 2011.

Like Sulastri, Kusumawati also lists her father as an inspiration for her sporting pursuit, having been exposed to the game by her father when he would watch the World Cup on television.

However, her father initially had some reservations when she first began playing for the school team, but she quickly won him over with her progress.

“It’s a guy’s sport after all. But I managed to play for the school, and then for my club and the national team, so from there he can see me grow and he is kind of proud of me,” she said.

ONE STEP AT A TIME

When asked how far they think Team Singapore could go in the SEA Games, both players were coy and said they want to focus on taking it one step at a time.

The Lionesses have been drawn in Group B for the tournament, alongside Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.

They will face Thailand in the first group game on May 10, followed by Laos on May 13 and Myanmar on May 15.

The top two in each group will advance to the semi-finals on May 18.

“We want to win but for now we will try to stay focussed and I hope we will take (a) step at a time and qualify for the next round first and then see where it goes,” said Kusumawati.

Sulastri felt that the team's focus is not only on results, but also on how they perform, and her teammates are keen to show how the level of women’s football has improved over the recent years.  

“All the players can agree that our performances have improved from five years ago," she said.

“No one (in the team) thinks she is a superstar, we really win and lose and fight as a team.” 

The team's most recent outing was the Football Association of Singapore Tri-Nations Series 2022 in April where they beat Seychelles 6-2 in the first-ever ticketed women’s football match in Singapore and suffered a narrow 1-0 loss to Papua New Guinea.

Team coach Stephen Ng, who has led the team since 2021, feels that the upcoming SEA Games is a competition for the team to cherish.

As the team had not played competitively for some time, in part due to the pandemic, coach Ng feels there is “no gauge” on where the team stands now among its rivals.

But he said the players are doing their best to prepare so that they can do well in Hanoi.

“If based on Fifa ranking, there is still a lot of catch-up for us to do,” said Ng.

The women’s team are ranked 135th by the world football governing body Fifa as of March 25. Thailand is ranked 43rd, Myanmar is 45th and Laos 83rd.

“We are working hard to bridge as much gap as we can and to do well,” added Ng.