A bunch of students from the Niigata University of Health and Welfare beat the Singapore football team 3-2 in an opening friendly match on Wednesday, July 20.

The Singapore team suffered the humbling defeat as they embarked on a nine-day training tour in Japan as part of their preparations for the year-end AFF Suzuki Cup.

To be fair, the Singapore team had to field four uncapped players and did not have first-team seniors, such as midfielder Hariss Harun, goalkeeper Hassan Sunny and defender Baihakki Khaizan due to club commitments.

But from the way the Football Association of Singapore talked about the defeat, you would be forgiven for thinking Singapore actually won:

This is what the post said:

Gabriel Quak and Hafiz Sujad scored for Singapore in the first of two training matches before the friendly against Albirex on Sunday. A total of 18 players got some playing time under their belts in the game.

Said coach Sundram after the game: “I'm happy to give the players their first playing minutes of this training camp. These two training matches give me a chance to test various formations and players such as Amy Recha, which will be important in our preparations for the friendly against Albirex Niigata on Sunday and the ‘A’ international against Cambodia next Thursday.”

FT Niigata University of Health and Welfare 3-2 Singapore

(Takahashi Kazuma 13', 22', Wada Kanta 56'; Gabriel Quak 9', Hafiz Sujad 26')

This defeat, obviously, did not go down well with Singaporeans, judging by the comments on the FAS Facebook page.

For the record, the Niigata University of Health and Welfare is a 15-year-old university established only in 2001.

And to soften the blow, Today even altered their report's headline.

From the wretched-sounding "Singapore national team beaten 3-2 by Japanese students":

To the more optimistic "Japanese students hand Lions a footballing lesson":

A loss is a loss. Suck it up, ya.

If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest updates.