Lions to play Indonesia as final preparation for Asian Cup Qualifying matches against Thailand

(Media information by Football Association of Singapore)

SINGAPORE, 30 October 2009: After a winning performance at the Ho Chi Minh City International Tournament in Vietnam last week, Singapore will be looking to continue their good form when they play Indonesia on Wednesday 04 November 2009 at the National Stadium.

With this match being the Lions’ final preparation before the all-important Asian Cup Qualification match against Thailand on 14 November, it is no surprise that National team coach Raddy will be scrutinising this game for the final tune-up.

“The Lions had a successful campaign in the HCMC International Tournament last week, but we did not have the benefit of a full national team as some of the players were still playing in the Indonesian League. This friendly match against Indonesia is very important as it give the players the opportunity to play together, and also allow us to experiment with tactical variations. From there, I will then be able to select the best possible team for the Thailand game.”

Tickets will be on sale at the National Stadium (East and West entrances) on matchday from 6.00pm onwards.

Prices
Grandstand - $10.00
Gallery (Adult) - $6.00
Gallery (Child) - $2.00

Match :
International Friendly - Singapore VS Indonesia
Day/Date : Wednesday, 04 November 2009
Venue : National Stadium
Kick-off : 7.30pm

It's another damper as I can't get down to pitch side...

Referee Abdul Malik made a brave decision to carry on the match despite the heavy downpour (as pictured above) that started prior to the start of this live televised game.

Frankly, this fixture would have been a title decider perfectly fit for this season's finale, but it wasn't the case after all. If not for that disastrous October which Tampines Rovers eventually blew their title hopes away.

Still, given the storied feud between these two giants of Singapore football over the past few years, be it title-decider or not, SAFFC-Tampines promising an exciting encounter whenever they meet.

SOME PICTURES FROM THE MATCH
"Head or Tail?" as SAFFC won the toss to kick-off.

Err guys, the ball is still with the referee...

Khairul Amri did well to shackle Duric off the possession.

Akihiro Nakamura prowled the flank.

It's always so physical when these two meet.

Tampines striker Qiu Li whizzed his way through with close attention from SAFFC's defenders Razaleigh Khalik and Daniel Bennett.

As a promise to these guys, here are the photos and thanks for taking the initiative :)

SAFFC's custodian Shahril Jantan's brave effort won him the "Man-of-match" as presented by his skipper Aleksandar Duric (already a friend of me said Shahril deserved another shot to the national team call-up).

SAFFC set an unprecedented fourth consecutive league title after this season.

SAFFC's coach Richard Bok remained mum over his "retain and release" list when asked, as he would only start the working out of it on coming Monday. At the meantime, he expressed his surprise on the aborted move of skipper Duric to Sriwijaya.

But acknowledged the fact that SAFFC will definitely need to strengthen their squad as it will be another congesting season next year.

Looking back the season, Tampines Rovers' manager Syed Faruk believed the injuries and suspensions to several key players during the month of October being the key factors of their derailment of their title's hope.

Whilst at the meantime, he hopes finishing as the runners-up of the season campaign would allowed the Stags to return to continental tournament - AFC Cup (as Geylang United would qualify for that spot if they win the Singapore Cup on 8th November).

It was already a damper before the ball was kicked...

TTM warming-up before the game

To be honest, it was already a damper prior to this returning fixture of this Singapore Cup semi-final between these two invited teams - Bangkok Glass and TTM Samut Sakorn.

With a huge task ahead, it wasn't a surprise to write off the Smokers (TTM's nickname), as not many teams can do what the Portuguese did in 1966 World Cup against the North Korean, before the match started.

Former Sengkang and Balestier striker Paul Bekombo (9) fine-tuning his skills

Nonetheless, TTM started the match strongly by stretching the Glass Rabbits (Bangkok Glass' nickname) to the limit, right from the start.

In the end of this see-saw battle, TTM walked away as the victors with a 4-3 victory that saw one player from each side being sent off by referee Sukhbir Singh in the second half.

But it wasn't good enough for the Smokers as it will be the Glass Rabbits led by former Home United star J Surachai to face Geylang United on the same venue on 8th November.

SOME PICTURES FROM THE MATCH
This was the first foul of the game.

The moment before the first goal was scored.

Job well done with Chatree Chimtale (right) being congrats by his team-mates.

It was a rough-house play that eventually...

earned the Smokers' captain Preratat Phoruandee a yellow card from Mr Singh

Some shirt-tugging near the corner...

As TTM did well to hold on to the Rabbits assault.

with one of the bunnies paid the price ... Ouch!

Glass Rabbits' coach J Surachai (pictured above left) said the team will try to bring the (Singapore) Cup back to Bangkok, and pleased to see his team performed consistently since he took over in the mid-season after he resigned as Home United's assistant coach.

TTM's coach Prajak Weangsong dropped a bombshell when he announced to the media that one of the clubs' import signings, Aly Camara's contract will not be renewed and be terminated with immediate effect, after his "jersey-throwing" antics at the referee who given him the marching order in the 75th minute for "alleged verbal abuses".

Coach Prajak said the team management decided to act tough and swiftly over this unforgivable conduct immediately after the match.

Stay Focused, BOYS!!

(P.S: I wonder if some of the some young players out there agree with me the importance of staying put together, if possible.)

After his team defeated Balestier Khalsa, Young Lions' coach Terry Pathmanathan (pictured above during the "Sultan of Selangor Cup 09") was not a happy man as you thought he would be.

In the post-match media conference, the former national skipper remarked "some of the boys are getting big on their heads that they need a knock on it."

In short, the ex-Tampines Rovers stalwart blasted his boys for not playing according to plan and making many unnecessary moves in the game.

Young Lions' striker Khairul Nizam's (hidden by the fourth official) "over-the-top" goal celebration warranted an unnecessary yellow card in their recent match against Balestier.

"During my time after I scored a goal, I get back to my position and game carry on." said coach Terry when asked if the "over-the-top" goal celebration antics by Khairul Nizam was one of the sticking points.

"I have nothing against goal-celebration, but they must learn not to overdo." he added after Khairul was warranted a yellow card for taking off his jersey in that wild celebration.

Balestier (white) have the slight advantage over the Young Lions in retaining their talented players, if the former choose to do so, whereas the latter have to release a player who turned 23.

Indeed, wise words from someone who had been and seen through how mentality of players evolved over the years.

Getting easily complacent has always been the problem local football facing, which nobody has a remedy for that.

The game is full of unavoidable physical contacts, but it's equally important to stay cool and out of trouble with whosoever.

On the other hand, cellar-dwellers Balestier's youth-priority policy may not have won them any honour since the founding year, nonetheless, this is THE club that wouldn't hesitate to throw in a group of untested youngsters to hone their game at the highest level.

Unfortunately though, it's also the club policy of "not blocking players' advancement" should there be a better offer elsewhere.

Balestier coach Nasaruddin Jalil (above) remains positive all the time, despite all the downs.

Therefore, at times I do feel sorry for the club, not because their inability to win any cup or title, but for the fact that some of talented youngsters they groomed "faded away" the moment they leave the Toa Payoh outfit (you all should jolly well know who are the few, if you're a keen follower).

So my question to this group of players is :

"Would you rather stay in the club that groom you, in order to be a better player, playing with the same group of guys whom you toiled together these years to achieve something in the end (unless circumstances beyond control)?

OR

Jump the ship when there's better pay offer to play with a group of established "stars" to improve your game?"

To be fair, results on the papers don't reflect the actual performance - Balestier may be at the foot of the table, but they always gave their opponents a tough fight, what lacking now is just that bit of experience and luck in front of goal (like the above missed chance from a corner).

No doubt about it, everyone loves to play for a better team, however, if a top team decided that buying instead of grooming players is the way to success that you can't blame the same teams dominate the leading spots at the end of the season, since players groomed by minnows would ended up elsewhere.

So where you want to improve your game? Feel your conscience and ask yourself.

Had the FIFA ban on Brunei Amateur Football Association (BAFA) caught everyone off guard?

The ban resulted that Brunei DPMM's participation in the S.League is null and void, despite written approval was sought at the start of the year from the world governing body on the team's participation.

Part of DPMM's supporters at the League Cup Final

At that point of time, DPMM, a BAFA associate who used to play in Malaysian League, found themselves in a wilderness after the Malaysians decided to pull the plug after BAFA was de-registered by Brunei's Registrar of Societies, which is not inclined with FIFA's stand of "non-interference from government" policy, so it was subsequently not recognized as the game governing body in the oil-rich sultanate.

And so, when DPMM admitted into the league at the eleventh hour, the league authority thought with that perceived "iron-clad" written approval from Zurich, everything was fine until recently when things changed at FIFA congress when BAFA was officially banned.

Suddenly, the league, already saddled with mass exodus of top players and load of problems, was caught in a fix in sticky situation like this.

Are we going to see the last of Vjeran Simunic? (left-after he won the League Cup, right-after DPMM lost to TTM in the Singapore Cup)

The league authority had granted a grace period until coming Monday for the Brunians to resolve the mess, before pulling the plug as well after the world governing body had rejected their final appeal.

So at the end of the day, what have we learnt from this lesson?

I guess we have not learnt our lesson.

First, Liaoning Guangyuan, follow by Dalian Shide Siwu and now DPMM might join the expanding "one-season only" group.

It doesn't matter if how good or bad the club is run, but given this kind of "musical chair" way of admitting and ejecting of clubs on such a frequent basis, you can't blame people for slamming the 14-year old league as a "mickey-mouse" league!

Not this "mickey", of course (I can't afford to pay Walt Disney for copyright infringement)

Put it simply this way, let us get settle down, clear the debris before start talking about the rest and NEVER TAKE THINGS FOR GRANTED.

Sound logic, isn't it?

3rd time lucky....

I would consider myself a SAFFC's jinx if they couldn't beat Sengkang Punggol at Jalan Besar Stadium just now, as I was in person to see their last two matches (against Gombak United and Super Reds),which they played below expectation, that would have allowed them to pop open the champagne.

So third time lucky for the Warriors with their victory over the Dolphins at Jalan Besar Stadium, thus sealed their fourth consecutive league title and another shot to next year's ACL tournament.

SOME PICTURES FROM THE MATCH

SAFFC's John Wilkinson (10) and Abdoulaye Diallo (15) in an aerial duel.

Sengkang defending a corner in second-half

Lloyd Butler (37) made his late appearance in the match.

SAFFC's coach Richard Bok (above) said his team wholeheartedly focused their mind on this game, barring any thought of DPMM's fate that would have decided their title quest before the kick-off.

Sriwijaya-bound Aleksandar Duric (above) is confident of doing well in the physically-tougher Indonesian League, although his main concern is the lack of time to gel with his new team-mates when he join the Palembang-based club after his club and Lions' commitments are over.

Another "Uncle" at the Stadium... (edited)

PICTURE REMOVED DUE TO EMBARRASSMENT CAUSED TO PORTRAYED PARTY
A "close-up" of this "Uncle" who is a regular at most games, renown for his ranting

So this is the another "Uncle", other than that "Uncle Party-popper", whom I had been tracking down who he is, ever since I last filmed him at Toa Payoh Stadium many years back...


CLIP REMOVED ON OWN INITIATIVE

A passionate fan...indeed (minus those "colorful" languages, though)

MY APOLOGY

It is never the intention of this entry to cause any embarrassment to any individual, but as a reader ("Anonymous" who posted on 16th Oct 2009 at 11:13AM) pointed out this posting is an act of "degrading the fans who are just enjoying themselves".

Heeding that as an advice, I hereby would like to extend my sincere apology to any individual for any cause of disturbance and embarrassment derived from this entry and removed the picture and video clip from the entry at my own initiative.

Although, I would like to add that the removed video clip is just merely a sight at games, and "colorful" languages in it should be discouraged especially if there are young children nearby. No doubt, football is a game of passion.

Greater care to taken care into consideration when portraying fans at the stadiums.

I am sorry...

Thanks but no thanks (edited)

What can I say about this when I first saw this in the morning?

To my surprise, even one of my maternal aunts can recalled some of the names of these legends when she revealed that during her courtship days with my uncle - going to catch the team in action was a common thing in their "pak-tor" days!

An appreciation that came rather late or what?

Why do we need someone who is critically ill, so suddenly, to make all of us remember the joy and happiness they had brought to us more than 30 years ago??

The details of those players who achieved "god-like" status in those days were detailed in this special report by The Sunday Times (above), when there's a sudden surge of interest on them following that unfortunate incident last week at Jalan Besar Stadium.

Joining the rest of those who are concern of his well-being, let's once again wish Mr Dollah a speedy recovery.

UPDATE ON MR DOLLAH KASSIM'S CONDITION

According to a source close to Mr Dollah Kassim, it reported that the legend nicknamed the "Gelek King" is making "slow but steady recovery" in his condition.

Let's hope it's not too long before we see the man himself get back to his normal self.

Will keep an update on Mr Dollah's condition, should I get hold of any instant information.

Players, coaches - are you "Tweet", "Plurk" enough?

The general mindset of most local clubs officials and players is to keep "things within four walls" and it's not very often we see war-of-words trading across feuding parties to ensure the mood of solidarity in the local football fraternity (because of the "Code of Conduct" I guess).

Personally, nothing wrong with that as nobody would want to see a WWE-styled reality show since the main product is the game itself.

(Picture) How often you wonder who were players on the field?

However, the lack of hype in the local scene also not in favour to itself as fans may find it a bit "routine-like" to turn out at games.

So that was why I suggested earlier to get players to tell us more about themselves, nothing to extend to do some damages to one's reputation, but some snippets behind the scenes should start some interesting topics to discuss.

Unfortunately, no one has taking up the idea (maybe they are not aware of it?) or would they rather stay out of limelight to avoid unnecessary attention (like what happened to Australian cricketer Philip Hughes)?

(Picture) Aussie cricketer Philip Hughes "tweet" his way to trouble - Picture credit wikipedia

This situation is on the contrary to those Western sportsmen (I have to use them as a yardstick at this juncture, sorry) whom a number of them embraced into microblogging based on what I gathered from this site,"Twitter-Athletes" - a website introduced by a friend of me after he read what I blogged earlier.

This site is a compilation of twitter sites of those pro athletes in the States who simply just "tweet" it away, some of the well-known athletes using twitter included Shaquille O'Neil, Lance Armstrong, etc.

(PrtScr) The entrance page of "Twitter-Athletes"

Just in case you wonder if those mentioned individual's tweets are bogus, please be assure that before these "tweet" page were listed under the directory, the site operators will verify the identity before putting them on the list.

Or if "twitter" is not your preferred choice, there's also another similar micro-blogging site but in a rather different interface - "Plurk" (depicted below)

This is how "Plurk" looks like - each update is float on the board in chronically format.

I must admit that I'm rather new to "plurk", but the whole idea of it is similar to "twitter" except l'm not sure if this micro-blogging site also provides third-party access that allows users to update their "plurk" via mobile device like "tweets".

So what you waiting for? Just start "tweet" or "plurk" around and made your presence felt by being proactive and not being wait to be discovered by others (and heaven know when) OR retire as nobody.

(P.S: Interested players or officials, you may wish to drop me an email to kopohui@bolasepako.com, if you are keen to venture into "micro-blogging".)

The whole episode had been frustrating! (edited)

The VVIPs admiring the trophy.

Sometimes I have been wondering if this country is a nation of glory-hunters, that when things get tough people try to find an easy way out to avoid the calamity to be fallen on them?

This legend who used to be feared by strikers in Asia for his tackling, can you tell who he is?

I can't help but having that conclusion in the recent days when I tried to encourage some of my middle-aged colleagues to come down to see those footballing legends of the seventies who came together for the annual "Sultan of Selangor Cup".

You know the man in the middle now, but will your kids know who he is and importantly can you tell those two on his both sides?

These are the lot who are still clamouring those wonderful days of the Malaysia Cup rivalry between Singapore and Selangor, and could easily roll out those names of those legendary players from their tongues.

These guys were capable to pull in a full-house at Kallang in their heydays

So there was this chance to bring them back to those nostalgic years to see their boyhood heroes they idolized when they were young, all kinds of flimsy excuses (barring those genuine ones) thrown out from nowhere – stark contrast in those years when people would drop anything to catch the team in action.

Are you aware that the legend in red jersey played in 1972 Munich Olympics for his country?

How sad! In this era when most football fans chose to despise those players at their own backyard (that's the case isn't?), those who had been through those wonder years chose not to share with their children this indispensable part of Singapore football history.

I can't image the day when our kids not aware these two former Young Lions coaches ever played in Europe!

And these are same jokers who have the cheek to come forward and tell me all the short-comings Singapore football is facing, when they, themselves, didn't bother to turn out at games to see where the faults lay and based their “findings” from statistical information (where? the betting outlets where they simply concluded their opinions based on fluctuating of the odds).

Despite the slightly higher travelling costs, these fans from Klang Valley bother to come down to support their team and certainly made their presence felt.

“Last time, we had all these good players... blah, blah.” this is what they would always said at the start of their theory.

Fark Off (sorry for my choice of words)...I had enough of it of these nonsensical opinions of these self-proclaimed brainless twits.

Both Singapore sides claimed the trophies, but not many local "fans" bother to stay behind to see, let alone celebrate!

My advice is to all these twits – Check your fact and background of your argument before you approach anyone who is an expert (not me) to debate

I had enough of this and this will be nothing more than just whining to me. Thank you.

AN UNRESERVED APOLOGY TO SINGAPORE MEDIA

This slot used to have a picture of a number of microphones placed on the table at the post-match media conference, for those who saw it can vividly remember those were from the Malaysian media who were covering this annual event.

For one moment, I thought the Singaporean media were not keen to cover this event, only to realize that it was because Mr Dollah Kassim, who was being admitted to the hospital, that all of them were staying vigil by his side to keep us update on his condition.

For that ignorance, I,hereby,decided to remove that picture and unreservedly apologize to all my local media friends for such unnecessary misunderstand caused.

I'm sorry...

And lastly, I wish Mr Dollah a speedy recovery...