Skip to main content

Posts

[Telegram Chat] - RELIVE CHILDHOOD WITH "ROY OF THE ROVERS"

I was thrilled to receive my copy of " Roy of the Rovers " which I bought online recently (image below). A browse through the pages of this hard copy that compiled the best of its 1970s collection brought back some of my childhood memories when I first came across this comic strip during my primary school days. A hardcopy of "Roy of The Rovers" Like how boys these days are glued to their handhelds, many in the yesteryears were looking forward to the latest development of the exploits of the main character " Roy Race " and " Melchester Rovers " the fictional football team managed by him. Those first few copies I read were found in my school library, and since then it has been a futile effort to grab hold of them despite years of scavenging among those discarded collections or any secondhand book stores I can think of. Honestly speaking, hardcovers like the one shown are not that cheap, but a chance to savour that bit of childhood memory is pricele...
Recent posts

[Telegram Chat] - COACH OGURA'S MIXED BAG OF RESULTS AHEAD OF AFF ME CUP

Singapore coach Tsutomu Ogura   It is not uncommon to hear the chorus of disapproval from the masses after any less-than-convincing performance from the Singapore national football team . The same thing happened after the Lions concluded their friendly fixtures of late against Myanmar and Chinese Taipei at the National Stadium . Using these two fixtures as a final tuning up before the biennial showpiece, the Asean Championship , aka AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup (AFF ME Cup), Coach Tsutomu Ogura prioritised experimenting with some new tactics and formations, which resulted in a scrappy 3-2 win over the "Chinthe" before succumbing to their third defeat to the Blue Wings on the same scoreline since 2017. A SCRAPPY WIN OVER MYANMAR Understandably, the performances from these two fixtures aren't convincing enough to suggest the four-time Asean champions are ready for the bigger test. Apart from the first half against the Myanmarese, when the Lions took an early lead from F...

[Telegram Chat] - BUCK UP OR SHIP OUT (AGAIN)!

The poor performance of Jaguars cannot be tolerated. It is such an appalling sight to see the recent performance of the once-mighty Tanjong Pagar United . Put it bluntly, do the Jaguars still remember they are playing in the top-tier league of this country? One may be forgiven if you occupy the last spot of the ladder, but one cannot be forgiven if efforts on the field failed to convince the others of your determination to turn things around. It was not hard for the critics to come after them again after the recent 6-0 loss to Hougang United , their nearest rivals on the ladder prior to the 1st November fixture. As the league heads for a long recess after this week, Tanjong Pagar United remain the only team in the nine-team league to accumulate single-digit points (8) with only two wins, two draws, and fourteen defeats in the ninth spot. The eighth-placed Young Lions (at the time of writing) already collected 18 points out of the 17 games played. Any layman could easily tell some of th...

[Telegram Chat] - STADIUM SHORTAGE HAMPERS SPL CLUBS' COMMUNITY TIES

Bedok Stadium - former home of Geylang International  The Singapore Premier League (SPL) faces significant challenges due to the limited availability of dedicated stadiums for its clubs. As the stadiums used for SPL matches are also shared by age-group competitions and lower-tier leagues (with some Island Wide League matches scheduled at school fields), this inevitably causes wear and tear on the playing surfaces, which could endanger players' safety and impact the quality of play, making it difficult to maintain competitive standards. Following the uprooting of some clubs from the stadiums where they were once based, it has become increasingly difficult for these SPL clubs to conduct meaningful community outreach within the localities they are meant to identify with. For instance, Geylang International, which used to call Bedok Stadium home until the end of the 2018 season, now plays at Jalan Besar Stadium while their designated home ground at Our Tampines Hub undergoes repairi...

[Telegram Chat] - LIONS LEARN HARD LESSONS IN JAPAN FRIENDLIES

Lions Head Coach Tsutomu Ogura The Singapore national team wrapped up their training camp in Japan with one win and two defeats to the J1 clubs they sparred with. Apart from the 2-1 victory over Tokyo Verdy, the club where Lions coach Tsutomo Ogura worked as assistant manager prior to his appointment to the current role in early February, the four-time Asean champions succumbed to heavy losses to FC Tokyo (4-0) and Yokohama F. Marinos (7-1). PREPARING FOR THE AFF MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CUP The motive of the camp is to gear the team up for the upcoming AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup , which is scheduled to commence on 8 December. The outcome of these friendlies should not be surprising, given the wide gulf in footballing standards between the Republic and Asia's number one. REALITY CHECK FOR THE LIONS This notion was fittingly expressed by Coach Ogura in his assessment with The Straits Times when he told the broadsheet: "Before this, they (Singapore) had a feeling of how big the g...