BoLASEPaKO•COM - A Blog on Singapore Football

(P.S: Below is a press release by Strategic Public Relations Group Singapore, a renowned public relations consultancy who are coordinating the above-mentioned event) Singapore, 28 July 2009 NATIONAL DAY CHALLENGE KICKS OFF WITH GRUDGE MATCH Singapore Lions takes on China to launch new football event Singapore – In celebration of Singapore’s National Day, the Singapore National Team will play China to kick off a new annual football event – the National Day Challenge. Continuing Singapore’s birthday celebrations, the Lions will hope to win the first ever National Day Challenge against the Chinese national team which will take place on 12 August at the National Stadium. The National Day Challenge 2009 is the brainchild of local sports and marketing consultancy firm, The Red Card Pte Ltd which is headed by former national footballer R. Sasikumar. According to Sasikumar, there are plans in place to bring other international teams. Asian giants, Japan have already been identified for futu...

(Picture from TV) Doesn't this trophy looks like the Malaysia Cup ? It was a soft, deflected goal from Andriy Voronin at the stroke of first half and the lapse in an indiscipline Singapore' backline in the second half saw the visiting the Liverpool ended their Singapore "holiday training camp" with a win over the hosting Lions at the heaven-know-when-will-tear-down National Stadium. To be honest, I thought we did well to hold the 18-time English Champions for large part of the first half until that Voronin's strike. But sad to say though that lack of discipline and composure eluded the Lions as they cracked as the game progressed. What a shame as it was an ONE half performance, but NO SHOW in the second. SOME REACTIONS FROM MY "FACEBOOK" LIST (Some instant reactions from my "facebook" contact) "thinks it's a shame we didn't give Pool a better fight... Better defending could definitely have prevented 2-3 of the goals!" "I...

Yes, I admitted that I used to be one of the KOP. But that was many years ago and yesterday I was the National Stadium to catch the Reds' only "open door" training session in front of approximately 6,000 (just a rough figure). SOME PICTURES TOOK DURING THE EVENT Spot someone familiar? These fans flew in from Hong Kong to catch their idols in action. A lady fan claimed herself as "Mrs El Nino" Attentive fans with their sights focused on the field These two boys trying hard to get a better view. Some players greeted the fans at the East Stand before heading to shower. Not eating sour grapes but I do really hope the same passion and enthusiasm would be shown to our boys this Sunday as well. May the best team win...

(Picture) snapped this at "Sakura" YCK stadium I was at Yio Chu Kang the other day for a meal. The dinning place was one of the two restaurants located at both ends of the Yio Chu Kang Stadium. As far as I know beside YCK complex, various sporting complexes (e.g.: Jurong West, Tampines, Choa Chu Kang, etc.) around the island also have such dinning facilities incorporated into these premises. Now, here comes the question - Does any of the S.League clubs thought of working out with these eateries to venture into corporate hospitality on the match days? Just a tweak to the idea I mentioned before by having clubs venture into this business model that has been an important income earner in Europe. As the matter of fact that clubs here do not own the stadium they based, thus it's impossible to have any dinning facility inside the stadium compound unless the SSC (the landlord) give the go-ahead. With some of the grounds having this "ready-made" requirement so why not ...

The trophy is named after the GOH - A/P Ho Peng Kee, the Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs and Law, who is also one of the two advisers of the FAS. A total of 104** teams took part in the futsal competition of the "H-Two-O Ultimate Challenge" held at the Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) campus at Ang Mo Kio. According to the organizers, this figure of 104 had set a new record in the Singapore "Book of Records" for the largest number of teams taking part in a futsal tournament held in Singapore. This event was held in effort to raise fund for the Jamiyah Children's Home . The "Bishan Glory", played in the youth category, with skipper Amirul (second from right) Met a friend, Daniel (pictured above, second from the left) who was there with his group of "kakis" taking part in the event. Called themselves the "Bishan Glory", the group of five had known each other for more than four years and been playing the game regularly in their usu...

Shadow Boxing football is a joy to watch actually. As what Super Reds had shown us how fundamental skills were being applied to curb a superior team like SAFFC, who were, honestly, out-of-sort hours ago. Pending how individual look at it, for me it was a joy to watch despite the snail-paced of football played as it's not very often we seen such simplicity style of being played in an era when the game is getting more complex with list of dubious formations and much focused on pace, rather than the basic skills we first taught to master at very young age. AUDIO CLIPS FROM THE POST-MATCH PRESS CONFERENCE Super Red's coach Jeon Kyeong Joon's comment after the game http://www.mediafire.com/file/kckdgq0yjmv/jeon-after-2-nil over saffc.mp3 Coach Jeon pays tribute to his team for the efforts shown tonight and attributed the victory for controlling, moving the possession effectively throughout the game. SAFFC's coach Richard Bok's comment after the game http://www.mediafire....

"I didn't make him a star, the media did!" refuted a coach recently when asked about the less-than-desirable performance by his "star" player after another defeat to his team. How true that statement was as a matter of fact it's only when a player who performed consistently well enough and therefore being mentioned in the media.   (Picture) ex-Sengkang coach Jorg Steinnebrunner with the media after their season opener As this player continued to maintain his good form and help his team to gain victory after victory, it's inevitable that the public would want to know more about him and his life outside football. So this is perhaps how the love-hate relationship between footballers and media developed. Use it wisely not only it helps to lift up the profile and image of that particular player but having it works against you, the press pack will be the last person one would want to see. One classical example would be former national left-winger Lee Ma...

Shortly after the match at Woodlands Stadium, both coaches gave their brief assessment of the match. (P.S: Sincerely apologize for the fact of the poor audio as it's been a long time I'm using my "Ranger"DV camera) Balestier coach Nasaruddin Jalil shared his thoughts Woodlands coach Nenad Bacina shared his thoughts

After I blogged on why Bryan Soane's sudden departure from Balestier Khalsa had only side of the story covered , this morning's TODAY seem to have revealed the other side of the story. (Picture) Soane and agent gave their side of story Finally, we got the other side of the story after the news broke out weeks ago that the young Aussie striker had quit and went back to Sydney. In the latest twist in the event that it was alleged by Soane's agent that "The club tore strips off him for doing nothing,". Now that we had heard both sides' story, let's leave it to the league authority to look into it as too many opinions and views will lead us to no where. http://www.mediafire.com/file/nnjnnqnixzn/1007SPC048.pdf - Cache copy of the story of the "PrtSc" above

In an effort to raise funds and the profile of orphans and children from disadvantaged families in Singapore, YEO’S will be holding its inaugural H-TWO-O Ultimate Challenge event on 18 July 2009 at Nanyang Polytechnic. This event will feature 2 exciting challenges - 5v5 Futsal and Biathlon. 5v5 Futsal is sanctioned by Football Association of Singapore. All proceeds collected will be donated to Jamiyah Children’s Home. To register or information, please visit http://www.yeos.com.sg/htwooultimatechallenge/ Registration close on Sunday, 12 July 2009.

... where a fired-up Sengkang Punggol defeated the newly-crowned League Cup champions, Brunei DPMM 2-1, coaches of both sides shared their thoughts with the media after the match. Sengkang Punggol's caretaker coach Aide Iskandar's comment after the game. http://www.mediafire.com/file/wykwz4yqnnm/Aide-after-SKP2-1-win-over-DPMM.mp3 The former national skipper believed that his team had "learned from their mistakes after the matches against Tampines and Super Reds" and shows his appreciation to another former national captain Fandi Ahmad for the advice rendered during his team preparation since taking charge the Dolphins. DPMM's coach Vjeran Simunic's thoughts of the game. http://www.mediafire.com/file/4noonyjo5yd/Simunic-after-losing sengkang-2-1.mp3 The Croation coach was duly waiting us outside the dressing room after we had our session with Aide. Coach Simunic admitted that missing of his several key players, fatigue were some of the reasons behind their def...

(Picture) Took this picture yesterday during my train ride when the north-bound train stopped at Yishun station. Of course, it's nothing usual about this green plot of uneven field and furthermore there's this sheltered walkout that linked the station to the nearest residential block, but what prompted me to blog something about it is because the field used to be the training ground of already-defunct Gibraltar Crescent SC, which used to play in old Premier League during the 1980s. I still recalled many years back while on my way to my uncle's place in Yishun, I would have alighted at this MRT station and transferred to a feeder bus and it was during one of those visits I chanced upon an opportunity to catch the team in training. Sadly though, the team, together with another northern-based team, Sembawang SC merged together as Sembawang Rangers FC to play in the inaugural S.League season in 1996, had faded away in 2003 when the Stallions decided to quit the league due to fi...

(Picture) "PrtScr" from The Brunei Times Got an email from a reader from Brunei who shared with me the match report of last night's match between Brunei DPMM and Balestier Khalsa at Bandar Seri Begawan. Interested readers may wish to download a "pdf" copy of the match report from the link below: http://www.mediafire.com/file/84y5xnmynn0/dpmm20bk.pdf Thanks for the effort, Aziz