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Showing posts from April, 2011

[Media Information] Stags holding COE's trials

(Media Information by Tampines Rovers Football Club) Tampines Rovers Football Club will be conducting selection trials for its Centre of Excellence programme for its U14, U12, U10 and U8 squad. To be held on the open field in front of Tampines Stadium over the coming weekend from 8.30 to 10.30am with details as follow. For the U10 and U8 are meant for players born in 2001/2002 and in 2003/2004 respectively with their trial to be held on 30th April 2011. For the U12 and U14 are meant for players born in 1999/2000 and in 1997/1998 respectively with their trial to be held on 1st May 2011. The trials will be conducted by the coaching panel led by Stags' head coach Steven Tan and Technical Direction Vorawan Chitavanich. All interested players are requested to their own footballing gears, such as training attire, boots, goalkeeper gloves , shinpad, etc. For more details, please contact the club office at these numbers 67846670 or 67850236.

Greasy Pitch crippled Hanoi....

Prelude... I'm not being unprofessional for placing this uncompleted team shot of the visiting Hanoi T & T (pictured above) before the start of their AFC Cup match against Tampines Rovers, as their star striker Le Cong Vinh abruptly left the field to have his boots changed before the shot was taken (much to our "disappointment"). THE OUTCOME A sweet victory for the hosting Stags, as I'm please again to have the regular guest columnist of this blog, Mr Neo Chee Seong to have his take of the match. Many Thanks to his effort. "Knowing that a win will put them firmly in the drivers' seat for a ticket into the next round, Tampines Rovers came out to Jalan Besar Stadium, with the mentality to kill the game early. Ahmad Latiff Khamarudin (pictured below, leaped to celebrate his second goal), the “bad boy” of Singapore Football, puts the stags 2-0 up within 22 minutes with two brilliant efforts from outside the penalty box. The second, which was

I decided the fate of the U-15 Cubs....

(This entry is formulated with additional details provided by the media release issued by The Red Card, the co-organizers of the 23rd Canon Lion City Cup) (Pictured above) I drawn "Juventus" to join Group A (picture credit: The Red Card) ... that the National U-15 team due to play in the upcoming 23rd Canon Lion City Cup had found themselves grouped together with Italian powerhouses Juventus U-15 and Newcastle United's U-15 squad in the Group A. While in the Group B, the other Singapore representative side – the National U-16 (comprised on the last year's YOG team ) will be facing the challenge from U-15 squads of renowned Brazilian side Flamengo and another English Premier League side, Everton. (Pictured above L-R) Terence Ong represented Newcastle's Fan Club, myself, Mr De Felip, Arief of LATW , Ismail Kay of Everton's supporters club, Francisco Zoroastro Campos of Flamengo's supporters club (picture credit: Mt Yip Siu Ming) I was given the honou

Drumming up support for the 'Eastern Derby' - The Eagles' way

The residents in Bedok Central were in for a pleasant surprise last Saturday morning when they were greeted by players and officials of Geylang United Football Club. As part of their community outreach program to the vicinity they are based, the Eagles initiated the awareness drive to promote the upcoming "Eastern Derby" match against the neighbouring Tampines Rovers, who are due for a visit this coming Thursday (21st April) at the Bedok Stadium. "One reason we are doing this is because we want to generate an awareness that 'Geylang United is here' among the Bedok residents." explained Gale Gan, the club's Senior Officer (marketing and media) on the motive behind this awareness drive. "Getting players to come out and interact with the residents had shown that we are sincere of having them come down to Bedok Stadium to support us on the match days." added Gan. According to him, the response from the residents during the morning walkabout has bee

[Event] Bud Cup Singapore 2011

(This entry is formulated based on the transcript of the press release issued by the tournament organizer with copyright of images depicted here belong them as well.) "To continue fostering international relations between the various nations, other than diplomatic visits and International summits, we have decided to put 2 of man’s biggest obsession together; Beer and Football, a combination which can never fail." With that declaration in the statement issued to the media, the organizers of the "Bud Cup Singapore 2011" had sent out a clear message on the objective behind organizing such tournament - in fostering good relationship between nations with the game of football and ice-cold beer. Come this May, Budweiser will be organizing the mentioned 6-a-side football tournament to determine the representing team from Singapore to take part in the "2011 Global Beer Champions 6vs6 Soccer tournament" also known as the "Budweiser Cup" in the capital of A

‘ON THE RUN’ away as the Champions of the TIGER STREET FOOTBALL Tournament Singapore Leg

(Part of the entry is formulated with the transcript of the press release obtained via Ogilvy Public Relations , the coordinating agency of this event) (P.S: The copyrights of the images depicted in this blog entry belong to Ko Po Hui, unless credited to copyright owners accordingly) It's not very often to see me in this busy stretch in Singapore at this early hour, but here I was at the Ngee Ann City (commonly known as "Taka" after its anchor tenant - Takashimaya SC) for the Tiger Street Football 2011 tournament. The "Local Competition" already started upon my arrival at the venue when the 32 teams slogged against one and other on a knock-out format with matches played inside the specially constructed oval-shaped enclosed playing field. The action from those matches I seen had been defined as "Singapore-styled" futsal at its best like those I seen in the past few events I had blogged. At the end of the first day, 'On The Run' (pictur

[Feature] Nike5 Gato

(The content of this entry is formulated based on the transcript provided by Integrated Marketing Solutions Group [IMSG] - the PR agency for Nike Singapore ) (P.S: The copyrights of the images depicted in this blog entry belong to Nike.) For the launch of the its collection of Nike5 range of futsal collection in last October. Nike had further improvised the features of these shoes, after having identified regional nuances of small-sided football throughout the world and rolled out what it is claimed to be its most versatile small-sided shoe - Nike5 Gato Street. In a release issued to the media, Nike explains that “Football in any form is about space. It was because of space – or rather a lack of it – that players had to take the full-size game and shrink it down to smaller teams and smaller versions of the game.” “Smaller-sided football is all about the player; the player who leaves work, heads for the pitch and who, for the duration of their game is free to express skills, express f

>14/31 = 1:2 NOT 4 OR 5 OR WHAT?

I was trying to dig out from the archive of the past regarding the shocking announcement of the disband of the national football team announced by the FAS president, Mayor Zainudin Nordin that mentioned only "4 or 5" players from the disband list will be retained. But having sourced around the cyberspace and filtered, redefined the searching keywords I can only retrieved a blog entry by elusive "happy" (as I still don't know the identity of this blogger) that mentioned what I was looking for. And Saturday's TODAY (pictured above) had reported that "least 14 players from the old guard will feature in his (Coach Raddy) interim squad" of 31. Selection of players remains the prerogative of the coach all the while (undoubtedly), but the Mayor did mentioned in public months ago that only "4 or 5" players will be retained, so what kind of message are we, the fans, getting at our end ? Such "flip-floppiness" between both messages th

It's still up for all to grab...

In less than 24 hours the pole position of the league standings changes three times in the Round 6 of the 2010 S.League campaign. Prior to the "Uniform Derby" at CCK, Home United were holding that position on top of their unbeaten 25-game unbeaten run, only to see that record shattered by their arch-rivals, SAFFC with their former protege, Indra Sahdan Daud playing a pivotal role in created and scoring a goal along the way to place the Warriors at the top for the first time this year. “A record (the 25-game unbeaten run) like this is always meant to break.” said coach Lee Lim Saeng of Home United after the defeat to SAFFC, while his oounterpart Richard Bok added:"It’s good to be at the top of the table again, and I hope we can maintain that momentum". Although, that status maintained for just less than 24 hours after the result at the Jalan Besar Stadium when Tampines Rovers came from behind to beat defending champions Etoile FC. It could a game that went either wa

Seed $$ shall never see as something for granted...

Distributing of these subsides or commonly known as the "seed monies" first started in the league's inauguration in 1996 when funds were allocated to the eight founding clubs to help them to make up of the shortfall that might incurred during the operation in the infancy of the fledging years. It was to say that the clubs were hoped to stop receiving these "seed monies" after three years after consolidate themselves during the said period. Unfortunately, the economic downturn that hit the country during that critical stage of the S.League had failed to see that plan from being materialized and made it more essential for clubs to survive on the subsidies. Although, I, for one, has never been favourable for such generosity, even though I know how difficult it is to source for the much-needed fund by the clubs themselves. While the fact that some clubs are running some fruit machines (jackpot) to balance their books, unfortunately, given the higher taxation on thes

[Media Information] SINGAPORE RUGBY CLUBS JOIN THE JAPAN AID EFFORT

A friend of my who is actively involved in the local rugby scene dropped me an email to inform me that local rugby community is staging their own charity game in aid for the Japanese quake victims after what the football community had done last weekend . And since it's all for good cause, here is the information of the upcoming rugby charity match to be played at Padang this coming Saturday... SINGAPORE RUGBY CLUBS JOIN THE JAPAN AID EFFORT Singapore Cricket Club and Singapore Japanese Rugby Club to play charity game on Padang, over S$35 000 raised to date SINGAPORE, 4TH APRIL 2011 – On Friday 11th March, Japan’s cataclysmic earthquake set off a chain reaction felt around the world. Immediately after this tragedy struck, leaders between the Singapore Cricket Club (SCC) Rugby Section and Singapore Japanese Rugby Football Club (SJRFC) met to formulate a fund-raising campaign. This Saturday 9th April, these two clubs will take the field in a Charity Rugby Match held at the SCC Padang

[Media Information] S.League clubs to receive additional funding for next five years

(Media Information from the Football Association of Singapore ) Singapore, 4 April 2011: The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) is pleased to announce that the 12 S.League clubs participating in the 2011 Great Eastern-YEO’s S.League will be receiving additional funding support over the next five seasons. Each local S.League club received cash and KPI-based subsidies of up to $549,000 last year. As a result of the increase in funding, clubs could potentially receive 40 per cent more in cash subsidies and up to 100 per cent increment in KPIs-based subsidies. FAS President Zainudin Nordin said: “The increase in funding is to assist clubs to strengthen their financial position, raise the clubs' management capabilities, attract more quality players, intensify their community engagement and enhance clubs' youth development programmes. “Ultimately, the additional funding should lead to more competitive teams in the league and better match day experience and entertainment value fo

S.League's "Pray For Japan" with Hidetoshi Nakata

Fans came early to queue for the tickets With her group of five being first in the queue (pictured above), a Japanese expatriate who gave her name as "A I" told this blogger they had been there since 5.30am outside the ticketing booth of the Jalan Besar Stadium. "Because we want to show our support to our fellow countrymen devastated by the recent earthquake back home in Japan." said the bespectacled lady who and her friends decided to make the trip in the early hours after they failed to secure tickets at another sale outlet located at Albirex Niigata (Singapore) office the previous day. According to an Albirex official, their ticket allocation was sold out within one and a half hours after the sale commenced. 6,000 fans turned up for good cause at JBS With the pulling power of Japanese football legends such as Hidetoshi Nakata, Masaaki Sawanobori and Masakiyo Maezono is no doubt that a charity match like this would be a hot seller. SELL-OUT CROWDS WITNESSED

"Are we MUTE?" (in the first place)

Over the last weekend, I posted two youtube clips (below) of those visiting Malaysians who travelled across to the Causeway to catch the "Harimau" in action against defending S.League champions Etoile FC in a friendly match with proceed being channelled to the Japan quake relief effort. Visiting Malaysian fans singing (part 1) Visiting Malaysian fans singing (part 2) These visiting fans announced their unexpected arrival at the stadium amid the match between Courts Young Lions and Albirex Niigata (S) with their chanting, singing and drumming that took everyone inside the ground by surprise. "I thought it was some stadiums in Malaysia. I tell you, they never stopped singing. Really hard core. Only stopped when the teams heads for a break." said Neo Chee Seong , who was one of those surprised at the stadium for the double-header, feedback on the thread where I posted the footage . One of the members of the blog Facebook Group , Ahmad Ridhuan, detailed some backgrou