BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

Seems to me the news of the league authority having talks with another Japanese club, Cerezo Osaka "some time back" triggered another round of exchanges of thoughts on the tweet timeline. Not much concern about whether the league is ready to welcome another new team into it, nor the fate of Albirex Niigata (Singapore), who are in the scene since 2004, are considering a pull-out if the Osaka club is to be given entry to the league. It's more on how those discussions sprung out of this that led us back to the vicious cycle that most of us are so familiar with. Sorry, but have the "SuperGals" ignited the passion? (credit: FAS) Vicious Cycle  Talks vary from whether is the league ready to take another foreign club at the expense of those local ones to reminiscing the "good ol' days" from whenever it was, from the issues of how the league authority's attempts to bring back to crowds with some futile initiatives to the lack of media exposure

The beauty of the Cup competition lives on in the RHB Singapore Cup as the "Final Four" - Etoile FC, Home United, Albirex Niigata (Singapore), and Hougang United fought till the very end to see the emerging of the Protectors and the White Swans for the 19th November date at JBS. Fred Mendy (pictured above right) scored against his old team to send HUFC to the final Both first-leg fixtures of the "Final Four" saw both the Stars and White Swans agonizingly forgo their lead in the dying moments of those matches to see their respective opponents - Home United and Hougang United crawl back to level terms to square off the encounter. At one point, such a fightback was thought impossible, until the dying moments of the match highlighted the differences between a knockout cup tie and a round-robin fixture. Mendy propelled HU at expense of old bosses Yet, it wasn't really a nail-bitter when both Etoile and Home Utd met for their recurring fixture at Queenstown Stad

Not that long ago, I came across one post from an online forum. The posting on the online forum detailed a fan's frustration over the state of the game in this country, with one of her grouses targetted the presence of the feeder squads of both Albirex Niigata and Beijing Guoan, which she felt had deprived some local talents of playing at the top level. Beijing Guoan Talents - one of many "one-season wonders" She argued that players from both teams are merely using S.League as a "training ground" and added if "If FAS thinks Beijing Guoan (pictured above) can attract a packed house every week, they must be dreaming." following the major reshuffling of players in the Chinese-based squad during the transfer window. Albirex Niigata (Singapore) players "Feeder teams are bad news, as demonstrated by Albirex (pictured below). When a player performs well, he will be recalled to the parent team and they will send a lousy player to replace (him

SHORT SCRIBE OF THE GAME Just back from Hougang Stadium and saw Sengkang Punggol crushed out of the Singapore Cup by Albirex Niigata (S). 1-0 was the scoreline and Ryuta Hayashi scored the only goal in the 50th minute and Shahir Hamzah, again, was sent off by referee Sukhbir Singh in the 81st minute. While Sengkang thought they had levelled the game later through a Duncan Elias's spot-kick but only to be ordered to be re-taken due to some infringement, the second time was proved to be disastrous with the penalty being saved by 'keeper Koto Kobayashi. SOME PICTURES FROM THE GAME (Picture above) Nor Azli Yusoff (3) shown the skipper courage to foil an early Albirex's attack. Sengkang's defender Sim Li Ming raised his leg in an aerial duel with Takaya Sugasawa. Things would have turned out differently if Mamadou Diallo had this attempt gone through the posts and not hit one of them. Canadian striker Ryan Fante's spectacular leap in the air, but the finishing

(P.S: The Chinese text in the title says - "Beijing Guoan confirmed as the 12th team of S.League" ) The logo of Beijing Guoan FC (picture credit:  Logowik  **) The dust had settled as it was declared CSL club Beijing Guoan will join Etoile FC as the debutantes for Season 2010, which is scheduled to kick off on 1st February.  The announcement of the decision is much to the dismay of many fans who are clamouring for more local flavours in Singapore's only professional league (i.e.: praying for the returning of the likes of Sembawang Rangers, Jurong FC, etc.) Unfortunately, the league authority stood by their  “foreign team will bring in flavour and lift the playing standard (although, it wasn't the case all the time except for Albirex's first season and Super Reds' 2008 season)” theory with the last slot being given to the team hailed from the Chinese capital.  I am aware that the news is not well-received by the fans, but the decision is FINAL and time should