BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

Singapore's coach Bernd Stange Speaking ahead of their AFF Suzuki Cup opener against Thailand tomorrow at the National Stadium, Singapore National Coach Bernd Stange maintained his usual confidence at the joint pre-match press conference at M Hotel. "I believe we are well prepared to show that we are the top team since we are hosting the tournament," said the German coach. "With expecting crowds of thirty, forty thousands behind us, this is always an advantage to any home team because they added pressure to the away team and motivate the (home) players to do well just like anywhere in the world." Only Thailand (far right) was not represented by their head coach Despite last minute changes that saw the Lions not able to conduct their final training at the pristine Kallang surface prior to the opener, the former Belarus national coach is least worried for the lack of familiarization. Explained Coach Stange:"This is not the first time the play

Coach Stange (right) has a difficult time (file) So, we are facing the hard truth that after having a professional football league for close to almost twenty years, we are nowhere near to calling ourselves a PROFESSIONAL league that contributes $200 million to the local economy . In national coach Bernd Stange's eyes, some of the local players are merely "semi-professionals" and "even close to amateur" with more training needs to be done to close the gap. This was remarked by Coach Stange in an article that appeared in an online portal after the recent friendly against Juventus in which he led the Singapore Selection against the Italian giants. Al-Qaasimy in action against Juventus (file) Said the German coach in that Yahoo Sports article :  “If you’re 19, 20 or 21 years old and you’re semi-professional for a long time, like Al-Qaasimy [Rahman], who [just] came back from NS now, my expectation [ for players] should be limited,” “Now they are fre

(This entry is formulated based on the press releases issued by various sources related to the 16th August 2014's Singapore Selection-Juventus match with images duly credited) Carlos Tevez is coming (© LaPresse) As we are entering the month of August, we are witnessing a new chapter in the Singapore football history where the new National Stadium, the cornerstone of the Singapore Sports Hub, is due to see its very first football match to be taking place when Italian powerhouses Juventus FC, the defending Serie A champions are due to take on the Singapore Selection on 18th of August. With a star-studded lineup that boasted a sizable number of players who starred recently in the World Cup for their respective countries, the likes of established stars such as Carlos Tevez with new signing Patrice Evra will be part of the 28-man I Bianconeri squad led by new manager Massimiliano Allegri in their Asia-Pacific Tour with games in Jakarta and Sydney ahead of the Singapore showdow

Stuck in South East Asia? "...However, there remains much hard work ahead and we will continue to strive towards our goals, work on other areas in which we are lacking, and bring Singapore football to the next level." said FAS President Mr Zainudin Nordin in a media statement , that lauded the achievements by the team and various individuals from victorious Suzuki Cup winning side in the inaugural AFF Awards 2013. In the ceremony held yesterday in Kuantan, the capital of the Malaysian state of Pahang that saw former Lions' coach Raddy Avramovic and Shahril Ishak clinched the "Coach of the Year (Men's Team)" and "Player of the Year (Men)" awards respectively with the likes of Fahrudin Mustafic and Baihakki Khaizan named alongside with Shahril in the "AFF's First XI". While the crowning glory was to appreciate the efforts shown by the national team in the biennial regional tournament with the bragging rights to be called the “

(This entry is formulated based on the media release issued by CROWD Pte Ltd , the PR agency for Nike Singapore ) (P.S: The copyrights of the images depicted in this blog entry belong to Nike, unless stated on the images itself.) The available 100 sets of the collector's box set were snapped up within the day The highly anticipated 4 STARS LIONS NATIONAL TEAM KIT was finally launched today amid a fanfare held at the Nike's outlet at the Suntec City this afternoon. According to the media release issued, as early as 7am queue was formed outside the store of the sporting giants, who are also the apparel sponsors of the Singapore national team who did the national proud last December by clinching the AFF Suzuki Cup and claimed Asean football supremacy for the unprecedented fourth time. To commemorative this outstanding achievement for the Republic and also due to a huge demand for them, Nike decided to produce the home and away edition of the jersey that featuring

(P.S: If you access this site via "come.to/matchpix", please click the "Facebook" icon after you click "HERE" when you want to view the album as that will redirect you to the album, thank you) Lions' 2012 Suzuki Cup Prep... Coach Raddy (wearing white cap) put the teams to drills I didn't apply for the necessary accreditation (which I eventually did, thanks to those you know who you are) that I thought it will be good for me to turn out for some shots two days before the semis against Philippines and only have it published after we won the game. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE SHOTS 2012 NexLions Cup 16/12/12 Luis Cortez - to be the NEXT one? It was the dark horses in the likes of Sporting Lisbon U 19 emerged as the champions of this inaugural tournament beating Liverpool U19 2-0 in the final with another English side Manchester United U19 clinching third spot with a 2-1 win over gutsy hosts Singapore Youth Selection.

Skipper Shahril Ishak (left) and Hariss Harun hoisted the AFF Suzuki Cup Trophy  I may be wrong, but I can't recall and am not sure if the scenes at the Jalan Besar Stadium earlier were something we have not seen for years. I am not that certain when we were last crowned as ASEAN champions in both 2004 and 2007 and had something like what we saw earlier (I did remember the last victory parade at Orchard Road in 2004 did attract a similar turnout). However, what that is certain is you don't expect this to happen that often in recent years when Singapore football was in the doldrums. A snap of the fans who were there to welcome the Lions at JBS I think that was the first time since my involvement I saw fans and supporters eagerly gathered outside JBS to catch a glimpse of the Lions after the "Victory Parade" to celebrate the Lions' AFF Suzuki Cup triumph. Armed with their autograph books or another thing that can be scribed onto, these fans stretch