BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

(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) AFC Cup Home Utd 1-1 Persipura Jayapura 11/3/14 Eye on the ball on a hazy night This was the first time I wore a mask to shoot the match, as it was so hazy and choking that evening. Much better display from a S.League side with Home United drew 1-1 with Persipura Jayapura in this fixture, but the Protectors paid the heavy price for having a thin squad for this campaign and made things look very difficult for them at this stage. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES Paul Scholes at Court Megastore Paul was looking at me ... Manchester United legend Paul Scholes was at Court Megastore on the invitation by the IT and furniture retailing giants. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE PICTURES S.League - Home Utd 2-2 Hougang

Balestier Khalsa claimed all three points in the newly-christened “Pinball Derby” with a 3-1 rout over Hougang United at the Toa Payoh Stadium. Following the result, the visiting Cheetahs saw themselves engulfed further deep at near bottom of the standings on eleventh position, while the hosting Tigers boasted their positioning that propelled them to fourth after 19 matches played. Unlike the intensity shown in the previous Cup match played on the same ground between the two sides weeks ago, it was a tepid affair with limited sparks in this league fixture that saw misguided exchanges and wasted opportunities dominated much of the proceedings. Therefore, whoever took their chances well would see them gain the much-needed advantage over the other party, which in this case explained why Balestier adhered to that principle and walked away with the victory. Latched on a long punt from 'keeper Zaiful Nizam, national striker Qiu Li took his chance well to lob in a volley from

The match in progress at Hougang Stadium For the past week, I was not able to attend any games due to my shift work and thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to go down to Hougang Stadium for a match after my work in Bishan area. After all, it would be an interesting outing to see the two teams that were in action this evening would able to bounce back from a series of setbacks facing them the past few days with the hosting Hougang United taking on the visiting Balestier Khalsa on a relatively pleasant Tuesday night (so long the Lightning Warning System is not being called into action). The hosting Cheetahs did some reshuffling in their coaching setup that saw their Prime League coach Johana Johari care-taking the head coaching position from Alex Weaver just days ago after the expectations fallen short from the 2011 League Cup runners-up since the start of the season. While the Tigers suffered from a 4-0 mauling last week in the hands of their neighbours from across Braddell

(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) Prime League: Woodlands Wellington 1-2 Home Utd 09-03-13 "Ooops" I would say the white outfit by Woodlands did make the shooting and focusing easier for my basic lenses in the dim floodlights. The dark background during the night time also help in getting the focusing fast, if both sides are to deck in light-colored jersey and of course the lighting environment is the key as well The result of this match came days after the sides' senior squads clashed days ago at Bishan Stadium. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES AFC Cup - Warriors FC 2-4 Kitchee SC 12/3/2013 The horrendous performance by Warriors FC was absolutely unacceptable for a side that once broke the ceilings to play in the elite ACL. Some soul sear

GOAL! as Ismael Benahmed scored the winner Tanjong Pagar United reaffirmed its claim as the "surprise package" of the season with their comeback victory against Hougang United after the "Battle of Cats" saw the Queenstown outfit defeated their counterparts 3-2 at the Jalan Besar Stadium. Prior to this live televised match, the designated "visitors" were on a two-game win-less streak (losing to Home United three-nil after a scoreless affair against Harimau Muda) that somehow cast a doubt on whether they were hitting bad patches following a thumping 6-1 win over traditional powerhouses - Warriors FC in late February. To add salt to the wounds, the Jaguars had to deal with the Cheetahs onslaught with a makeshift center defence line with the absence of both skipper Hafiz Osman and Anthony Aymard and inevitably saw them conceded the first goal of the game in the 13th minute with a Robert Eziakor's header. Jaguars were struggled to contain Liam S

(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) S.League Match - Hougang Utd 2-1 Etoile FC (4/9/11) My setting at Hougang Stadium - 1/250, f5.6 (default), ISO3200 set another low in my S.League foto shoot -_- Hougang Utd upstaged defending champions Etoile FC 2-1 at the Hougang Stadium. In this rescheduled fixture, the Cheetahs took the lead through Vitor Borges in the first half before Selim Kaabi leveled in the half. However, a well taken strike by Azhar Sairudin ended all hopes for the French as the hosts secured all three points. The gallant display by the Cheetahs at home had prompted blogger Liga Singapura to laud their recent form in this entry of his. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES. World Cup Qualifiers - Singapore vs Iraq (5-6/9/11) The fact must be the Iraqi p

Wasn't able to attend any of the Singapore Cup matches over the few days until today due to work commitments and ultimately saw the lack of update of the blog until this. As the result of the concluding matches played over the past few days saw the emerging of the "FINAL FOUR" for one of the holy grails in Singapore football. ALBIREX NIIGATA (SINGAPORE) The reigning League Cup winners are the on the course of gunning their second title of the season after eliminated SAFFC on penalties after a 2-2 draw on aggregate at the Jalan Besar Stadium. (Picture above) Koichi Sugiyama is the most successful coach to date of the White Swans since they joined the league in 2004 HOME UNITED I was actually at the "next door" when the second leg of the Home United-Tampines Rovers quarter-finals took place at the Bishan Stadium. Unfortunately, I was not able to have a clear view from where I was and had to depend on the "tweets" updating to keep my abrea

As I was filing my match report for the earlier 3rd-4th placing match between Home United and Tampines Rovers that I wasn't paying much attention during the League Cup final match between Hougang United and Albirex Niigata (Singapore). But what I did realize was Canadian winger Jordan Webb was the man of the night for the wrong reason when he came so close to end the trophy drought of the under-achievers in the dying moments of the second half of the extra time, before agonizingly saw his spot-kick saved by White Swans' keeper Yoshito Matsushita that gifted the Japanese their first ever title since joining S.League in 2003. According to one of the tweets I gathered Webb was inconsolable that he was not present at the prize presentation.  At the post match press conference, the Cheetah coach Aide Iskandar (pictured above) credited his boys' performance as "well-disciplined" which he hopes to carry forward to their remaining campaign. "Both teams starte

(Media Information from the Football Association of Singapore ) The home ground of Hougang United - Hougang Stadium SINGAPORE, 24 June 2011: Mr Winston Lee, Chief Executive Officer of S.League said: “FAS has noted the contents of the complaint letter which we received earlier this morning and we believe that it is identical to the version sent out to the press yesterday. “FAS takes a serious view of the contents of the letter and will conduct a thorough investigation into the remarks and allegations that have been brought up by Mr. Bill Ng Chairman of Hougang United FC. “As of today, FAS has not received an official appeal against the decision and punishment that was imposed by the Disciplinary Committee on Tuesday, 21 June 2011. “The media will be kept abreast of any further development.” CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION OF SINGAPORE 24 JUN 2011

(Media Information from the Football Association of Singapore ) FAS Disciplinary Committee to convene on Thursday, 16 June 2011 SINGAPORE, 06 JUNE 2011: The FAS Disciplinary Committee will adjourn to Thursday, 16 June 2011 at 7.00pm (Jalan Besar Stadium conference room) with regards to the incident at the Great Eastern – YEO’S S.League match between Hougang United and Etoile FC at the Hougang Stadium on 23 May 2011. Further information will be given out tomorrow, Tuesday 7th June 2011. CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION OF SINGAPORE 06 JUN 2011 DC Hearing to convene on 16 June 2011, RHB matches to go ahead SINGAPORE, 07 JUNE 2011: The FAS Disciplinary Committee will adjourn to Thursday, 16 June 2011 at 7.00pm (Jalan Besar Stadium conference room) with regards to the incident at the Great Eastern – YEO’S S.League match between Hougang United and Etoile FC at the Hougang Stadium on 23 May 2011. Please also be informed that following the Disciplinary

The 3-0 scoreline of this friendly fixture played on the field at the Meridian Junior College in Pasir Ris shouldn't be raised too much a concern for both visiting Sabah FA (in white jersey) and newly-named Hougang United (in red-black striped outfit). After all, both teams are in the midst of their preparation for their upcoming season, but the only difference is the Malaysians are already several levels ahead of their Singapore counterparts in getting themselves ready. "We started our training session on 1st November and we had undergone some solid training for the past six to seven weeks." said the SabaHawks' Australian coach Gary Phillips after the match. "And I'm pleased with my team performance and would be glad if we can continue to play like this. "But it's still early days ahead with some fine-tuning to be going as this team will be facing a tougher challenge against big teams like Selangor, Kelantan."added the coach who guided the Nort

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

I think I'm more or less determined to get a DSLR camera after my patient is running thin with my Fuji S2000 . Because the S2000 is not a DSLR camera, there are so many limitations that it had become a frustrating chore to use it during my photo-taking at matches. But before that, I need to have a "try-out" before I decided to opt for which model (likely to be "C"). One of the key settings I learnt when taking action photos is the "white-balance", also it would preferably to be in "manual" mode instead of the "programmed" mode I used with the S2000. And once in manual mode of the "C" brand, the settings will be fixed and there'll be no altering (unless the "mood-swing" of the S2000). I should not dwell on too much of these photography technicalities, as it'll take ages to explain, instead, let's enjoy some of the shots I taken just now at the Jalan Besar Stadium, where Home United beat Sengkang Punggo