BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

(The entry is formulated with a media release issued by the S.League SBU pertaining to the Starhub League Cup on 3rd May 2013) “We are pleased to involve the NFL teams in one of the biggest professional cup competitions in Singapore, as we have always regarded them as a big part of the local football fraternity. This is also a good chance for NFL to experience a professional level of football, which will aid in their long term development. We look forward to another year of quality football in the StarHub League Cup.” Those words were by S.League CEO Lim Chin in a media statement issued by the League authority over the weekend making known the involvement of the lower-tier National Football League (NFL) clubs' in the mid-season Starhub League Cup. SCC - one of 4 NFL clubs that via for League Cup spot (file picture) According to the same statement, it is to be noted that NFL teams competing in the qualifiers are Padang-based Singapore Recreation Club (SRC), its neighbours across

(This entry is formulated based on the press release issued by the S.League SBU, FAS with pictures depicted in it came along with the said release, unless credited) The Draw was held at the FLOAT Seems like the past few editions of the Cup draw had clashed with my work commitments that I couldn't make it to this year's ceremony that was held at the iconic Float @ Marina Bay (pictured left). Nonetheless, this year's RHB Singapore Cup still retains its regional flavours with the continuing inclusion of invitational sides from various neighouring countries with the returning of the Philippines club Loyola Meralco Sparks, who will be joined by fellow UFL side Global FC (debuting this season) together with Indo-Chinese presence in the form of Lao Police FC (from Laos) and Cambodian League champions Boeung Ket Rubber Field. As the result of the revealing of the four mentioned guests participants by Fox Sports Asia before the draw , it means the tournament will not see t

(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) Singapore Cup SF1: Gombak Utd 0-1 SAFFC 6/10/12 "Watch Out!!!" The fear of the relapse of the chronic backache that has been bothering me, which I thought it'll be good for me to be seated when taking the shots. Anyway, much to my surprise that I was able to shoot under the settings of ISO3200, 1/320-400 (pending where the action took place), f5.6 and that it seems the floodlights seems stronger. Kari's penalty was deemed enough for the Warriors to see them through to the Cup final for the first time since 2008. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES Singapore Cup SF2 - LM Sparks 0-3 Tampines Rovers 7/10/2012 LM Sparks star Phil Younghusband "Ah Long" (Noh Alam Shah) made his first start since return

Richard Bok left a legacy behind So it was the perfect farewell gift for departing SAFFC coach, Richard Bok, as the Warriors ended their trophy drought since 2009 with the clinching of the RHB Singapore Cup at the expense of title challengers, Tampines Rovers at the Jalan Besar Stadium with a 2-1 scoreline. The winning of the Cup this evening could be seen by some as the most significant achievement in Bok's coaching career. For the fact that the squad that won tonight is a SAFFC team that is considered the squad Bok tried to build up as his own for bigger stages after the exodus of several stalwarts such as Thai legend Therdsak Chaiman, John Wilkinson, Aleksandar Duric, etc. following their last trophy won - the League title in 2009. SAFFC players tossed coach Bok in the air after the win The following years saw the Warriors gradually revamp the squad with several new signings in an effort to beef up the challenge in its second Asian Champions League (ACL) appearance

Rather than to be on the sidelines with the photogs, I joined the crowds at the stands of the Choa Chu Kang Stadium to watch the match between Singapore and India. The Lions walked away with a 2-0 win with goals from Khairul Amri, who came on as a replacement for Shi Jiayi, in the closing stage of the first half (barely a few touches before he found the net!). SAFFC's Fazrul Nawaz doubled the score minutes after the restart with a close-range effort off a cross from evergreen Aleksandar Duric on the right. It was noted that the 42 year-old striker drifted himself sporadically into a deeper position as a makeshift defensive midfielder or a quarterback in the second half. Therefore, not surprise at all to see the man, whose international score-rate before than Lionel Messi , struggled to stamp his mark in an unfamiliar territory. Fazrul (no.10) scored the second of the night (credit: FAS) When asked if it was pleasing to see Amri and Fazrul scoring instead of relying

Not quite the mini-Manila crowds as what we seen last year , but the vocal support for the "hosts" Loyola Meralco Sparks by the expatriate Filipinos was clearly in evidence at the Jalan Besar Stadium in this second leg fixture of the "Final Four" series between them and Tampines Rovers in the RHB Singapore Cup tournament. Alam Shah (pictured left) started his first game since back The Stags came to this game with a two-goal advantage after beating the UFL side in the first leg days ago at the Clementi Stadium and named striker Noh Alam Shah in the starting line-up (his first start since returning from Indonesia). Pretty close matchup on the plastic surface, which has always been the bane for many foreign sides, yet the Sparks looked pretty composed on it. Although they found it tough to go against the Tampines backline anchored by Fahrudin Mustafic, who virtually repelled everything that was thrown to his direction in the match. "Farra" (thi

It's nice to be back at games and on the sidelines to snap some shots, which was why I thought the setting was right to be at the "Wild Wild West" - Jurong West Stadium for the second leg of the "FINAL FOUR" series between SAFFC and Gombak United. The fear of the relapse of the chronic backache that has been bothering me, which I thought it'll be good for me to be seated when taking the shots. Managed to get shots relevant to the disallowed goals Anyway, not much of action took place from where I was positioned and the both sides had one goal each in each half disallowed by the referee ( don't ask me why, as I always tell people that from a photog's perspective, it's never easy to decipher situations like these ). Iqbal (white jersey no 4) causing panic in the SAFFC's defence I thought the Bulls were pretty unlucky in this match, as they did have their share of possessions when they were attacking towards my end with some good w

(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) Uniform Derby - Singapore Cup 04/07/12 It wasn't easy to snap the shots when the lights were dimmed, as compared to those during the AFC Cup.The uploading of the shots was late, as I was out of town shortly after the game. The 2-1 win by the Warriors eventually laid the ground for their advancement to the semi-finals of the Cup after they drew 3-3 with the Protectors days later at home. (P.S2: This album is the only one for the month of July due to various pre-arranged commitments that made it impossible to have a few more.) PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES

Geylang Field is the alternate base for the Lions I was at Geylang Field this afternoon to catch the national team in their ongoing centralized training session. Normally, the session would be held on the artificial turf of Jalan Besar, but with the main ground being used for a televised event, coach Raddy Avramovic and his assistant, former skipper Aide Iskandar led their charges on this obscured turf concealed in the back alleys of Geylang. Coach Raddy's (back facing, second from right) briefing session Team manager Eugene Loo confirmed with this blogger that during the three friendly matches slated for the coming June, which will see the Lions play against Hong Kong (away - 1st June ) and Malaysia (home - 8th June and away - 12th June ), that FIFA ranking points will be awarded. Opportunity to push up the world ranking aside, what probably matter most is to perform well in the year end's AFF Suzuki Cup ultimately. Said midfield anchorman Isa Halim (pictur

I was not at Bugis Junction this afternoon to witness the draw of the annual RHB Singapore Cup competition, but managed to gather some feedback from the tweets and timeline in between my work. The Hellas wouldn't be coming  With the pulling out of Australia's South Melbourne FC (pictured above) due to its congested fixture back home, their place was taken up by another foreign side in the form of Yotha FC from Laos (which was only made known officially this afternoon). The first time inclusion of a Laotian side into this local premier cup competition meaning a total of 16 teams from EIGHT different countries will be featured in this knock-out tournament scheduled to kick off in May. "Girls!! James is coming back to Singapore!!" Huge expat turnout will be expected when both Loyola Meralco Sparks (featuring the Younghusband brothers - Phil and James) of the Philippines and Burma's KBZ FC (led by former national coach Mr PN Sivaji) when they take on

HUFC's skipper Shi Jiayi hoisted the Cup It was indeed a hard fought triumph for Home United who with the win over Albirex Niigata (Singapore) had claimed the accolade being the most successful Singapore Cup side with their fifth record win. Cautious play from both sides dominated much of the play with Albirex stroking the ball around the park with possessive tactics that failed to shackle the rock solid defence line of Rosman Sulaiman, Kenji Arai and man-of-the-match, Valery Hiek. Valery Hiek (no 13) - rock solid in the Protectors defence However, their counterparts were equally up to the task to contain usually reliable strikeforce spearheaded with Fred Mendy and Sherif El-Masri who were frustrated countless time by the lack of luck during the match. Did the officials spot this "infringement" to deny Mendy first? Just as the thought of having the match to go into extra time loomed over the sky of Tyrwhitt Road, Mendy finally found his header at the back o

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

(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- Balestier Khalsa 0-1 Tampines Rovers (6/8/11) Ahmad Latiff (pictured above in yellow jersey) delivered the sucker punch at the last kick of the game to help Tampines Rovers beat Balestier Khalsa 1-0 at Toa Payoh Stadium. While the Tigers had a Mark McGough's goal disallowed which they claimed the Aussie's effort had crossed the goal line before Lions defender Fahrudin Mustafic cleared for safety in the first half. The win closed the gap to two points between Stags and leaders Home Utd. With the horrendous light condition at Toa Payoh, compromised at 1/320 and ISO6400 is a must when F5.6 is the main theme here. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES   S.League Match - Woodlands Wellington 1-5 Albirex Niigata [S] (

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

With Andy Brouwer of " Kingdom of Football " (many thanks to " LigaSingapura " for the shot taken) It's always nice to meet up with regional football bloggers and especially if they are happen to be here in Singapore like Mr Andy Brouwer, the man behind the blog " Kingdom of Football ". I have follow Andy's blog on Cambodian football for a while and glad to gather some insights on the Khmer football scene via his blog postings. He was here in Singapore in the capacity as the media officer of Cambodian club Phnom Penh Crown, one of the foreign clubs invited to play in the RHB Singapore Cup tournament. Here are some of the Crown's Singapore Cup related postings by Andy PPCFC in Singapore Light exercises  Hands up  On reflection

I guess South Melbourne (in white) must be absolutely frustrated by the passing-holding game deployed by Albirex Niigata (Singapore) in their RHB Singapore Cup encounter at the Jalan Besar Stadium. For a moment, the way the White Swans played was almost identical the way Super Reds made SAFFC looked jaded years ago on the same ground. It was remarked by Warriors coach Richard Bok then that it was tough game despite the how slow the pace of the game was! And not surprisingly with the ball almost exclusively belong to the Japanese, it was only a matter of time before they took the lead in the first half through Shotaro Ihata in the 23rd minute. And it was the way of this strategy that seems to have pushed the Victorians to a dead end with no answer to reply. Which Albirex's coach Koichi Sugiyama said: "It was because we control the midfield of the game that eventually forced South Melbourne to play long ball." "But I must say they (South) are physical toug