BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

SGPL - Albirex Niigata (Singapore) 1-2 Tanjong Pagar United 060821 Jags' GK Zharfan Rohaizad fisted away the danger Bounced from last week's defeat in the hands of Geylang International on the same venue, Tanjong Pagar United scored the biggest upset since their returning to the top-flight by beating defending AIA Singapore Premier League champions Albirex Niigata (Singapore) 2-1 last evening (6/8) at the Jurong East Stadium. Against the run of play, former White Swans star Reo Nishiguchi put the Jaguars ahead in the 33rd minute before it was cancelled out by Shuya Yamashita's header in the 81st minute. But Luiz Junior's audacious lob in the 84th minute confirmed their co-tenant's first defeat of the year. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES SGPL - Albirex Niigata (S) 4-1 Hougang United 130821 Ryosuke Nagasawa (middle) shielded the ball away from Cheetahs' Shahfiq Ghani  Right after last night's (13/8) AIA Singapore Premier League fixtur

Good day to all, Two unfortunate incidents took place over the last weekend in the AIA Singapore Premier League. First was that infamous post-match interview by the league broadcaster with Hougang United's coach Clement Teo after his side lost 4-1 to Albirex Niigata (Singapore) which was widely discussed and the other would be the 4-2 defeat of Balestier Khalsa in the hands (again) to the Young Lions. I only saw the highlights of the BK-YL match and was left flabbergasted by the first goal conceded by Balestier Khalsa's keeper Zach Leong. I may sounded picking on this reserve Tigers' custodian but such a horrendous slip-up and poor decision-making is making a mockery out of the whole setup and should never allow happening even in a schoolboys' game. "People paid admission charge to watch a game of football and not a comedy like those defensive slip-ups that schoolboys be ashamed of, let alone being a top-tier game," I replied to my posting after shared the h

Friendly - Geylang International 2-3 Hougang United 090621 Geylang's Moresche (left) and Hougang's Lionel Tan The Cheetahs walked away with a 3-2 over the Eagles in this friendly fixture at Our Tampines Hub. Geylang took the two-nil lead through Brazilian striker Moresche and Asshukrie Wahid before Gilberto Fortunato reduced the deficit from a spot-kick before interval to make it 2-1. Shahril Ishak and AIA Singapore Premier League leading scorer Tomoyuki Doi added one each after the break to make it 3-2 to seal the game for Hougang. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES Friendly - LCS 3-0 Geylang International 160721 Eye for the corner in this LCS-Geylang friendly at JBS Diego Lopes' second half hat-trick was deemed enough to help Lion City Sailors to beat Geylang International 3-0 at the Jalan Besar Stadium. This friendly fixture was the final match for both sides before the resuming of their AIA Singapore Premier League. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE RE

 Friendly - Geylang International 2-1 Balestier Khalsa 060321 Balestier's 'keeper Zaiful Nizam stretched to his limit Like the players too, those on the sidelines must also have their preparation for the new season. One of the challenges taking pictures at places like OTH is the unpredictable shades that cover the field during a game. Therefore, playing around with the settings is part of the acclimatising too. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES SGPL - Balestier Khalsa 1-2 Tampines Rovers 170321 Balestier's Shuhei Hoshino (red) tussling with Tampines' Baihakki Khaizan The AIA Singapore Premier League match between Balestier Khalsa Football Club and Tampines Rovers Football Club started on time on a greasy field due to the heavy rain prior the game. Stags' Taufik Suparno opened the account in 56th minute before Amer Hakeem levelled for the Tigers in 67th minute but the hosts' joy was temporary when Boris Kopitovic placed Stags back on the po

I did a number of IG Story polls not that long ago to gauge the sentiment among the local football supporters by starting off with this question - Would you buy any official local football merchandise? It was an overwhelming 92% said "YES" that they are willing to fork out from their wallets to pay for any official merchandise offered by the local clubs. This is the outcome of the first poll of the series  REPLICA JERSEY - THE MOST DESIRABLE MERCHANDISE Another poll was followed up to ask which type of official merchandise is the most desirable item from a list that comprised (1) "Official replica jersey", (2) "T-Shirt (with club logo, mascot, players), (3) "Caps, scarves, mini flags" and (4) "Pins, Badges, Keychain, Cup, Mugs" Apparently, replica team jersey is the most desirable merchandise should any fan decide to buy one product from our local clubs. Later on, I posted a pragmatic question - how much you are willing to pay for one offici

It's regrettable that recently on two separate occasions some prominent local social media icons used the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak as a theme of their humour to mock at the expense of local football. Subsequently, the postings from these social media icons had removed following feedback from local football supporters who registered their opinions on them. The first thing that came to my mind was how much do these social media icons know about local football to use it as a subject to poke fun with? FIRST POSTING Apparently, one appeared to be zilch when the name "S League" was used in the posting using an old picture from an S.League match courtesy of one local news outlet. If the aforementioned posting was referring to the local professional football league, the person may not be aware that the league had rebranded and inaugurated as "Singapore Premier League" (SGPL) in 2018 by President Halimah Yacob at the National Stadium (two seasons already).

I was wondering if the turmoil at Warriors Football Club did not surface, would the attention be dominated by the injury-time appearance of that Fulham FC youngster by the name of Ben Davis in the Carabao Cup or the "Goal 2034" topic? A poll was conducted to ask which was the talking poll on Facebook The Thai-born Davis caused quite a stir a few months ago for defaulting his National Service (NS) obligations in his pursuit of a professional football career in England. Whereas the troubles at one of the most successful clubs in Singapore football history saw the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) take an unprecedented step to direct Warriors FC to remove Paul Poh from his role as the club's general manager and honorary secretary following several lapses of discrepancies. While the two incidents may not be linked directly, it is not hard to realize the coincidence of having the military background in both occurrences. MILITARY BACKGROUND For

I thought one of the good initiatives of the rebranded Singapore Premier League (SGPL) is to allow fans to buy their match tickets online, which is a laudable move as it is a practice in tandem with many other sporting events held in Singapore. However, I wish to highlight matters pertaining to those tickets, which are now printed on better quality material, bought on match days at the game venues. After a few rounds of matches, it is regrettable tickets purchased over the counter not longer detailed those match information except these words, as shown in the picture below. The "22/7/18" match saw Albirex Niigata (S) clinched the SGPL title No one seems to be able to give an answer when I asked causally why the changes were made. As one may never know these ticket stubs, which were usually discarded by many after games, may be an important testament to something significant that happened during that particular match. I, myself, still have those match ticket stu

Am I glad the season is over! It must be one of the most dreadful seasons since my involvement when I breathed a sigh of relief after Albirex Niigata (Singapore) was finally awarded the trophy  that accoladed them as the inaugural champions of the revamped professional league aka Great Eastern-Hyundai Singapore Premier League (SGPL), despite the confirmation months earlier after their draw against Balestier Khalsa at Toa Payoh to close the 2018 season. Albirex Niigata (Singapore) established a dynasty in local football In an attempt to distance itself from the S.League which was associated with much of the flaws of the old regime, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) announced the rebranding of the Republic's only professional sporting league as SGPL in a glittering setting at the Singapore Sports Hub (SSH) amid much skepticism from the ground . SUPERFICIAL CHANGES? Perhaps the only difference between the SGPL and the S.League is the change in the name and the

Shahril Ishak roams into the box One snap (above) of Home United's Shahril Ishak like this in their recent Great Eastern Hyundai Singapore Premier League (SGPL) game against Hougang United should raise a concern about our chance in this year's AFF Suzuki Cup and the panic button should be pressed by now. WHY? First of all, take a look at this picture and what did you see? We have a free-roaming Shahril with his eyes on the ball making his way into the box in this attacking move. Any sane mind would be asking how could a veteran striker like him be given such a luxury of space by a backline? That was probably why Hougang's caretaker coach Clement Teo, seen in the background of this snap, gestured either to his back line to "watch out for Shahril!" or asked, " why no one is marking Shahril?" Eventually, both Justin Hui and Adam Mitter (who was released during the recent transfer window) arrived in time to keep the ex-JDT II skipper at bay.

Barely into the second round of the Great Eastern-Hyundai Singapore Premier League (SGPL) had Balestier Khalsa coach Marko Kraljevic ate his words. Speaking to The New Paper (TNP) after his side's five-nil defeat to defending champions Albirex Niigata (Singapore) on the 27th of May, the Croatian coach declared: "Albirex are looking like champions. There's no way to chase them, they're too good this year." Albirex is simply the best so far in SGPL. This marked a stark contrast to his earlier remarks in April when he claimed the Yuhua-based side "are definitely not as strong as last year", a sentiment seemingly echoed by his Home United counterpart Aidil Sharin, as suggested in a separate article that appeared on The Straits Times. Ironically, the Protectors were crushed 6-1 by the White Swans at their Bishan backyard on the very same day when the said broadsheet carried those thoughts with Adam Swandi scoring the final goal in the dying minut

"Thanks for coming." said one of the staffers whom I met at the end of a press conference I attended some times ago. While it is always a pleasantry to receive such a greeting but for that particular time, I found it awkward or rather uneasy to receive such acknowledgment. Usually, the press conference of that nature would see a decent turnout from the media to cover the event, whereas it was not the case when I was there and I could easily count the number of those reporters who were there. To make things more intriguing was the absence of representation from several notable players of the field to cover the announcement which they usually would. If this is going to be the typical scene in the subsequent weeks to come, it should be something of a concern to local football officials for such a lukewarm response from the media, especially of those from the big players. MEDIA RESTRUCTURING The recent restructuring of both MediaCorp (source: 1 , 2 ) and Si