BoLASEPaKO.COM - A Blog on Singapore Football

Over the last weekend, I posted two youtube clips (below) of those visiting Malaysians who travelled across to the Causeway to catch the "Harimau" in action against defending S.League champions Etoile FC in a friendly match with proceed being channelled to the Japan quake relief effort. Visiting Malaysian fans singing (part 1) Visiting Malaysian fans singing (part 2) These visiting fans announced their unexpected arrival at the stadium amid the match between Courts Young Lions and Albirex Niigata (S) with their chanting, singing and drumming that took everyone inside the ground by surprise. "I thought it was some stadiums in Malaysia. I tell you, they never stopped singing. Really hard core. Only stopped when the teams heads for a break." said Neo Chee Seong , who was one of those surprised at the stadium for the double-header, feedback on the thread where I posted the footage . One of the members of the blog Facebook Group , Ahmad Ridhuan, detailed some backgrou...

Getting ready before the recording with host, Yi Qian (pictured above middle) It never came to my mind that I would appear in front of camera screen, let alone being part of the discussion panel group to talk about the recent disbanding of the Lions. But there I was with my fellow blogger Arief , "Super Fan" Daniel Lau and Han Keong, the sports editor of "mypaper" at the "Razor TV" studio for the recording on Wednesday evening. (Pictured above L-R) The rookie panelists - Daniel, Arief and myself Being someone slow in react when being prompted a question, the host, Yi Qian, gladly acceded to my request to the last person to voice my opinion after the rest did theirs. I'm relieved that everything went smoothly, as Yi Qian told us to be as if we were having a chit-chatting session and complimented us with our efforts. I am glad to have this opportunity to voice my opinion on the recent saga on a platform like this of an interactive medi...

All matches are play at THE CAGE. Asia Now Junior Indoor Soccer League - The league being first of its kind in Singapore featured a total of 36 teams of various age-group from six to eleven, with games play on alternate Sunday mornings of every month at "The Cage". "What we want to do is to instill the idea of fair play to these kids, therefore the winning team is not decided by the number of goals scored but based on point system of the 'green card' and 'blue card' system we devised." said Mr Jamaludeen Kunjun, the Technical Director of Singapore Soccer Academy (SSA) - the tournament organizers, , on the idea behind this youth indoor Sunday tournament . The "shaking hands" ceremony at the end of the match, is one of the values the tournament wants to promote. The “card” system which Mr Kunjun explained that to qualify for a "green" card, every players must completed the given specific task when they play, and these ar...

Good thing was that the flood that devastated the island shopping belt did no damage to the *SCAPE , the venue of the Nike Cup Singapore Tournament (pictured above). Under the blazing sun, 120 teams from the "Central Zone" of Singapore comprised of sides of both "Junior" (between the age of 14 to 16) and "Senior" (17 to 19) categories were vie for a spot to among the top 50 teams (25 each from each category) to represent this zone to complete in the Grand Final after the tournament completed its “around-the-island” tour. According to organizers, this tournament will be played in other “zones” (i.e.: East, West,North Zones), following the completion of the “Central Zone”. On top of the Nike trophy and products, the winning team of the “Senior” category of this tournament will get a chance to head to Brazil on an all-expenses paid trip to train in Granja Comary where the Brazilian national teams conduct their training sessions. While the winning team...

(The content of this entry is obtained via the transcript provided by Integrated Marketing Solutions Group [IMSG] - the PR agency for Nike Singapore ) (P.S: The copyrights of the images and videoclip depicted in this blog entry belong to Nike.) Launched at the newly introduced Nike Players Lounge in Nike Wisma, the tournament celebrates the global diversity of football and inspires local youths to Write Their Future The theme of the tournament - "Write The Future" SINGAPORE (21 May, 2010) – In an effort to celebrate the global diversity of football this summer, Nike Singapore launched the Nike Cup Singapore 2010 to inspire youths to compete and be crowned city champions. Calling upon aspiring athletes aged 14 to 19 years old, Nike Cup Singapore is a fast paced five-on-five football tournament set against the urban backdrop of the Lion City, which will see more than 3,000 young footballers battle it out for a chance to experience a 5-day, all-expense paid football training ex...

(The content of this entry is obtained via the transcript provided by Integrated Marketing Solutions Group [IMSG] - the PR agency for Nike Singapore ) (P.S: The copyrights of the videos depicted in this blog entry belong to Nike.) Supercharged boots designed to give footballers an edge and engineered for enhanced on-field visibility The Nike "Elite Series" football boots BEAVERTON, Ore. (May 3, 2010) – NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) today unveiled its supercharged Nike Elite Series football boots providing new levels of performance. Nike’s Mercurial Vapor SuperFly II, CTR360 Maestri, Total90 Laser III and Tiempo Legend III all feature new performance upper to improve on-field visibility and a reengineered outsole to deliver lightweight performance for every style of player. Nike designers have reduced the weight of each boot so players can perform at their best. Lightweight construction, intricate engineering, carbon-enforced strength and high contrast colors distinguish the boots....

(The content of this entry is obtained via the transcript provided by Integrated Marketing Solutions Group [IMSG] - the PR agency for Nike Singapore ) (P.S: The copyrights of the videos depicted in this blog entry belong to Nike.) The following videos showcase two of the latest Nike products which were recently featured on this blog. Launch of environmentally-friendly Nike World Cup National Team Kits (feature write-up of this product on this blog, please click here .) The clip included interviews with players, Nike officials who share with us the how this revolutionized product could help to save the earth. Cristiano Ronaldo interview during launch of Mercurial Vapor Superfly II (feature write-up of this product on this blog, please click here .) Portugal and Real Madrid was featured in this clip when he was in London to unveil "Mercurial Vapor Superfly II" with insights from Nike officials on the how the boots were being developed. Brazil National Team talks about their s...

PICTURE REMOVED DUE TO EMBARRASSMENT CAUSED TO PORTRAYED PARTY A "close-up" of this "Uncle" who is a regular at most games, renown for his ranting So this is the another "Uncle", other than that "Uncle Party-popper", whom I had been tracking down who he is, ever since I last filmed him at Toa Payoh Stadium many years back... CLIP REMOVED ON OWN INITIATIVE A passionate fan...indeed (minus those "colorful" languages, though) MY APOLOGY It is never the intention of this entry to cause any embarrassment to any individual, but as a reader ("Anonymous" who posted on 16th Oct 2009 at 11:13AM) pointed out this posting is an act of "degrading the fans who are just enjoying themselves" . Heeding that as an advice, I hereby would like to extend my sincere apology to any individual for any cause of disturbance and embarrassment derived from this entry and removed the picture and video clip from the entry at my own initiative. Al...

Shortly after the match at Woodlands Stadium, both coaches gave their brief assessment of the match. (P.S: Sincerely apologize for the fact of the poor audio as it's been a long time I'm using my "Ranger"DV camera) Balestier coach Nasaruddin Jalil shared his thoughts Woodlands coach Nenad Bacina shared his thoughts

Cup games are always something different as it's a no-hold barred contest between the two team that whoever lose - OUT YOU GO!! simple as that. The match between Geylang United and Brunei DPMM was my first League Cup match having just returned from my Down Under trip. This was deemed "NO-GOAL" Was late for the game as it was last minute decision to be at the ground for this match, so I missed the first goal of the night. But sheer aggressiveness shown by both teams gave the fans barrowload of goals to cheer about and end-to-end action of this game had also ensured this season's League Cup not being a dull affairs (as I was told). The was the "freeze" moment before the ball went in "There are some individual errors that we have to look at it, specific players have to ask themselves why as we cannot carry on like that to the next league (game) and the Singapore Cup but I'm proud the way they played." said Geylang's coach Mike Wong after the g...

Got this video from my Brazilian friend, Mr Renato Andreão. It's about the Brazilian players earning their living in the S.League, namely Peres De Oliveira of Home United, Ednardo Moura and Ithamar Rangel of Balestier Khalsa. In Portuguese though, wish I can understand what they were talking about but thanks to the graphics more or less can guess what was all about.

Teams lining up before the start PREVIEW We are heading towards the last home match of SAFFC's ACL campaign this coming Tuesday (5th of May) at the Jalan Besar Stadium.  It has not been a smooth ride for the defending S.League champions since their 5-0 defeat away to Kashima Antlers in the same tournament.  To add salt to the wounds, two successive losses to DPMM in Brunei last Sunday and Geylang United on Labour Day saw the Warriors being knocked off from the top of the league standings and out of the RHB Singapore Cup respectively.  Indeed, this is something very rare for a team like SAFFC to go through this kind of ordeal.  The ACL has been an eye-opener for the club (if not the whole local football fraternity), as they are being exposed to the harsh reality of a higher-pace and more dynamic style of football.  But with the Cup already out of their grasp, the Warriors need to know they need to recover fast mentally to remain in their hunt to defend their ...

PREVIEW Kashima's Brazilian coach Oswaldo de Oliveira , at the pre-match press conference, also feared the artificial surface at Jalan Besar might affected the performance of his team. Although weather wise in 'keeper Hitoshi Sogahata's words (in sleague.com ) "It is humid but we are pretty acclimatized after training this morning. We are confident of performing once we are used to the weather" . BEFORE THE START OF THE MATCH Using "Twitter" partially for this update. A group of Japanese media already at work when I reached the ground. The giant banners unfurled by the visiting Japanese. Zico - the Brazilian legend still revered among Kashima's fans. These fans flew in from Japan for three days to catch their heroes in action. FIRST HALF SHORT TAKE Not doubt it was a case of mis-match as the gulf between the two teams shown right from the start of the game. The visiting Kashima Antlers true to what they promised, and shown no mercy to their Singapore...