BoLASEPaKO.COM - A Blog on Singapore Football

I was wondering if the turmoil at Warriors Football Club hadn't surfaced, would the attention be dominated by the injury-time appearance of that Fulham FC youngster, 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 on 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 realise the coincidence of having a military background in both occurrences. MILITARY BACKGROUND For Davis' ca...

The second goal of the game was scored in the 61st minute Coupled Tampines Rover's loss a day earlier in Vietnam, the 2-0 defeat suffered in the hands of Sumatran club Semen Padang by defending Singapore Cup holders Warriors in the AFC Cup Group E fixture had confirmed the exit of both Singapore clubs from the continental second-tier club tournament. With those results confirmed, it means for the second time in tournament history (Geylang United in 2010) will not see any participating club from the Republic qualified to the second phase of this tournament with Geylang United and Home United being the semi-finalists in the founding year back in 2004. When asked if the result meant Singapore clubs and the rest of the regional clubs are way apart, Warriors coach V Selvaraj felt otherwise. Sufian Anuar mistimed his header for this chance in the first half During the post-match media briefing, the former Singapore striker said: “I felt that our local clubs are good enough ...

Having listened to what Warriors coach V Selvaraj said after his side's 1-0 win over the under-strength Churchill Brothers of India in this do-or-die AFC Cup decider, I was wondering if I was at the same game as he was at Jalan Besar. Yes, the fact was that I tweeted before the game that the ball was at the eighth-time S.League champions' court to see if they are able to salvage their tattered continental campaign, but for those 363 at the ground watching this dead-pan fixture, I wonder if they felt the same I did after the game. Someone said this statement "No matter how good you played, how bad you played, the important thing is you win the game.", and for that I think that theory was well applied to the hosts' victory this evening. And for the first time ever, I appreciated the activation of the Lightning Warning System (LWS) at halftime to allow the cushioning of the impact of that dreadful first-half display from both sides. The Warriors got off to ...

Jordi's (18) goal led the Kitchee's revival It was by no means an easy task for the most decorated S.League club who are enduring their worst start of the campaign in recent years (without a single point at all fronts before this match). Some patchy plays by the Warriors in the first half had the crowds at the ground hardly convinced they were the likely ones to score (which they did) and witnessed Tatsuro Inui's curler from outside gave them the lead in the 23rd minute with Erwan Gunawan followed in later to double the scorelines in the 29th minute. As such, they took a 2-0 lead before the interval against a much-dominant Kitchee SC from Hong Kong in their AFC Cup Group E encounter at Jalan Besar Stadium. Just as it was thought that the eighth-time S.League champions could have found their way back to their winning ways, tragedy struck right immediately after the game restarted in the second half when the reigning Hong Kong League champions pulled one back in les...

Kunihiro Yamashita (left) opened the account for Stags A wet surface greeted the two teams and crowds at the Jalan Besar Stadium for the season curtain-raiser - the Great Eastern Charity Shield match between Tampines Rovers and Warriors FC. The defending league champions got their act together in less than 20 minutes to snatch a two-goal lead through their new Japanese import Kunihiro Yamashita in the sixth minute with Lions striker Khairul Amri signalled his return to the Stags seven minutes later to double the tally. (L-R) Shimpei Sakurada and Khairul Amri in action Decked in their new dark-coloured home outfit, it did look as if the team formerly known as SAFFC looked pretty gloomy with their inability to ruffle the feathers of their arch-rivals in the domestic scene with the likes of another new addition to the Tampines backline Shaiful Esah guarding the doors in a four-man  defence setup that departed from their usual three at the back. It was only a much be...