BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

Nineteenth-time English league champions Liverpool concluded their South East Asian tour with a 2-0 win over fellow Premier League side Crystal Palace to clinch the Standard Chartered Singapore Trophy last evening at the National Stadium. The result meant the Reds fly out of the region with a record of a win and a defeat (4-0 loss to Manchester United in Bangkok). Liverpool fans at the match (credit: Standard Chartered Singapore Trophy 2022) In front of 50,217 fans, the fixture was the first that featured the two European top-flight clubs played in Singapore since 2019. Other than a small number of Palace fans that congregated behind one of the goals, it was almost a partisan Liverpool crowd that recreated the Anfield atmosphere at Kallang, such as the rendition of the club's iconic anthem - "You'll Never Walk Alone" during the night. Liverpool took an early in the 13th minute when skipper Jordan Henderson fired past Eagles' keeper Vicente Guaita in the box after

The VIPs at the announcement of the match  Nineteenth-time English league champions Liverpool will take on fellow Premier League side Crystal Palace in the Standard Chartered Singapore Trophy 2022. A press conference was held this morning at Gardens by the Bay to announce the match will be played on 15th July at the National Stadium. FIRST MATCH FEATURING EUROPEAN CLUB SIDES SINCE 2019 Organized by TEG Sport in partnership with Standard Chartered, Singapore Tourism Board (STB), and CARRO, the confirmation of this fixture will see the Reds and the Eagles being the first two European top-flight clubs to play in Singapore since 2019. Brendon Bainbridge, Managing Director of TEG Asia “TEG is proud to bring live sporting action to Singapore once again. As the organisers of the Standard Chartered Singapore Trophy 2022, our priority is to provide an exceptional sporting event in an atmosphere with all the elements that make watching live sport an incredible experience for all fans in attenda

Lee (19) exchanges pleasantries with SNL participants Albirex Niigata FC Singapore's star striker Tadanari Lee will be donating all of his goal bonus, which is worth S$200 per goal, to ‘Goals for SportCares’ campaign till the end of the AIA Singapore Premier League 2022 season, according to the club. LEE: BE PART OF THE COMMUNITY “When I came to Singapore in January 2022, I wanted to be part of the community and a way to do this is to give back through what I can do best – sport. So, when I heard about SportCares and how they use football to engage the youth, it really resonated with me." said Lee in the said media advisory. The 37-year-old kicked off his donation drive in the SportCares’ Saturday Night Lights (SNL) event yesterday (23/4) at Clementi Stadium where Lee joined the youth players in their football drills and shared some pointers with them on the field. Lee showing pointers to SNL participants Following the drills, Lee also joined the Muslim participants for iftar

Did you see the rainbow? Good day to all, Plenty of things happened over the last few days. ➡️ The resuming of the AIA Singapore Premier League. ➡️ The two-and-half-year partnership between Lion City Sailors and Borussia Dortmund. ➡️ Another Tampines Rovers player tested positive for the Covid19 after returning from the AFC Champions League campaign in Uzbekistan. ✅ ✅ The first two are, no doubt, some positives injected to the scene while, and hopefully, the infected Tampines players will get well soon 🙏. 🤒 From what I read, not only Tampines players are infected, six persons from Gamba Osaka and Frontale Kawasaki are infected as well. 🤒 Gamba reported having two players and two accompanied staff down with the virus, while Frontale non-playing staff were infected, according to Sohu, a China news portal. 🤦🏻‍♂️Although, it is regrettable to come across some nonsensical comments targeted at those infected Tampines players which clearly shown the lack of empathy towards anyone who is

Was not thinking of penning this annual review since it was a shortened season due to the ongoing pandemic. Nonetheless, I decided to come up with a short piece, to sum up my thoughts on the extraordinary year that not only affected local football but also our daily life as well. First of all, congratulations to Albirex Niigata (Singapore) for regaining the Singapore Premier League (SGPL) title which they last won in 2018 as part of their clean sweep of local major honours. A PACKED 2021 CALENDAR - A HEADACHE FOR FAS AND CLUBS The ongoing Covid19 pandemic resulted in a number of competitions, both regional and domestic, being postponed or canceled thus it is likely to see a packed footballing calendar next year. Not only will we see Tampines Rovers, Lion City Sailors, and Geylang International taking part in continental tournaments like the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup, but the AFF Suzuki Cup is also scheduled to return next year  (though in December 2021 at the latest update p

Recently, saw a few postings on social media reminiscing SAFFC's last Singapore Cup win in year 2012. While this may not be the last major honour clinched by the most successful club in Singapore professional football history (the club, renamed as Warriors FC in 2013 , captured their last S.League title in season 2014), it signified the end of a successful era led by the then head coach Richard Bok . I shall not list down what Coach Bok had achieved when he took over the head coaching role of the Warriors in 2006, as this is not the theme of this post. The fall guy from the top - Warriors FC  The theme of this post is to ask the same old question to any of those "sit out" clubs after they made known their intention to return to the fold - "ARE YOU SURE OR NOT?" This came after the Warriors started off by stated their intention to make their way back to the Singapore Premier League (SGPL) in 2021 after being asked to sit out this season to sort out their financi

We may not see the return of the International Champions Cup Singapore (ICCSG) tournament due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic but it is worthwhile to look back on some happenings that took place in the past when foreign teams came to our shores to play a few friendly matches. The arrival of those marquee names in the world football to this dot of the globe in recent years has always been a crowd-puller that not only drawn local fans from their couches from Jurong to Tampines and Woodlands to Bedok by making their way down to Kallang, the ICCSG, as it is commonly known as, has also been a lure for the regional supporters of those European clubs as well like how the Indonesian fans of Inter made their presence felt in their match against Chelsea in the 2017 edition. Advertisement for Anchor Soccer Festival' 74 ( NLB archive ) The trend of such visits by these foreign sides did not start during the 1970s when there were tournaments like the Anchor Soccer Festival in 1974 (so

Cable telegram was costly in the past that only keywords were used to relay the message and hoping the recipients would understand the content. Nonetheless, misunderstandings would occur at times if the recipients failed to decipher the intention of the sender like this plan, as shown in the below clipping from The Straits Times (ST) , to send two Singaporean players to Leeds United in 1950. The news that caused a great sensation among local fans ( NLB archive )   The receiver of that cable message was the legendary "Uncle" Choo Seng Quee from AJR Hooper from Leeds on the possibility of having Leong Hoi Meng and Foo Hee Jong attend a trial at Leeds United. Hooper served in the British Army during the post-war years and found himself involved in the local football scene as a referee on top of his military commitments. It was during that period he discovered a number of local players like Chinese Athletic Association's Leong and Foo who showed the potential to p

#BrasilGlobalTour2019- Brazil 1-1 Nigeria 131019 Brazil's "Bobby" Firmino (20) prepares for a shoot against Nigeria The star-studded Brazilian national team wrapped up their whirlwind tour with another draw against another African opponents - Nigeria at the National Stadium. Joe Aribo scored for the Super Eagles in the 35th minute before Real Madrid midfielder Casemiro levelled the scoreline in the 48th minute. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES WCQ 2022 - Singapore 1-3 Uzbekistan 151019 Both Shawal Anuar (20) and Irfan Fandi (17) raided the Uzbeks' fortress Singapore succumbed to their second consecutive defeat following a 3-1 lost to Uzbekistan at the National Stadium. The visitors took the lead in the 15th minute through Odil Ahmedov before Ikhsan Fandi equalized at the stroke of half time to send the home fans to wild jubilation. Eldor Shomurodov's double in the second half wrapped up all three points in the bag fo

Somehow, the atmosphere for the ongoing Komoco Motors Singapore Cup tournament just don't seems to feel right at all. It is a major cup semi-final phase we are now talking about but the ambience is as if nothing happened to set the stage right for the fans, if any, to fire up their imagination. The semis are scheduled four days apart. ( source ) Here we have a situation that not only could possibly see Brunei DPMM clinch a historical double but would also see any three of the local sides, namely Geylang International, Tampines Rovers and Warriors FC put an end to the "local drought" by claiming the Singapore Cup this season. STAGS' LAST HOPE FOR GLORY Having fumbled in their league title chase, the Stags knew it very well the Cup is their best hope to end their trophy drought after they last won the S.League title back in 2013. But even with a two-goal advantage from their first-leg win over Geylang, their co-tenants at Our Tampines Hub, Tampines are well

Neymar Jr said "Goodbye" before making his exit from the Nigeria game due to an injury   The Brazilian national team concluded their whirlwind tour of Singapore that saw them pit against Senegal and Nigeria over the past few days at the National Stadium. These friendly matches were scheduled as part of the exclusive arrangement between the Brazilian FA (CBF) and Pitch International, a leading sports marketing agency, under the "Brasil Global Tour" package that began in 2012 and will continue till the 2022 World Cup tournament. Liverpool's Roberto Firmino (20) made his attempt against Nigeria POOR CROWD FIGURES  As compared to the 51,557 that packed the same arena five years ago to witness the "Seleçāo" featured against their Japanese counterparts and saw superstar Neymar Jr. netted all four goals, a paltry crowd of 20,621 turned up for the designated hosts' one-all draw with Senegal on the first night despite having some of the bigges

SGPL - Geylang Int'l 2-1 Tampines Rovers 140819 Tampines Rovers' Singapore Premier League title hopes suffered a setback when a late Yuki Ichikawa's header sealed the fate that saw Geylang International beat Stags 2-1 at JBS. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES Lions Training Session - 070919 Coach Yoshida (left) injected flair to Lions' game since took over Following the 2-2 draw against Yemen days earlier, national coach Tatsuma Yoshida put the Lions through the drills in their preparation against the Palestine on the 10/9 at the JBS. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE PICTURES Friendly - SGP Selection 2-0 Fiji U22 060919 The Fijians' wall saw the ball glided past them This friendly match against their Fijian counterparts at Bishan Stadium saw the Singapore U22 included a number of overaged players like Raihan Rahman, Fabian Kwok and Sahil Suhaimi in their squad as part of the preparation for the upcoming S