BoLASEPaKO•COM - A Blog on Singapore Football

Mr Terence Ong, who is now pursing a degree in communications wrote to me last November for some help in a school assignment he was doing. Months later, I met him at a game at Jalan Besar and suggested to him that if would it be OK for me to reproduce that assignment for this blog and credit him as a "guest columnist" and he's fine with it, so here it goes... . "What next for Singapore Football?" by Terence Ong Ko Po Hui, 34, remembers the way things were when he first caught the Singapore national team in action as a budding 8-year old, “Things were different back then. We were in the Malaysia Cup and were the darlings of local football fans. The attention was always on the Lions and the National Stadium saw capacity crowd attendances week in, week out.” (Pictured above) Singapore (white) vs Selangor (yellow) was the marquee match of the Malaysia Cup Reminiscing about the golden period of Singapore football from the 70s to the early 90s, the owne...

Not that long ago, I got a SMS (in green font) from a friend of my that he shared with me his rating of the S.League since the inauguration in 1996... Attendances based on my memory 96 Tiger high, 96 Pioneer low, 97 average, 98 recession, 99 good, 00 average, 01 good but media coverage totally destroyed during SEA Games, 02 starting to have unusual results 03 penalty shootouts average N later died off 04 league reduced in teams, gd with jap albirex in, 05 gd with paya lebar in, young lions N balestier performed well, 06 young lions did well in FA Cup, sporting afrique some interest but fade away after payment issues, 07 tiger cup success, but liaoning destroyed it 08 poor 09 bad 10 worst I asked my friend if he would like to be quoted and acknowledged, he politely declined, but I thought this is something rather interesting and it's not those-kind-of-thesis-type of article as it's simple and hit the nail kind of review. Just a simple run through of what the whole SMS was about...

This is an article contributed by 17-year old student Daniel Lau, who himself is a passionate local football supporter, who was once featured on the newspaper for his undying support to the local football. A familiar figure at the airport whenever the any of the national teams depart or return from their overseas assignment. Below, Daniel detailed with write-up and pictures, as he shares with us the moments before the YOG football depart for their training tour in London yesterday. BON VOYAGE, BOYS!! Daniel Lau Was there at Changi Airport Terminal 3 today to send the YOG Football Team off to London. It was kind of a pleasant surprise as when I reached there looking at the boys for the first time in person, many of them recognized me due to my constant communication with them on Facebook. Team gathering at T3. I attracted many curious stares from family members as they saw me donned in the red Lions' Jersey and being the only fan there. Some of them even w...

(In collaboration with Temasek Review Sports , the following match report was written by MJ,who was reporting on behalf of the online portal.) By MJ sports@temasekreview.com Recently-retired Singapore skipper Indra Sahdan Daud (left) tussling for better position with Gamba's defender Sota Nakazawa. AFC Champions League Match Day 3 saw 2008 winners Gamba Osaka FC come away with their first win of the season following a hard earned 4-2 victory over SAFFC at the Jalan Besar Stadium. SAFFC twice equalised but eventually the match was settled by a hat-trick from 22-year-old striker Shoki Hirai. Nakazawa in action again as he fought for the ball with SAFFC's Japanese winger Akiyoshi Taisuke (in foreground) SAFFC started the match with high energy and were almost rewarded immediately in the 3rd minute when Erwan Gunawan placed a free header straight at the Gamba keeper. Gamba Dominance That miss proved to be costly as Gamba recovered from the early scare to score in ...

(P.S: This entry will kick start a new column in this blog with readers are welcome to submit their article on various issues pertaining to local football scene as "guest columnist") Mr Paul Kung, someone who has been very active in the rugby community as a player, coach and administrator shares his thoughts with us, from the rugby perspective, after he read some of the recent blog entries regarding the man-in-the-middle. I have read that there is some debate in football about how much 'power' the Assistant referees have. I know that in the BPL and other professional leagues they are all miked up with communications equipment - "walkie talkies" so that all three referees can speak to each other and flag up any infractions. The model most commonly used here is T5500 (above) and is fairly inexpensive - about $150 for a set if I remember correctly. They are powered by normal batteries as well. As far as I know, this radio and throat vibration set (above...