BoLASEPaKO.COM - A Blog on Singapore Football

 Community Shield - Lion City Sailors 1-4 BG Tampines Rovers 160825 BG Tampines Rovers claimed the first trophy of 2025/6 season BG Tampines Rovers secured a 4-1 victory over Lion City Sailors at the Jurong East Stadium to lift the Community Shield - the traditional curtain-raiser to the Singapore Premier League. Coach Akbar Nawas made a triumphant return to local football by guiding the Stags to their sixth Community Shield. CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES ➤  Community Shield - Lion City Sailors 1-4 BG Tampines Rovers #ACLTwo - Lion City Sailors 4-2 Selangor FC 011025 The Selangor players having a word with the referee. The match was kicked off at 6pm, before the activation of the LWS halted the play. The game resumed following the deactivation of the LWS. CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES ➤  #ACLTwo - Lion City Sailors 4-2 Selangor FC #ACLTwo - BG Tampines Rovers 2-1 BG Pathum United 021025 BG Tampines Rovers caused an upset by beating BG Pathum United in this ACL2 fixture The Stag...

Facing the "lobang" at Kallang I still have that distraught feeling after the blunder that allowed India to level the game at the closing stages of it. We did not utilise the numerical advantage since the early period of the second half. The back pass that led to the Indian equaliser was secondary when Lions were guilty of not being more aggressive in the final third. It was either we intended to hold the ball long enough to frustrate the Indian or we just couldn't find our way to break them down at their back. Did the substitution in the second half played a part when some questioned the effectiveness of it? I don't know? I am just a photographer. ℹ️ For those unbeknownst, the abovementioned thoughts were from the AFC Asian Cup qualifying match between Singapore and India played on 9th October 2025 that ended in one-all draw. - 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎'𝒔 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒎 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒍 -

  #ACLTwoFinal - Lion City Sailors 1-2 Sharjah FC 180525 LCS players and staff showing their appreciation to fans after the match Lion City Sailors' Maxime Lestienne's late equaliser in the 91st minute cancelled out the lead taken by Sharjah's Firas Ben Al Arbi in the 74th minute, saw Bishan erupt. But the sucker punch was dealt in the 97th minute by Marcus Meloni to seal the win as the Emiratis claimed the ACLTwo title. CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES ➤ Lion City Sailors 1-2 Sharjah FC SGPL - Balestier Khalsa 3-2 Albirex Niigata (Singapore) 2505025 Outgoing Tigers' coach Peter de Roo given a shower after the match A late winner by Reycredo Bukit saw Balestier Khalsa beat Albirex Niigata (Singapore) 3-2 to cement fourth positioning for the Tigers and a fitting farewell gift for Coach Peter de Roo at Bishan. CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES ➤ Balestier Khalsa 3-2 Albirex Niigata (Singapore) SFOF25 - Arsenal 1-0 AC Milan 230725 The Gunners won the  Tridentity Cup of SFOF25 Bukayo Sa...

(This entry is formulated by the media release issued by Full Circle PR, the PR agency for the event with image depicted in this entry belonging to "Singapore Festival of Football") After a one-year hiatus, the Singapore Festival of Football (SFOF) is set to return this July, featuring English powerhouses Arsenal and Newcastle United , alongside with 19-time Serie A champions AC Milan . FIRST VISIT TO SINGAPORE BY "I ROSSONERI" While both the Gunners and Magpies are no strangers to the republic for having paid their visits in the past, the coming trip to the Lion City will be the first-ever for "I Rossoneri". In the press conference held earlier today (11/4) at the Pan Pacific Singapore, the tournament's joint organisers - TEG Sport and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) announced a five-year partnership has been confirmed to see regular top-flight European football fixtures played in Singapore in alternate years (2025, 2027 and 2029).   (L-R): Ms  M...

 Shopee Cup - Lion City Sailors 0-0 Buriram United 230125 Buriram United's penalty claim was brushed aside The goal-less draw between the powerhouses of both Singapore and Thailand saw the former represented by Lion City Sailors being eliminated from the Asean Club Championship aka Shopee Cup (for sponsorship reason) CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES ➤ LION CITY SAILORS VS BURIRAM UNITED Singapore Cup - Balestier Khalsa 1-2 BG Pathum United 020325 Balestier Khalsa's Kodai Tanaka (extreme right) being hold back Ace striker Kodai Tanaka's botched attempt from the spot near towards the end had Balestier Khalsa licking their wounds in this Singapore Cup defeat against 10-man BG Pathum United at Bishan instead. CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES ➤ BALESTIER KHALSA VS BG PATHUM UNITED #ACLTwo - Lion City Sailors 1-1 Sanfrecce Hiroshima (agg:4-1) 130325 Lion City Sailors celebrate after their opener against Sanfrecce Hiroshima at JBS Lion City Sailors became the third Singaporean club to feature...

Singapore National Team ’s 1-0 defeat to Nepal at the National Stadium on 21 March 2025 left many fans stunned. With a higher FIFA ranking, the 160th-ranked Lions were expected to overpower the Nepalese who are ranked at the 175th place, but instead, they found themselves struggling to put together a cohesive performance. "Nasi Lemak" - a favourite local dish After the match, a friend of mine used "Nasi Lemak" (above image, as credited), a beloved local dish, to describe the situation. NO WATER, NO NITRATES – NO QUALITY INGREDIENTS "If the padi field doesn't have the water or nitrates, you can't have decent nasi lemak or Teochew muay." said this friend of mine who started off his theory with these words. He reasoned that if a padi field lacks water and nitrates, you can’t grow quality rice, nor can you cultivate fresh cucumbers. It also affects chicken feed production, meaning the fried chicken wing - the heart of a good "Nasi Lemak" -...

The 10,000-seater stadium in TPID (credit: Playmaker SG ) The groundbreaking of the Toa Payoh Integrated Development (TPID) earlier today (5/1) at the former site of the Toa Payoh Sports Centre should bring some smiles to football fans in this country. One of the key features of the new development, which is scheduled to be completed in 2030, is a 10,000-seater stadium that should answer the prayers of those who long to see another football-centric arena besides those at Jalan Besar Stadium (JBS) and Jurong East Stadium (JE). AT LEAST THREE ATTEMPTS IN LAST 30 YEARS Based on what I gathered, there were, at least, three attempts to have such arena for that sole purpose in the last thirty-odd years. Tampines Rovers SC's blueprint in 1992 (NLB Archive) The first plan I came across was mooted by Tampines Rovers Sports Club (not to be confused with the Singapore Premier League club of the same name) in a TNP (The New Paper) article back in January 1992 . Another plan for "one...

 #ACLTwo - Lion City Sailors 2-3 Persib Bandung 071124 Persib Bandung staged a stunning comeback Lion City Sailors paid dearly for not keeping up the intensity after taking a two-nil lead at interval and found themselves sunk into the ocean by a resilient PERSIB Bandung side at JBS. CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES ➤ LION CITY SAILORS VS PERSIB BANDUNG International Friendly - Singapore 2-3 Chinese Taipei 181123 Singapore (blue) suffered a defeat in the hands of Chinese Taipei The Singapore national team paid the price for their lack of bite till the very late and succumbed to their third defeat to Chinese Taipei since 2017. CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES ➤ SINGAPORE VS CHINESE TAIPEI #ACLTwo - Lion City Sailors 5-2 Port FC 051224 Hat-trick hero Song Ui-Young celebrates with Maxime Lestienne A 5-2 win which included a hat-trick from Song Ui-young helped Lion City Sailors to beat Port FC 5-2 at JBS to finish top of Group F of the AFC Champions League Two. Both teams qualified for the next pha...

The 1977 NFL Division One match between Tampines Rovers SC** and Toa Payoh United at Kallang was a truly bizarre affair, with an amazing scoreline (** see footnote at the end of this post) I first learned of this match when I chanced upon it in a copy of "Singapore Soccer" (pictured above) at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, National Library Board Headquarters which prompted me to find out more. It was already declared a dead rubber before the ball was kicked based on these words that appeared in an article by "Singapore Soccer" monthly (as pictured above). "Nothing was at stake. Geylang International had won the title and even if runners up Toa Payoh (United) put in a 100 goals against Tampines Rovers would not have made any difference to their position in any way." wrote the discontinued monthly which was started in 1975. With the eye-catching title "Let Live and LEAVE" positioned in the middle of the article, the words "SOCCER FIAS...

Friendly - Balestier Khalsa 4-1 Tanjong Pagar United 010224 Ignatius “Iggy” Ang of Balestier (front) tried to get past his marker I am not sure how these ongoing friendlies are going to help the new national coach Tsutomu Ogura to have a better understanding of the players available at his disposal in his preparation for the upcoming WCQ match against China when clubs are trying out some raw youngsters during these matches as well? PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES Lions' 1st Training Session under Coach Ogura - 110324 Coach Ogura (right) having a chat with his assistant Nazri Nasir I made a big mistake by being stubborn in my settings and took it for granted that I could fix some of the problems through editing those shots took at night at Kallang Football Hub :( PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE PICTURES WCQ - Singapore 2-2 China 210324 A packed goal mouth in the Singapore-China match The Lions kickstarted Coach Tsutomu Ogura's reign with an emp...

"I alighted somewhere near Gay World, then made my way towards Nicoll Highway and crossed the bridge outside the PA HQ (the former People's Association headquarters that was located at the old Kallang Airport premises) before reaching the stadium," said Abang Nasir, a co-worker who reminisced the ride on bus number 41 that dropped him off outside the now demolished amusement park along Mountbatten Road. "On the bridge, hawkers were selling 'karipap' (curry puffs) and drinks to fans going to the stadium on match days." as he went on to describe the scene on the elevated walkway that bridged across Nicoll Highway which was usually packed whenever Singapore played their home games at Kallang. Those were the days - this was how we went to the games  Abang Nasir was one of the many thousands who religiously made their way to the old National Stadium during the "Kallang Roar" era of the mid-1970s to 1980s. Unlike the wider range of transportation opt...