BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

This coming Sunday will feature two of the cream of the crop of the local football. As coach Steve Darby will lead his charge out of the tunnel for the last hurray against the underachievers Woodlands Wellington, let's hope it will be a spectacular matcha one will never forget. Yes, it has been long season especially for the likes of Indra, Aide, Subramani, Bennette, Tat Chuan and etc, who been playing almost non-stop since last season. Definitely, the fatigueness is there.. But as the stage is set at the "Grand Old Lady" - the National Stadium. The same venue where the Lions lifted the Tiger Cup. Surely, the fans aren't gonna given a sloppy game for the setting of that of a Cup Final. Lionel Lewis should remember that day, when he picked the ball out of the goal eight times years back, when he played for Geylang Utd in one of those Cup Final .

(Picture on the left, M C of the night Bernand Lim warming up the audience prior the start of the night.) Was one of the privileged few to attend this gala event, which was held at the Mediacorp TV Theater. Noh Alam Shah was named the "Player of the Year", while his striking partner Mirko Grabovac took the top scorer award as well as the "Player of the Decade" award. Pin-up boy Issey Nakajima of Albirex Niigata wrapped up the "Young Player of the Year" award. Pretty innovative in the way the organiser announced the list of nominees, especially, the "Coach of the Year" awards, which drew laughter from the house. In which, the five nominees (Ie: Young Lions' Fandi Ahmad, Albirex's Ichiro Otsuka, SAFFC's Ki m Poulsen, Woodland's Karim Bencherifa and eventual winner Tampines' Vorawan Chitavanich) were being portrayed as a group of school kids in a classroom und er the mercy of the "teacher" (pictured on the right)

Believe it or not.. the moment when the referee Mr Abdul Malik blew to signal the end of the match between the defending champions Tampines Rovers and Cup finalist Woodland Wellington - IT RAINS (Picture on the left: with the league trophy, it's very pretty heavy, precaution required if you ever got a chance to lift it!! Many thanks to Mr Samuel Panthradil for making this picture possible) Still the wet weather failed to deter the Stags from popping the champagne, that was supposed to open last week. With the signboard placed and presentation ready to commence, Mother Nature thought the otherwise and "advised" the ceremony to be carried on the main stand (similar to that of those happened at the Wembley stadium) Only feel sorry for the boys who had to carry the huge signboard to and fro between the pitch and the stand. Luckily, things went smoothly for them but not for me, though as the taxi that supposed to take me home, made a wrong turn and went merry-go-round before r

F or the fact that the "grand old lady" - the National stadium is to be demolished soon to make way for the new sporting hub. I urge the fans to turn out at the National stadium for the one last time for the Singapore Cup final. The 50,000 capacity arena is the born place of the much-feared "Kallang Roar", that trumatised every visiting team. 1994 was the year l made regular trips to the stadium, joined the rest of the 50,000 fans cheering the likes of Fandi, Abbas and Co. Other than the "Kallang Wave" that made its debut in the 90's, one of the fun activities was "charge across" the Nicoll Highway (pictured on the left) after every match (some sort of victory celebration.), as the main bridge that linked from the stadium car park to the transit point (the PA HQ) to the nearest MRT station, always packed like sardines, thus many fans left with no other alternative but carried out that dangerous stunt. Of course, it was a dangerous act that l

Sombre mood greeted this blogger when entered the Hougang stadium just now. Overheard this conversation at the entrance of the stadium that goes like this ".. Can help me to take a picture (of me) at the stadium??" said one player to his fellow mate, who declined as he was tasked to another job. 25th Oct 2005 - an another day for you and me but to some of the Paya Lebar Punggol FC's players, they could have played their last game before ever knowing where they will heading to next. Certainly, hope this sad scenario don't repeat itself again as the League authourity go through again a list of teams, which intend to join the league family next year.