BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

(logo courtesy of footballasia.com) Tough times ahead? (A look before the start of the Asian Cup campaign) The same old bugbear (i.e.: poor finishing) hau nted the team again when they drew against Hong Kong in their final warm-up match before the start of the Asia Cup qualifiers. Despite the fact that the Lions had not clinched a win so far in year 2006, the concerning parties had somehow praised the team performance so far (other than the loss against the "arrogant" Danes.) Having to come back from a two-goal deficit to level against the Kuwaitis and conceded a goal at the dying moments in their match against the Omanis, is by no means an easy feat. The fighting spirit shown in those two games, maybe somehow restored (but not all) that bruised ego of Singapore football, which was badly deflated in the last year's SEA Games. The failure yet again to find net at the required moment will be the key problem for the coach Raddy to solve

(Match picture taken from the press box) Struggling at the start (first blog using WI-FI) As a die-hard fan of the Lions, one must not blame them for losing their unbeaten streak that stretched from the beginning of last year. A long lay-off since the end of the League season, coupled with some negative controversies surrounded the team, it's not difficult to blame the boys for losing to the under-strength Danes, who fielded a large number of debutant as well. Tampines' Noh "Ah Long" Alam Shah's blunt finishing in front of the goal, shall served as a barometer of the Lions' display on the field. Wasn't really sure how the second goal was scored but the first Danish goal was clearly a result of poor defensive work at the back. Perhaps Indra Sahdan provided the only spark for the home team when he lived up again to his reputation for scoring against big teams when he finished his effort with first touch following a nce threaded pass from "Ah Long"

Really in a LIMBO.. In one of my earlier posts (with the image of it placed above), l shown a bit of concern on both Itimi Dickson and Agu Casmir. Having not able to secure a contract following their release from the Young Lions, I was a bit worried if these two naturalized players would be left fighting for their own survival. And it appeared that I had been worrying too much. When I turned out at the national team's training session, one of the notable absentees was Itimi Dickson. It was made known the following day that he is currently on a trial cum holiday in Italy, much to the dismay of the national team's selectors, who were left in the dark till then. While it was later confirmed that Agu had signed for Indonesian club, Persija Jakarta but back out from his agreement with the Indonesian before kicking a ball and headed to the freezing Russia for a try out. Of course, the guys in the Indonesia capital aren't pleased at all and having every rights to voice their grie

A year ago... 16th January 2005.. How times really flies. Exactly, a year ago today at this time of writing, we were celebrating as the national team, led by coach Raddy, triumphed over the much-fancied Indonesians to lift the Tiger Cup in front of the 55,000 fans. Still remember that day, I met up with my colleagues at the Kallang MRT station and made our way together with the rest of the red-shirted supporters (pictured on the left)with a similar aim - to revive the Kallang Roar. And we did The moment when Indra Sahdan scored the first goal of the game, the whole Kallang if not the whole Singapore erupted. Such a feeling and glad l was there to witness all these happend right in front of me. (Pictured above right: me - in shades with my colleagues in the stadium that night)

The First Training session for the Lions in 2006 It's been raining for the past three days and when was made know that the national team will be conducting their first centralised training on this day (which is Hari Raya Haji), I was wondering if the session is going on. So off l went to the Jalan Besar stadium at close to 6pm. And here l was at the home of Singapore football, where the first training session of the year was conducted. Should have this been a year ago, nobody would dare to risk their life to train on the pitch which had since made way to the newly-laid artificial pitch. Likes of Tampines's Mustafic Fahrudin and Bah Mamadou of Home Utd were at the training session for the first time since their naturalization. While the likes of Ashrin Shariff and Shi Jia Yi were doing their light training. Some fine touches were shown during the training session, though it's still early to say if the team are rwady for the challenge ahead.