BoLASEPaKO•COM - A Blog on Singapore Football

Finally, the cat is out of the bag when Korean "Super" Reds' supremo Hong In Woong admitted "up to a third" of the players were not intended in the original setup. So much so we were all made believed that these guys are here to challenge to be among the top three spot of the league. Yet an another disappointing moment as the "lapse" has once again highlighted the fact that the inclusion of the Koreans was done in a "hurried" fashion. As nothing was in black and white in the first place, so we can't point our finger to Hong for this "mishap" but to blame the "take for granted" attitude we have all this while. At the same time, I'm pretty disappointed with the "positive" attitude of the league authority towards these under-performing "aliens". To be frank, I guess only the Albirex Niigata of the 2004 season is ranked to be the "best " foreign team the league see...

Frankly speaking, unbelievable was the first word that came to my mind when the news first broke out. Here is a man whose legacy lays on the fact he’s one of the most successful coaches in the football fraternities on both sides of the Causeway. Having been through the period which we are fighting so hard to ward off “that thing”, yet here we have a well-respected man convicted for the trying to play around with “that thing”. Though we hardly spoke to each during his stint as the coach of Tampines Rovers and Paya Lebar Punggol, but for that infamous quote he mentioned had all but diminished whatever respect I have this man. “I have the best of the worst” as he was quoted during the introductory press conference for the then league debutant Paya Lebar Punggol.(merged with Sengkang Marine to form Sengkang Punggol after just a season.) For someone in him to mention something like this was totally unacceptable. For Heaven sake man, if then you weren’t keen to take the job why ridiculed the...

I guess the word humble is not in this vocabulary of Hong In Woong, the chairman-cum-coach of the Korean Super Reds, when he set the target for his charges to finish among the top three in their debut season. After the heavy loss to Home United on their debut at the Bishan Stadium, one wonders if the Koreans are just another bunch of jokers to take us for another ride like Sinchi? The heavy defeat not only damaged the credibility of the team but a slap on Hong's face as he hopes his charges will eventually improve and not finish among the BOTTOM three instead.

Happened to pop in to sneak a peep at one of the teams' introductory press conference. Balestier Khalsa was the team that presented itself to the media at Jalan Besar. Right from the start, the Tigers' vice-chairman S Thavaneson did not minced his words as he bemoaned the short-comings of the game's youth development in this country. Stressed that it's not only Balestier that facing this problem but many of the smaller clubs. Thava, as he is popularly known, lamented that once a player being nurtured by one of those smaller clubs, would never see him return to his nurturing club after national service due to various factors like:- Signing on as a civil-servant (i.e.: police or army regular), while serving his national service. Snapped up by some of those bigger clubs upon completing his NS or contractual obligation with his club. Citing this example, he mentioned some clubs virtually not focusing much effort on developing young players. As such, he pleading the medi...

Waiting for the arrival of the Guest of Honour I'm sure those who saw Sengkang Punggol's road to the pre-season SingTel League Cup would agree that their luck simply ran out when and where it mattered the most - the FINAL. Who would blame them for beaming that confident smile when they were up against the northern powerhouse - Woodlands Wellington. Alas, things went according to the script, and handed the Rams their deserving first major trophy win since the league started in 1996. The crowds at the ground anticipated an epic, which was not the case Formality before the start of the game - shaking hands Woodlands finally clinched their first major trophy, before the start of the season