BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

Today, this blog is featuring a new book - "Planeta do Futebol: do Brasil a fronteira afega"("Football Planet: from Brazil to Afghan" in English, pictured above) written Brazilian football journalist Renato Andreão Renato, as you can remember, was the kind gentleman who conducted my email interview with S.League legend Egmar Goncalves on my behalf, way back in January 2009. In this book, Renato had written 12 pages on Singapore football (pictured above) with transcripts from interviews he conducted with national coach Raddy Avramovic, SAFFC coach Richard Bok and players such as Ahmad Latiff Khamarudin, Noh Alam Shah, as well as input from former players such as S Subramani and ex-Home United coach Steve Darby. Wide range of topics were discussed in the Singapore section with topics such as players' views on the Lions' performance in the international tournaments, such as the Asian Cup qualifiers, the Suzuki Cup and what coach Darby demanded from Egmar in t

The New Paper gave a damning assessment on ISL-based Lions following Suzuki Cup exit . So it just don't really help much to go south, except for the bit of fake glamour, adulation, etc. Just as I mentioned a few months back, if all this is worth the while ? And below are some replies when I posted this snap on this blog's FB group . "I cant help but agree with their (TNP) assessment this time round... the defence pairing of Bai (Baihakki Khaizan) n Precious (Emuejeraye) was bad... Ridhuan (Muhamad) and NAS (Noh Alam Shah).... they really think that they are the "STAR" players...but their performance is nothing close to "star" quality....." Ong QZ, who seems to agree with what TNP mentioned "I think the media is going on a witch-hunt when they indirectly, should partake part of the blame. I think its boils down to the maturity of the Singapore players, we cant just blame the ISL for all the woes...example, look at the Indonesian te

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

The public anger is widely expected after the final whistle was blown (as pictured above - a screen grab after the match from "Kallangroar.com" ). Who could blame the fans for feeling that way, after all, in what it seen as the last hope to preserve that sense of "national prestige" after the loss of the three domestic titles to the foreign clubs, the Lions were knocked out of the biennial regional tournament by Vietnam and saw them qualified together with the unfancied Filipinos. From what I gathered according to SMSes I received from friends back home, the decisive strike was due to a quick counter off our corner and caught Hassan Sunny on "no man land" before the end of the first half. I felt I should not comment on the performance when I was not able to catch the game, due to pre-arranged circumstances. Nonetheless, the exit from the Suzuki Cup should probably seen as the BIGGEST setback for local football this year. And taking this opportunity, I woul

Dear Lions, All I would say is best of luck against the Vietnamese tonight at Hanoi. I know it's gonna be tough in front a full capacity My Dinh crowd, but I'm always a firm believer in raising to the occasion to silence those critics back home. Good Luck to you... From a follower of you guys - Po Hui (P.S: Due to some pre-arranged commitments, I'm not able to catch the game against Vietnam and I would be deeply appreciated if anyone of you guys who saw the match can update me the scores by leaving a comment below, thank you very much)