BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

The crazy scoreline had protruded the leaky defensive woes facing both Singapore and Malaysia in this much-anticipated "Causeway Derby" for the ticket to the group stages of the Asian World Cup Qualification. "Farra" scored in the 44th minute to make it 3-1 to Singapore It was virtually a game of two halves with Singapore shackled off the early scare for letting the Malaysians to score in the first minute through dangerman Safee Sali by walloped four goals in reply from Aleksandar Duric, Qiu Li, Fahrudin Mustafic and Shi Jiayi before the end of first half. Like a friend who said the problem facing the Lions is that they looked lost the moment they were given a commanding lead. "It just that they don't know what to do next when they are having such a comfortable lead as in whether to defend or attack." said this friend whom I met while on my way home after the game. Safee Sali's second goal in 71st minute gave the Harimau the much-need

(Pictured above from left to right) Singapore skipper Shahril Ishak, coach Raddy Avramovic, Malaysia coach Datuk K Rajagobal and captain Safiq Rahim Rain came unexpected when I reached Tanjong Pagar area for the pre-match press conference for the World Cup Qualifier between Singapore and Malaysia aka "Causeway Derby" (being the fact that the island republic is connected to the Peninsular Malaysia by the bridge known as the Causeway). It is a match that would normally guarantee a "sell-out" given the rich footballing heritage that bond these two lands since the colonial times. To the Singapore team, it's an examination that coach Raddy Avramovic and his Lions since the .... (if you read the papers of late, I shouldn't repeat here) have to take to see any improvement being achieved since then. To the Harimau, it set a stage to reaffirm their regional supremacy after winning two of the most important titles this part of the world - the AFF S

(This entry is formulated from the media release issued by the Football Association of Singapore )  A new management structure will be in place to lead the S.League Strategic Business Unit. In a media statement issued by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) on Tuesday evening, it is also made known that the present S.League CEO Winston Lee, who serves concurrently as the FAS Secretary-General, will be relinquished the post he served since taking over in 2006. “In view of the extensive workload, coupled with the fact that we have more resources, we have decided to strengthen the management of S.League. We will build a management team for S.League and this team will be headed by the CEO of S.League.” said FAS president Zainudin Nordin in the statement. It is understood that the role of the S.League CEO had been redefined and will report to a separate Executive Committee that would include persons of commercial experience in sports marketing and branding. Following his re

The Singapore team bench before the kick-off I did something I seldom do during a football match - switch side ... in order to get some shots from stocking my archive. We were told to confine ourselves to a small white perimeter box located at the far corner of the field that to our dismay with much of action taken place on the opposite flank. So not surprisingly, it from that flank saw Hariss Harun floated the cross that was to be finished off by Aleksandar Duric from close range which the Taiwanese claimed the veteran marksman was offside in 17th minute. Duric's opener in the 17th minute was claimed offside by the Taiwanese. Soon after the match restarted in the second half, the Lions failed to build up from where they left behind and were uncharacteristically allowed the Taiwanese to equalize in the early period of the second half through Lo Chih An. But Duric responded well in the 54th minute when he muscled pass the porous Taiwanese defence before planted in his

While waiting for a friend outside Jalan Besar Stadium, I saw a car slowed down along the way. "Tiket bola mana?" asked the driver of the Johor licensed plate vehicle in Malay, as he would like to know where could he buy the tickets for the 2014 World Cup Qualifier match between Singapore and Malaysia. "Dah habis lah..." I replied to him implied that all tickets to the "Causeway Derby" had been snapped up before 2:30pm after gone on sale since 8am in the morning with some eager fans queuing up overnight to snap the tickets. The Lions in warming up. "It's great to see fans coming back again." said veteran striker Aleksandar Duric after the first day of centralized training session on his thoughts of sell-out crowd be anticipated at Jalan Besar on the 23rd of July clash with the Harimau. "Probably because we are playing against Malaysia, but it's great to see a full house in Jalan Besar which I hope the fans will cheer for u