BoLASEPaKO.COM - A Blog on Singapore Football

Based on their line up in their league fixture against Albirex Niigata (Singapore) that featured the likes of Lionel Lewis, Shi Jiayi, Qiu Li and Juma'at Jantan, one question floated into my mind and made me wonder if these Home United's Lions (and the rest from other teams in the S.League) felt that national duty is become a liability for having to juggle their club commitments after such a hectic international duty? Don't get me wrong, it's always a honour to play for national team but the welfare of these fatigued Lions must be taken care of avoid burnt out and getting themselves injured unnecessary in time like this when their club's priorities are equally important. After all, out of those above-mentioned we already had a few of them reportedly having some physical "un-well being" like Lionel got himself injured (after just returned from an adductor injury) in the loss against Iraq (pictured above receiving treatment ) that prompted him to reco...

The word "stability" is probably never exist in the dictionary of the league authority with the latest news that broke out this morning (screen-grab below) that suggested the possibility of 2009's League Cup winners DPMM of Brunei of rejoining the league. I guess we shouldn't be too surprise of this latest development. I am not referring to the application of the Brunians, but more of the fact that opaque selection criteria that seems to be flawed. After all, that perceived "stringent" procedure did result the admission of those Chinese "clubs" , Sporting Afrique , etc. with the fans scratching their heads over another round of "musical chairs" sequence.

Saw this tweet message (pictured above) awhile ago and would like to reiterate an earlier blog post that emphasized that months ago. Honestly speaking, how many people (except for those in the scene) are aware about the excitement? I think this is something my fellow blogger, Antony Sutton of "Jakarta Casual" has been pondering over several times on his blog why most Singaporeans football fans are inclined to English and European football and despise what they have at their own backyard. People have been blaming the quality, which of course I don't deny the fact that it may not be anywhere we seen on cable. Jovial scene after another Hougang United's victory at home Yet there were some really good games I have seen this season particularly from Albirex Niigata (Singapore) and Hougang United (for those who follow the scene should understand where I came from). Unfortunately, the sad fact is that when such good games were played, there were little much c...

Apparently, the Iraqis did not find any issue playing on the a rtificial surface of Jalan Besar Stadium which was blasted by Brazilian legend Zico , their coach as a surface meant for kids footballers a day before. In fact, the visiting side looked fairly comfortable on the plastic surface with much of the attacking play by them in the first half. One of Safuwan's (no 2) heroics - foiled Nashat Akram from advance Whereas the hosts - Singapore were confined largely in their defensive third to absorb those threats from the Middle-Easterners with young upstart Safuwan Baharudin giving another good account of himself to defray much of the threat in the first 45 minutes. Not the same thing can be said about the attacking upfront though for the Lions. Some flashes of brilliance were shown with Qiu Li making some inroads from the left flank to unsettle the Iraqis' backline in the first half. SAFFC's Fazrul Nawaz (no 10) replaced Qiu Li at the start of the second half...

The man they called the "White Pele" never failed to reiterate his opinion on having the game be played on an artificial surface after being made known to the media a day earlier. "To me personally, I think good football should be played on natural grass and artificial surface shall be used by small children in training instead." said Brazilian legend Zico, the newly appointed Iraqi national coach at the pre-match press conference of the 2014 World Cup qualifier match between Singapore and Iraq. Iraq national coach Zico took over the post less than a month ago Despite his unpleasantness over the choice of playing surface at Jalan Besar Stadium, coach Zico added he still respects the decision undertaken by both FIFA and AFC for this match. Besides the pitch, coach Zico also voiced his concern over the scheduling and the grouping of the qualifiers' fixtures. Said the former Flamengo superstar: "Perhaps, the organizers should be looking into how th...