BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

HUFC's skipper Shi Jiayi hoisted the Cup It was indeed a hard fought triumph for Home United who with the win over Albirex Niigata (Singapore) had claimed the accolade being the most successful Singapore Cup side with their fifth record win. Cautious play from both sides dominated much of the play with Albirex stroking the ball around the park with possessive tactics that failed to shackle the rock solid defence line of Rosman Sulaiman, Kenji Arai and man-of-the-match, Valery Hiek. Valery Hiek (no 13) - rock solid in the Protectors defence However, their counterparts were equally up to the task to contain usually reliable strikeforce spearheaded with Fred Mendy and Sherif El-Masri who were frustrated countless time by the lack of luck during the match. Did the officials spot this "infringement" to deny Mendy first? Just as the thought of having the match to go into extra time loomed over the sky of Tyrwhitt Road, Mendy finally found his header at the back o

Read a tweet from my timeline that goes like this before the Indonesia-Malaysia SEA Games match after the Cubs defeated the supposedly perennial powerhouses Thailand 2-0. "This is e first (and probably will be e only) time a 2-0 win over Thailand feels like a defeat..." Can't blame that sense of pessimistic when the Cubs initially failed in achieving the target that mammoth task of four goals against the Thais because the goal difference between them and the Malaysians, whom they defeated the hosts to progress to the semi-finals. Anyway, will not comment on the game itself when I did not see the match in the first place (due to work again). However, gathered from the timeline it was perceived that the Cubs were better up against their opponents with several offside decisions that went against them in the second half that one suggested it would have been 5-0. At the end of the day when your fate is not in your hands, one just have to learn and accept the eventual outcome a

Picture tells a THOUSAND words.... Decent first half defensive display by the Lions until the sucker punch that came in the 42nd minute to see the well placed grounder by Yu Hai (pictured below foreground) to give the Chinese the headstart before end of the first period. As what they always said in football that conceding a goal at this juncture of any game would have a psychological demoralizing effect on team that conceded that goal. That is the kind of curse that seemed to haunt the Lions soon after the game restart when the Chinese skipper Li Weifeng's header sunk home in the 55th minute. If only this shot by Duric didn't hit the beam in the 2nd Half Despite having a man sent off that gave them numerical advantage, the Lions failed to capitalize and eventually allowed the visitors to tap in two more goals to seal the deal. Despite the downside of the result, Home United's striker Firdaus Idros (pictured above on left) was singled out during the post match

Screen-grab from the livestreaming When asked after the loss to the Jordanians earlier in their first meeting of the qualifiers if we still stand a chance of making to the next round, assistant coach V Sundramoorthy said there's still "mathematical" chance of doing so if we could take "maximum points out of the remaining matches". So when referee Ben Williams of Australia blew to signal the end of the match at Amman where the hosts beating the visiting Lions 2-0, it's clear that we are left to fight for our pride for the remaining matches against China and Iraq. We were practically camped inside our own half since the start and the slip up on the left flank allow the Jordanians to score with an ease passed Lionel Lewis to see Jordan leading 1-0 at half time. Just like their juniors in Jakarta match against the Indonesians in the SEA Games , a much adventurous display saw the Lions making forays into the Jordanians' half in the second period and

Like mentioned, I did not get to see the match that Cubs lost to the Indonesians due to work. However, here's the Youtube clip of the match via a Vietnamese broadcaster. General thoughts of the game gathered online lauded the performance of the Singapore side for keeping the scoreline respectable especially with their performance in the second half , after conceding two goals and a player sent off (Nigel Vanu)in the first half. While some may blasted the Filipino referee for his handling of the match (as told), a friend feedback via SMS thought otherwise as he opined... "The ref from philippines was first rate and had to penalise indonesians repeatedly for diving etc nigel (Vanu) had to go ref spot on if you watch a game in a one eyed way you do not get a true picture i am certain the indo fans felt the ref was hard on them as he kept denying them free kicks as he could read their tricks and was eagle eyed picking up infringements" Now we are left with a mountain to