BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

Harvest Year for Albirex Niigata (Singapore) Newly-crowned Great Eastern Yeo's S.League Albirex Niigata (Singapore) signed off their season in style when they walked away with three notable awards in the annual S.League Awards Night held days ago at Marina Bay Sands. Striker Atsushi Kawata was named the recipient of the prestigious "Player of The Year" award, alongside his coach Naoki Naruo who collected the "Coach of The Year" accolade and teammate Tomoki Menda was credited to have scored the "Goal of The Year". Atsushi Kawata (center) is "Player Of The Year" On top of that, the White Swans also picked up the "Fair Play" award on the same evening that, however, saw Naofumi Tanaka lost out to national midfielder M Anumanthan in the "Young Player of The Year" category. SURREAL EXPERIENCE ... Should that happen, it would be almost total domination both off and on the field as well, following the unprecedented

Close to 25,000 watched the Causeway Challenge Honestly speaking, the recent Causeway Challenge fixture between Singapore and Malaysia shall go down to history as one of those anti-climax games in recent years. Apart from both teams used this friendly to finalize their preparation for the AFF Suzuki Cup next month, it always not uncommon to have both the Lions and Harimau (Tigers) trying to claim supremacy over each other since both went separate way in 1965. "DAMP SQUID" Any match featuring these two nations would usually wipe up those chest-pumping patriotism sentiments on both sides of the Causeway, but the mood during the run up to the match played last Friday at the iconic National Stadium at Kallang resulted a much mundane affair. Perhaps much of that "damp squid" ambience have to do with ongoing misfortune that plagued the football fraternities of both sides. (L-R) Coach Sundram and Malaysia's coach Datuk Ong Kim Swee One of those contr

(L-R) Zainudin Nordin and Bernand Tan The much-anticipated proposed constitution was not put into discussion when the motion on it was removed abruptly from the Football Association of Singapore's (FAS) Annual General Meeting (AGM) held earlier at its Jalan Besar Stadium (JBS) headquarters. Explaining the reason for removing the cornerstone topic from the AGM, FAS Vice-President Bernand Tan said it was “not easy to decide” citing factors like feedback from the members at the very late hours. NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY “It (the proposed constitution) is something should not be taken lightly and it is not easy to decide (the removal of the motion on it) when there are members requested 'more time' till yesterday night (for further discussions).” said Tan in the media conference held right after the conclusion of the AGM. When prompted on whether the local game governing body had set a time frame on confirming the said constitution that is to align itself with what FIF

Izwan Mahbud ended his first club continental venture Without any doubt, it was a painful exit from the tournament that saw Tampines Rovers ended their continental campaign in the hands of Bengaluru FC of India after a goal-less affair which allowed the latter to cruise to the AFC Cup semi-final stage on a wafer-thin advantage of an aggregate score of one goal to none. Nonetheless, the Stags shouldn't be faulted for tried all means to put themselves back on level terms when they signalled their intention right from the start with the series of offenses they launched towards the team from Bangalore who elected to opt for a safety first approach by being the absorber of those raids. Amrinder Singh (1) raised above all to fist the ball  Hafiz Abu Sujad (16) tried his luck from a distance Such conservative tactics seems to serve the Indian side well as the designated home team who were left frustrated on countless of occasions on those chances they failed to convert thr

Anxious moments for Balestier (yellow) It was not the best game to be shown on live television but it really does not matter when you were able to get the job done at the end of the day like Albirex Niigata (Singapore) did at Toa Payoh earlier. One would expect the Japanese side to go all out to secure a bigger buffer in the second-leg of RHB Singapore Cup semi-final match against Balestier Khalsa whom they had a wafer-thin one-goal advantage carried into this match. Atsushi Kawata (left) closely monitored  But none of that urgency was shown in the match that was best described as uninspiring and tepid encounter which most would not associated to the usual intensity of a Cup game. Barred for some anxious moments in the Balestier's penalty area in the first half when Albirex found themselves tried to break down the Tigers' resilience at the back, there wasn't much action to keep the sporadic crowds at the ground or viewers at home at the edge of their seats.