BoLASEPaKO•COM - A Blog on Singapore Football

The former players featured in last weekend's “Battle Of Europe” match between England Masters and Germany Masters had many of those at the game recalled those good old memories when they saw the likes of legends Lothar Matthäus, Teddy Sheringham, etc. took on each other in one of football's most storied rivalries at Kallang with Yusof B Ibrahim , among those at the game, who penned his thoughts on that evening. Teddy Sheringham and Lothar Matthäus skippered their teams It has been fifty years since England last won their first ever and only major international football honour to date - 1966 FIFA World Cup by beating West Germany 4-2 under one of the most controversial circumstances ever which is still much of a debate today. As such, there was a sense of Déjà vu over the last weekend when the England Masters repeated the same scoreline by defeated the Germany Masters in the Battle of Europe 2016 that took place at the iconic National Stadium of the Singapore Sports H...

Coach Sundram (in blue jacket) facing the media To sum up the Singapore National Football Team's final warming up before heading off to Manila this coming Tuesday – to win the game, the feeling is great but to score a goal, it's bonus. The one-nil win over the visiting Cambodian national team at the Bishan Stadium was indeed a relief to everyone in the Lions setup whose preparation for the biennial regional showpiece – the AFF Suzuki Cup, hasn't been smooth sailing since national caretaker coach V Sundram moorthy took over back in May. With the most of the participating countries already confirmed their list of 23 for the tournament, the former Lions striker decided to buckle the trend by stated he will only do so when arrived in the Philippines in reply to a query from the media after the game. “I will only reveal when we are in Philippines,” said Coach Sundram during the post-match press conference on the to-be-finalized squad which is now trimmed to 24...

Outgoing FAS president Zainudin Nordin "It is an important milestone in Singapore football!" as declared by the outgoing Football Association of Singapore (FAS) president Zainudin Nordin in the press conference that took place after the Extraordinary General Meeting (EOGM) at the Jalan Besar Stadium last evening. EXHAUSTIVE ENGAGING The EOGM was called upon to pass the proposed new constitution for the game's local governing body after the initial plan to approve it was aborted in late September following requests from delegates for further consultations and amendments to be made to it. And the outcome eventually saw the delegates (38 out of the 46 of them) presented at the EOGM unanimously vote in favour of endorsing the new constitution and paved the way to have elections in place for the FAS office-bearers for the first time in over 30 years. Lim Kia Tong confirmed his intention to form a team Throughout the media session, the panelists, who also includ...

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, the recent Causeway Challenge fixture between Singapore and Malaysia shall go down in history as one of those anti-climax games in recent years. Apart from both teams using this friendly to finalize their preparation for the AFF Suzuki Cup next month, it is always not uncommon to have both the Lions and Harimau (Tigers) trying to claim supremacy over each other since both went separate ways 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 in a much more mundane affair. Perhaps much of that "damp squid" ambience has 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 con...