BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

With due respect to the past visiting teams, this year's International Champions Cup Singapore (ICCSG) Tournament was probably be the most glittering since Singapore Sports Hub first hosted the event in 2017 under an ongoing four-year agreement. Not only because two of four participating teams - Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspurs are two of the best supported English Premier League sides in Singapore, Juventus, who back in Singapore for the first time since 2015, were boasted by the presence of talismanic Cristiano Ronaldo and the impressive 19-year-old Matthijs de Ligt, the new signing from Ajax Amsterdam following his notable performance that won him admirers among the top clubs in Europe. Credit to the man in cap for started the Kallang Wave on last Saturday Apart from the largely cold shoulder response by the Red Devils to their adoring fans upon their arrival at their Ritz Carlton Millenia base, the players of other three participating sides duly ob

Probably by now the newly-appointed Singapore national team coach Tatsuma Yoshida should more or less have a rough idea where our level of football is after the two recent matches that served as an orientation for the Japanese tactician. Coach Tatsuma Yoshida is the first Japanese coach of the Lions When his name was mentioned on various media reports prior to the official unveiling by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) early this month, many skepticisms clouded over his appointment which mainly targeted his less-than-impressive curriculum vitae. Still, the former Jurong FC player pressed ahead and went straight down to business by taking charge of the Lions in the recent friendly matches against the Solomon Islands and Myanmar at Kallang. THE USUAL BRICKBATS Barely surprising after an unconvincing 4-3 win over Solomon Islands and a 2-1 defeat to Myanmar , critics were quick to jump onto the bandwagon to make their voices heard although there are those who felt it&

SGPL - Home United 2-1 Young Lions 060419 What a joy! The Young Lions did not make it that easy for Home United to claim all three points in the latter's 2-1 win over the former at the Bishan Stadium. Izzdin Shafiq and Adam Swandi scored for Home, Joshua Pereira cancelled out Izzdin's opener a minute later to claim YL's only goal of the match in eighth minute. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES SGPL - Balestier Khalsa 0-1 Young Lions 030519 Dejected ... Managed to get the camera in order in time, first attempt after a long while without using a monopod (as advised by a venerable photographer) and using the setting at "K 5000", I had my first night outing of the year. Young Lions revenged for the humiliating loss in their season opener by defeated Balestier Khalsa 1-0 at Bishan Stadium. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THE MATCH PICTURES Merlion Cup 2019 Press Conference 150519 This Merlion Cup trophy was the

The new Merlion Cup trophy was unveiled by the members of the FAS Council It was a mere formality earlier this afternoon at the Jalan Besar Stadium (JBS) to confirm the revival of the Merlion Cup tournament this coming June following news of its coming back being revealed by Fox Sports Asia weeks ago. Back in late April, the online portal first reported the Philippines U22 side will be taking part in the mentioned tournament and posted another update days ago that revealed the dates and venue of the quadrangular which will be taking place on 7th and 9th June at the JBS. Former Lions skipper Terry Pathmanathan (second from left) shares his Merlion Cup experiences In a draw that was conducted during the press conference at JBS VIP Lounge, the fate of the four participating teams namely - the U22 sides of Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines were made known. THE FORMAT The first day (7th June) of the tournament will see Thailand vs Indonesia in the first match

Maybe we will not say it now but who knows twenty years down the road, we would proudly declare: "The era under Raddy Avramovic was the greatest ever in Singapore football!", I am sure there are some people who read the words earlier would recommend me to see a psychiatrist now. How on earth would that be possible when that period while the Serbian was the coach of the Singapore national team was considered by many as a watershed in the local football despite successfully guided the Lions to three Asean titles in 2004, 2007, 2012 and accoladed himself as the "Coach of the Year" by Asean Football Federation back in 2013. 20 years later we would thank Raddy for his work done for us  Ironically, it was because of those honours gathered during that period that when people start to reminisce about the "glorious" past and those records would speak for themselves and some would say "yes, those were the days..." and start to talk about those nosta