BoLASEPaKO.com - A Blog on Singapore Football

Nineteenth-time English league champions Liverpool concluded their South East Asian tour with a 2-0 win over fellow Premier League side Crystal Palace to clinch the Standard Chartered Singapore Trophy last evening at the National Stadium. The result meant the Reds fly out of the region with a record of a win and a defeat (4-0 loss to Manchester United in Bangkok). Liverpool fans at the match (credit: Standard Chartered Singapore Trophy 2022) In front of 50,217 fans, the fixture was the first that featured the two European top-flight clubs played in Singapore since 2019. Other than a small number of Palace fans that congregated behind one of the goals, it was almost a partisan Liverpool crowd that recreated the Anfield atmosphere at Kallang, such as the rendition of the club's iconic anthem - "You'll Never Walk Alone" during the night. Liverpool took an early in the 13th minute when skipper Jordan Henderson fired past Eagles' keeper Vicente Guaita in the box after

I hope everyone already woke up from a bad nightmare for what it was never meant to be in the first place. It was a bitter pill to swallow to see some of our neighbours (see links below under RELATED NEWS at the foot) qualified for the Asian Cup, while we could only lick our wounds and keep thinking about what went wrong. The emotion of Shah Shahiran (20) sums it up Many things were said about the preparation, process, etc. leading to the trip to the Kyrgyz Republic for the qualifiers of the continent's most prestigious tournament (i.e.: the late appointment of Takayuki Nishigaya as the national team coach , short preparation period , etc.) And when things did not go according to the script, it inevitably triggered an outcry, as seen on the platform's Facebook page lately. MOVING FORWARD It does not help the situation anymore if we keep harping on those hotly debated issues when we should be looking forward after the post-mortem period. When Coach Nishigaya insisted the Lions

Rizal is now part of Tanjong Pagar United's coaching panel Rizal Rahman is the reason why I decided to take up football photography. I still remember that day we met for the first time face to face at a fast food outlet near the National Stadium when he asked if I have pictures from his playing days. Which, unfortunately, I had none as I had yet to start taking match photos back then and I could sense the disappointment which I thought was probably a good time to venture into something that was alien to me. The following repurposed content is the feature on the former Balestier Khalsa goalkeeper which was first published on 23rd April 2009 in a Q&A format. Additional details were added to this blog post recently to give an update on the ex-national youth goalkeeper. FROM THE VOID DECKS Like many Singapore boys, Rizal started playing football in void decks of HDB (Housing Development Board) residential blocks. As the primary school where he studied did not have a football team,

So long it's not called "pussy cat" I must be probably one of the rare few in Singapore to nickname the Singapore National Under-23 squad as "THE CUBS", whereas most would call them "YOUNG LIONS". For a good reason, I thought "CUBS" should be the appropriate one in this context, even though some opined those national teams in the teenage group should be called that. Simply because "YOUNG LIONS" is a team playing in the Singapore Premier League (SPL) and not a team representing the Republic in international tournaments. To nickname the Singapore National Under-23 as "YOUNG LIONS" would only give a wrong interpretation that the SPL team of the same name is THE ONE representing Singapore in overseas competitions when it is not (even though the bulk of the CUBS were selected from the YOUNG LIONS on many occasions). After all, the function of "YOUNG LIONS" is for developmental purposes in a professional setting. While

We read to widen not constraint our perspective The idea of sharing past occurrences of local football on this platform is to remind us what happened in the past and how those events should inspire us to do better. It is never meant to be a channel to allow certain groups or ideologies to claim superiority over other groups or beliefs. It has not been uncommon to see some lauded and immortalised the achievements of those many decades ago while belittling the efforts of those who did us proud in recent years. These thoughts came to me after I read a book recently in which a former national player lamented efforts by his club mates and himself in a continental tournament meant little significance to many fans who still basking in the glory of a domestic Cup competition which Singapore long associated in the past (need not for me to elaborate which Cup competition). This only tells us the parochial mindset that is etched in the mindset of some fans who still cannot let go of the past. Whi