Merry X'MAS and a Happy New Yr

2007 has been a memorable year for Singapore Soccer. Our Lions successfully defended the Asean Championship in January this year and capped an unforgettable year by marching into the 3rd round of the World Cup qualifiers.



Unwilling to be outdone by their seniors, the Khairul Amri led Young Lions won the 1st ever medal in the SEA games since the competition introduced the age cap of 23 yrs old.

Our national team has risen from the ashes, from the 4-0 drubbling by malaysia in the 2002 Tiger cup, from falling to qualify for the SEA games semis since 1999 to a team that most fear in the region.

Lets continue to progress and job well done to all those at the NFA for churning out one youngster after another. The future of Singapore football has never been brighter.

I wish all readers a Merry Christmas and a fruitful 2008 ahead.

Photo taken from FAS.com

Bumpy Road Ahead for the Lions in World Cup 2010 Qualifiers

The lions ought to thank their lucky stars for avoiding the group of death where Australia, China, Iraq and Asian games champions will fight it out for the 2 slots in round 4.

However, I suppose coach Raddy would prefer Japan, North Korea, Kuwait, China to the Saudis and Uzbekistan. These 2 teams play cut throat attacking style of soccer and I doubt Singapore can use their soak and strike strategy against them.


The 2005 and 2007 Asean champions love to play 10 men behind the ball when they are up against Asia Powerhouses like Japan, Iraq and China in our past games. It worked out well and we obtained some impressive results like a 2-0 win over Iraq and a 0-0 draw with china. However, against the physical Uzebs and the skillful, pacy Saudi, theres a lot of work to be done to salvage at least a point. Remember how the former soviet union team overpowered the chinese in the 2007 Asian Cup? Were you at the stadium when 3 time Asian Champions, Saudi, dominated the Lions in a friendly this June? The saudis played with a reserve team and were leading 2-0 at halftime, only to win 2-1 after one of their players were sent off in the 2nd half.

Nevertheless, I am a true blue Lions supporter and have absolute faith in the tactical knowledge of coach Raddy. Singapore soccer has improve tremendously since his appointment as coach and I am positive we are heading in the correct direction. We one of the top 20 nations in Asia soccer. Given some luck, determination, hard work and preparation, maybe the Lions can achieve the ex Goal 2010. Win or lose, I am always behind the Lions. Go Lions Goal!

Tribute to SAFFC - Six time Sleague Champions

95 goals scored, 38 conceded and a mere 4 losses out of 33 games in an Sleague season! What a season the warrior has had! To add the icing on the cake, Aleksandar Duric won the top marksman by plundering in a massive 37 goals outscoring his nearest competitor by 18 goals. So what went right for the warriors?

1. Home Form - To win all except one draw one game at home is the sort of form that wins you title. SAF has been exceptional at home this season. Fans of the warriors have been treated to goals galore at the Choa Chu Kang Stadiu, this season as shown by the 6-0 and 6-2 drubbing of the Korean Super Reds and 5-0 thrashing of the Young Lions. Lest you think that the warriors are only capable of "bullying kecil", they also posted a 4-1 over their nearest title rivals, Home United at CCK. The warriors usually win their games by handsome margin, and their slick passing is breathe taking at times.

2. Strong Bench - This is what Home United is lacking. Looking at the bench for the Warrior's last game, theres, Razif, Faizal Aziz, Ashrin Sharrif, Masrezwan, Aidil Sharin all of whom might be in the 1st 11 of most the Sleague clubs. Not forgetting that they are also missing Hafiz Osman and Mustaqim via suspension. In short, the champions have ample cover for every position and its this strength in depth that kept the warriors on the warpath throughout the season.

3. Wingers - Explosive wingers has been a trait of SAF tactics in recent seasons. To enhance the strength that Duric has in the air, Coach Richard Bok has placed an emphasis to get the balls wide to their wingers and to make use of the pace and trickery of players like Mustaqim, Jamil Ali and Noor Ali to provide pin-point crosses for the 1.88m giant, Duric.



4. Richard Bok - The "rookie" Sleague coach has never looked back since taking over the job in the middle of last season. As they said, winning the title is difficult, but to defending it is even tougher. Foreseeing the bumpy road ahead, Richard made shrewd signings during the off season. In came Masrezwan and Aidil, and the duo did provide more options for him as the season wore on. Despite a available foreigner slot available due to John Wilkinson obtaining his Singapore citizenship, the Sleague coach of the year 2006 chose to register just 3 foreigners in the form of Duric, Thersak and Kenji. This proved to be a master stroke as the capture of the versatile Norikazu during the mid season window has reap ample rewards. The former Albirex and Balesteir forward has contributed immensely during his short time at the club. Despite having about 18 "star players" in his squad, Richard Bok did an excellent job keeping all the players at the club happy and maintaining the squad's morale throughout the season.



5. Aleksandar Duric - The new Singapore citizen needs no introduction. He is in sparkling form this season, average more than 1 goal per game. May Duric condition his body as well as ever, for SAF to mount an assault on the AFC cup and for the Singapore National team to World Cup 2010. He has certainly added a different dimension to the Lions attack.




6. SAFFC Supporters - SAF has a set of die hard supporters, cheer leading team that follows the players like a leech, even when the warriors play their away games. Their drumming, chanting, dancing and support plays an important role in rallying the warriors, especially when the chips are down. Well done fans! I can see the delight in your eyes when referee S Kumar blew for full time yesterday!Just a pity that I did not have my camera with me.

In short, SAF were deserved winners and all the best for the Singapore Cup this Sunday! Win the double for your supporters to cap an unforgettable 2007.

Congrats SAFFC! Special mention to Home United and Tampines for putting up strong resistance till the final whistle of the season. Looking forward to Sleague 2008!

Pictures taken from Sleague.com, todayOnline, safwarriors.com.sg

Sorry for the lack of Updates

Sorry for not updating this blog.
Will post an entry regarding the Sleague in the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, congrats to SAF for sucessfully defending their title.

Liverpool revealing their true colors!

Finally, the pretenders to the throne, liverpool, are beginning to show their true colors. Sitting at the table after 4 games in the EPL, and talks of them lifting the title for the FIRST time since the inception of the Premier League swarmed the internet and newspaper. However, everyone seems to have forgotten that 2 of the wins were against newly promoted sides and the 3rd win was a last min win vs Villa. So wats the BIG deal?!

They were praising Benitez's shrewd signings over the summer. Yes, I admit Torres is a class act, but wat about the rest of the team? Benayoun, Leto, Voronin and of cos, the "best" winger in England after Wright-Phillips, Pennant. May I remind the liverpool fans not to get carried away by this "dream" team tat ur gaffer has assembled. Does he realli think that hes got such a massive squad to rotate with? Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd all have big squads, but the key is QUALITY! Liverpool does not possess quality in the 1st 11, let alone the enitre squad of 18-20 players!

He is resting Torres as he wans him to be fresh come end of season when Liverpool is challenging for honours? Wat honours are u toking abt benitez?? Are you sure your dream team can still keep up with the leaders OR do u presume lady luck will accompany your champions league glory trail? Can someone pls wake Benitez up from his dreams?



Benitez said that he wanted to qualify asap for the knockout phase so that he can concentrate on the league, this statement shows that the bald manager has no respect for his CL opponents! Liverpool were awful against Porto and extremely lucky to escape with a draw. And Marseille certain showed liverpool that they are not pushovers by inficting the pretenders to the throne their 1st defeat of the season. Benitez has labelled the defeat as the worst liverpool performance. Mark my words, the worst is yet to come! Bekistas is no easy meat as well and I would luv to see liverpool propping up the table after the grp stages, so tat Benitez can fulfill his wishes of fully concentrating on the EPL. Yeah! Luv it!

IF a classy Mourinho who has won 2 titles for chelsea can get sacked after a poor run of results, so can you Mr Benitez! What have you won for liverpool? League cup, FA cup and of cos the CL title won by once in a 1000 years comeback.

Yes, Liverpool will never walk alone, as they fan will walk together with them, dreaming and desperating awaiting the day liverpool lay its hand on the conveted EPL. It is fine not to win any titles, but just stop irriating others that you are geniue contenders for the title, and stop getting carried away when you are sitting on top of the table after 4 games. Stop rotating your players as Liverpool is not Arsenal, in my opinion, onli Arsenal can play their reserves yet obtain a decent result.So stop deceiving yourself that you are capable of rotating ur team. Liverpool is history, so stop relying on ur past glory, they count for NOTHING! Absolutely nothng!

Pictures taken from liverpool official website and uefa.com

Shameful Woodlands! You are a disgrace to Singapore Soccer!!

Singapore vs Thailand, Asean Football Championship 2007 Final, 1st leg. The Thais stormed off the pitch after the Malaysian ref incorrectly awarded a penalty to Singapore. Play was halted for almost 30mins, but eventually resumed after much persuasion by the AFF officials. I was cursing and swearing at the thais for displaying lack of sportsmanship and discipline. Never did I expect such a scenario to occur in our very own Sleague, a league whom the AFC has identified to be "refurbished" to one of the top 12 leagues in Asia. This absolute disgraceful act by the digusting woodlands was the 1st in the SLeague 12 yrs old history!



I wasnt at the game, I did not see the incident, but I suppose woodlands were outdone by the referee. How many times have the referee make worst decisions then that in the EPL, Champions league, or even international events like the World Cup? Many a times had Cristano Ronaldo dives deceived the referee, yet how did the opponents react? Yes, they reacted by shouting n cursing at the referee, but never has a team instigated a walk off just like wat shameful woodlands did!

Referees are just human beings like you and me, they are prone to error. Imagine Graham Poll issuing 3 yellow cards to the same Aussie player in World Cup last yr instead of showing the red card. Although the final result cannot be overturned, teams are able to appeal against the decision, which the relevant authorties will review and take necessary action against the ref, just like how Poll was sent home after the Australia vs Croatia game.

Yes, the referee might have made a mistake, but what do you aim to gain by storming off the pitch? Do you suppose the referee might "recall" the red card dished out? Or the ref to go around saying sorry and make things even by dishing out the red card to a tampines player? To read from TODAY tat the woodlands chairman was the person tat instructed his players off the pitch makes this even worst! As a leader of the club, he shld set an good example and go through the appropriate channel to solve this amicably, not to stir things up by performing such digusting act!

How can the club, which is one of the pioneers of the Sleague try to take matters in their own hand? I hope the Sleague comes down hard on them and whoever is the culprit behind tat insitgated the players off the pitch should be severely dealt with! May the culprits be banned from getting involved in the local soccer scene! This would serve as a deterrent to anyone trying to mess around with the referee. (Just look at the Super Reds, who protested against their captain sending off last fri by stopping play for abt 10mins)

As they say, theres no smoke without fire, the Sleague disciplinary committe shld at the same time, punish Mustafic for his play acting(if any).Soccer is a form of sports, not an acting game. Its time to win games with your ball skills, not with those Golden Horse awards!

Picture taken from TODAYONLINE

The impact and the conclusion

The decision by FIFA to hold the Asian World Cup Qualifying round in sept-oct period will hit the local clubs badly, especially Home United.

It is an open secret that Home United has got star players on the pitch but their bench are mainly made up of prime league players. Without the services of Lionel Lewis, Indra Sahdan, Shi Jiayi, Sharil Ishak, HU will struggle. Lionel will leave behind huge gloves to fill, especially if you are a HU supporter, U will know the numerous no. of saves Lionel made to win us games. He is my Sleague player of the season so far.

SAFFC on the other hand will have ample cover on the bench as they will be only missing benett, their regular centreback. The shrewd signing of Norikazu made by coach Richard Bok sort of lessen the impact of missing Ashrin and Masturi. In addition, Razif and Faizal Aziz can easily step into the void left by Bennett.

Tampines will lose the goals of Alam Shah during this period. However, Mirko n Peres are capable replacements. However, if Sutee were to be called up as well, the stags will be short of ammunition and do not forget, the Stags are competing on 3 fronts this season, the league, the cup and the AFC cup. I wonder if their players have the legs to sustain such challenge.

Conclusion : Unless something dramatic happens, SAF will successfully defend their title.

Unsporting Aussies!

The recently concluded Asian Cup saw the Iraqis overcoming all odds to lift the title for the 1st time in their history, bringing much joy to the war torn country. The final between Iraq and Saudi Arabia was the first final since 1996 to be played between 2 middle east countries. Missing from the Jakarta showdown was traditional powerhouses Japan, Korea, Iran and the media favourite, Australia.

The aussies have been blaming everything, from the weather, to bad refereeing to opponents showing no respect for them. Why should any team show respect for a team that claims to have won the title even before the tournament started?!

Lets take a look at how the australians prepared themselves for their maiden appearance in this Asian biggest soccer prize.

With 2-3 weeks to go before the start of the tournament, they set up a training camp in singapore, trying to allow their players to get used to the heat and humidity of the match conditions. During their stay, all they did was to train and the only friendly lined up was the last game at the national stadium against the Lions. Compare the aussies tune up to that of korea and japan who lined up at least 3 games each to prepare the players. If this is not arrogant enough, look at whats Harry Kewell forecast for the australian team. At a pre-match conference given before his team faced oman, he boldy predicted that the aussies will at least reach the semis, else it will be considered a failure.

Judging from the way they played, this australian team dont deserve to beat singapore 3-0 in the friendly, neither should they hav defeated the thais, who totally dominated the game. If not for Viduka, australia would have taken the 1st flight home! So what if you have all the players playing in renowned leagues? The soccer you dished out is among the worst in the Asian Cup.

Having a team full of stars count for nothing, soccer is a team game, if the players are technically sound, but they can't play as a team, they will achieve ZERO. Look at brazil, its without a doubt that the south american powerhouse has the best individual talent in the world, but that does not guarantee them the world cup title every year.

Stop blaming the referee, the weather and more less your opponents lack of respect towards you, Australia. Respect is to be earned and not based on your reputation. Learn your lesson that we Asians should not be underestimated!



Congrats to Iraq yet again. Hopefully, can get to see some Iraqis make the mark in european league. Just in case you forgotten, our Singapore Lions defeated the Asian Champions, Iraq 2-0 at the national stadium in Feb 2006. So who says the Lions aren't improving?


newspaper article taken from todayonline and photo taken from asiancup website

Beloved National Stadium

The year was 1990, the match --> Singapore vs Selangor. It was a last min decision that my family went to the national stadium for the malaysia cup showdown between Singapore and its perennial rivals. It got my adrenaline flowing when I saw the stadium packed, shaking when the fans stamped their feet. And tat was my first encounter with the grand old lady of S'pore. I craved for more and since then national stadium was my motivation to study hard in exchange for my dad to bring us there every weekend.



Like any other Singaporean, I was shocked when FAS announced the Lion's withdrawal from the Malaysia Cup. It meant no more weekend trip to support Fandi n Co. Nevertheless, whenever there are international matches, I never fail to turn up at kallang and roar for the lions.

The 2005 and 2007 ASEAN championship triumph were sweet moments for any Singapore fans to savour. The 2-0 win over Iraq, the 0-0 draw with China will make the region powerhouse not to take the lions lightly. A walk down the memory lanes will also see me rate Singapore vs Mynamar in the 1993 SEA games where we lost a 2 goal lead, the 1995 Asian Cup qualifier against thailand where we once again failed to hold on to a 2 goal lead to draw 2-2 and missed the boat to the tournament proper.

30th of June, 2007 marks the last match at the national stadium. The man for the big occassion, Indra, had 3 good chances to score but luck was not on our side. Never mind the 3-0 defeat, we shld take heart from the improvement of the Lions since Raddy took charge. With the sports hub opening in 4yrs time, we can expect the likes of Khairul, Harris Harun, Lionel, Agu, Jiayi, Sharil Ishak to elavate Singapore Soccer to a higher level.



Goodbye National Stadium, from the Fandi, Sundram, Tong Hai, Malek Awab, D.Tokijan era to Indra, Alam Shah, Aide, Thank You for all the fond memories. You will have a special place in my heart, always.

SG Cup Preview

League leaders HU play Singtel Cup Champions, Woodlands tomorrow in the Quater Final of the Singapore Cup.

HU suffered their 1st league defeat of the season at the hands of the RAMS and with morale at a low after a hard fought game against gombak, the RAMS have every chance of salvaging at least a draw to bring back to their northen base.

Year in year out, the RAMS have been underachievers of the league, signing prominent players like Agu, Dickson, Bennett but still never seriously challenged for top honours in the past yrs. This season, with the exception of Latiff and Park, the rest of the team hasnt played up to expectations, especially last season Sleague player of the yr, Laakkad Abdelhadi who seems out of sorts recently. Having said that, Jorg Steinbrunner's men always rise to the occassion against the top guns of the league and my prediction is at least a draw for the underachievers given the form the protector is in.

May the best team prevail..

Before Lady Luck says Bye Bye..

After a third of the season, the media and fans alike have started to brand HU as the title favourites and seem to disregard the challenge posed by tampines n SAFFC who are 2 pts and 7pts adriff but both teams have a game in hand. The big question - Will HU be able to sustain their title challenge?

Below are my thoughts of the team based on the 7-8 games tat I caught them in action.

If there is one player that stood out for the Sleague Leaders, it has to be Lionel Lewis and I am postive all fans alike will agree with me. The 1.88m goalie has performed heroics to propel HU up the table and he is the main reason why HU has the defence has only conceded a miserable 9 goals. When HU played SAF and tampines, Lionel repelled what was thrown at him on numerous occassions and laid the platform for HU victories over those games. Without these 6 points, HU would have been in midtable position. You will be surprised that when HU played the minnows like gombak, liaoning, Lionel was also called into action. To win the title, HU has to ensure that Lionel stays injury free and available for all the games, including those against Sengkang or Korean.

With Vincent Subramaniam at the helm this season, we see a new HU formation of 4-3-1-2, a formation that has not been used in the Steve Darby or Zolst Buch regime. With only 3 midfielders, it has restricted HU to minimal possession in most of the games they played in.

Dakitar might be a combative n aggressive player but no way can he control the middle of the park alone. Thats when Lions internationals Sharil Ishal and Jiayi comes into action. However, it leaves a gap on the flanks when the protectors move forward as their fullbacks, Jummat and Rosman arent as adventurous as their predecessor Sivakumar or Immran Sahib. This has resulted in HU relying heavily on the pace of Ludovick and Indra upfront, a tatic, that has saw them defeated Tampines and SAF despite defending for long periods of the game.

Speaking of Indra, I seriously doubt his ability as a playmaker. Being the first local born player to score 100 sleague goal, he is not the at all well known for his dribbling, vision and passing. By putting him in the hole behind the front 2, the coach is wasting indra's talent and hence we have missed his goals contribution.

Qiu Li has been impressive last season for the young lions but in truth he has been a disappointment this season. The chinese has been rather quiet in the games so far, not helped by Vincent's rotation policy upfront. No doubt he is a great target man, but the coach seems to prefer Ludovick upfront alone, with Qiu Li and Indra supporting from behind. Vicent also has the tendency to leave Kone on the bench and I wonder why. The young Ivorian who usually plays on the left, has explosive pace and maybe tats why Vincent choose to let him come on as a subsitute. Kone is a too shiny a gem to leave on the bench.

IMHO, HU has a potent strikeforce, but it has not been deployed to its fullest potential. They should drop either Qiu Li or Indra and play with onli two upfront. Push Sharil to the right flank and partner Jiayi with Dakitar in the middle of the park with Kone starting on the left of midfield for a more tried and tested 4-4-2 formation.

Another achillies heel facing the protector is their lack of depth on the bench, especially in the defence department. Their reserve goalie, Ridzuan, was awful 2 seasons ago when he had the chance to prove his worth. And should Mani or Dakitar become unavilable, who can the coach call upon to replace the defensive pillars? The youngsters that have came in for the odd game or two like Hairul Hadar or Syaqir Sulaiman hasnt shown that they are capable of filling the boots.

The league table does not lie and although HU are at the top of the table, the most die-hard of the protectors fan will tell you that they are not playing the most attractive football in the league currently. They need to act fast before lady luck deserts them..

Which is better? Schooling or Working?

I have been working for a week or so and today is my fifth day of work. Nice environment, friendly colleagues, convenient location, very welfare HR, good prospects? Maybe not..

In any case, I am exhausted after work, maybe its bcos I lose out on my afternoon naps, yes, napS, as I can nap a couple of times in the afternoon. Life has been pretty mundane since I started work. Wake up, go to work, come home, eat and sleep and the cycle repeats. Tats boring isnt it? How I wish I can inject more colors into my dull lifestyle.. I guess I need another week or two before I can accustomed myself to this new "schedule" and hopefully, I would have muster enuff energy to engage in after office hrs activities like shopping, watching soccer or movies...

Who says life is stressful as a student? Revision, tutorials and exams are nothing as compared to working. Its equivalent to getting trapped in a cage from 8-6... BUT no work no $$, so get ur ass moving and start getting serious in ur work..

Answers to the Quiz

Stadium 1 - National Stadium
Stadium 2 - Jurong West Stadium
Stadium 3 - Choa Chu Kang Stadium (s-league stadium with largest scoreboard other than Jalan
besar)
Stadium 4 - Jalan Besar Stadium (Vincent and Surachai seated)
Stadium 5 - Queenstown Stadium
Stadium 6 - Woodlands Stadium (next to the sports hall)
Stadium 7 - BISHAN Stadium
Stadium 8 - Toa Payoh Stadium
Stadium 9 - Hougang Stadium (onli stadium with such settings n flag posts)
Stadium 10 - Tampines Stadium (hyundai adver board and NTUC income building behind)

One Month Anniversary of Singapore Soccer

To celebrate one month anniversary of "SINGAPORE SOCCER", I have a pair of tickets to Home United vs Liaoning to give away (subject to me receiving them from HUFC).

Heres what you need to do to win this small token of appreciation:

1. Post your nickname, on the comments URL located beneath this post.
2. Identify all ten stadiums correctly.
3. Identify the 2 persons sitting on the green seats in Picture 4.

The 1st reader to fulfill all the above criteria will be declared the winner. If no reader can correctly identify the stadiums by 2359 hrs on 1st of June, the tickets will go to me.. haha...






Those die hard Sleague fans should hav no problem identifying the stadiums as each pic has a unique "landmark".

Time to get down to business

When I am enjoying myself, time flies whereas when I am studying for exams or projects, time crawls like a snail sia! Its been 3 weeks since I am freed of school work, and all the post examinations celebrations like Chalet, Paintball, KL trip, meeting up w old frens, etc are over in a flash and its time to enter the world of reality again. Will RE-enter workforce tomorrow and may everything be plain sailing for me and its going to be non stop work n work and still work from this moment onwards! I realli miss sch where I can have more freedom sia..

When I first RE-started sch, my mum gave me an ang bao for heng heng, wonder if I will get another one tomorrow? hmmmm.....

Champions League Final 07

Can Lady luck shine on Liverpool once again in 2 hrs time? Can they repeat their feat of 2 years ago n defeat the in form AC Milan?

Seriously, i think they have a good chance if Kuyt works hard upfront and Gerrard is deployed as a centre midfielder... If it comes down to penalty, then there is only ONE winner, given pool's proud record in penalty shootout...

Best Goalie in Asia - Lionel Lewis

HU stormed to the top of the Sleague with a 2-0 win over arch rivals cum defending champions, SAFFC. With this victory, it meant tat the protectors have defeated both the favourites for this season's title after having beaten the stags 3-1 towards the end of last month. Looking at the league table, HU has conceded ONLY 7 goals in 10 ten games. And for those of you who have caught last friday's game or have been following the protectors glory trail this season, you will certainly have taken note of one player in the home united ranks - Lionel Lewis.

Lionel made numerous crucial saves in last friday's game and his first save (as seen in the sequence of 4pics above) from Ashrin Shariff when the game was less than a min is deemed as most crucial. It would have given HU a mountain to climb if Lionel had not pushed the ball away.

Despite Home United's postion at the top of the league, most people would think that the 2003 sleague champions had an easy ride so far, but I beg to differ. The 24 years old Lionel is the difference between HU and the other teams. Balesteir coach, Abdul Karim Razzak, described Lionel as a goalkeeper that can win 20 points for his team in a season. Similarly, how often do u hear the opposition coach singling Lionel out for praises, be it in Sleague or international games? It will be no surprise if Lionel is named the Sleague Player of the Season if Home United were to bag the Sleague title.


Lionel is a player who needs no introduction given his exploits with the Singapore Lions in recent years. However, for those who are interested in some facts and figures abt your favourite football idol, here are some info I got from the Wiki and also based on what I can recall.

• Date of Birth : 16 Dec 1982
• Height : 1.88m
• Previous Club: Geylang United, Young Lions
  
• International Debut : Against the Maldives on 9 April 2002. (Aged 19 at the time)
• S-League Appearance as of end 2006 Season : 145 appearances

Lionel started his career with Geylang United and joined Young Lions in 2003 and was "loaned" to the protectors for their AFC campaign for 2004. The lanky goalie with a huge following made his debut for the lions in 2002. However, he only managed to grab the "no.18" jersey from Hassan Sunny in 2004 and since then, he has been our regular goalkeeper in international tournaments. It was that same year that the Nanyang polytechnic graduate came into the limelight with his heroic displays btwn the posts that won him the honour of the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament.

In 2006, the police officer was nominated for the AFC player of the year award, the 1st Singaporean to be nominated for the award in the 13th year history of the award. The nomination makes it sweeter as he is the only goalkeeper among the 10 nominees.

The rise of Singapore Soccer since 2004 and Home United this season is coupled with the emergence of Lionel as an uncompromising goalkeeper. His huge frame makes it almost impossible to score against him in 1 to 1 situations. Whenever Lionel stands btwn the posts, his agility, reflexes, safe handling and astute reading of the game gives extreme confidence to the rest of his teammates, especially the defenders. It is with this air of confidence that has seen Singapore defended its ASEAN cup successfully and HU lead in the Sleague. May there be more triumphs in future.

People say that strikers win you games, and hence the strikers are usually paid the most in a club. (look at Ronaldo, Ballack, Shevchenko) but in my view, Lionel wins games for HU and Singapore. He made numerous incredible saves so far in his career and hopefully Lionel can be the 1st Singaporean to play in a European league after the Fandi and Sundram era. All the best Lionel, the Peter Cech cum Buffon of Singapore!

*the pictures are screenshots taken from Mediacorp CH5 and ESPN during the Tiger Cup 2004, 2007 and Sleague telecast.

Foreign Rubbish "Polluting" our S league

This year has seen the most no. of foreign teams participating in the S-League since Sinchi first "invaded" the Sleague in 2003. Lets take a look at how these 3 teams have performed after playing their 10th game in the league this season.


Albirex Niigatta - This squad draws its players from the Japanese feeder squad of Albirex Niigatta, Japan. They created waves when they made an explosive start in their debut season but their "real" talent was unearthed as the season wore on where they finished 5th in the 2004 season. Incidentally, that has been their best ever finish in the Sleague as they ended up in 5th and 6th position in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

For the 1st 3 seasons, the japs have played 84 games, won 36, drew 25 and lost the remaining 23 games. This leads to a point per game of 1.583. I have to admit that I used to admired the class of 2004 and 2005 where they had the likes of Hidetoshi Wakui, Kenji Arai and IsseyNakajima, who was voted the SLeague young player of the year in 2005 and was actually considered for the Foreign Talent Scheme. Albriex has since be missing players of their calibre since the trio left albirex in 2005. Those players that came in subsequently have not left an impression on me and most of them are young kids still beginning to ply their trade in this professional league.

So far this season, Albirex has attained 3 victories against -> Woodlands, Young Lions and korean. The japs got their 1st victory against the depleted RAMs with a last min winner. The victory over the YL must be credited to their GK, Norio Takahashi, who was credited with man of the match award and when a GK is awarded MOM, it just goes to show the amt of chances the opponent has created. I would label it as a "lucky" win as well. They got their 3rd win of the season when they bullied the koreans 5-0 last week. No big deal beating a club tat loses 80% of the games that they played in.

Just like liverpool, Albriex is living on past reputation or achievements. Their squad of 2007 hasnt got skill and techniques to survive in the Sleague. Yes, they might occasionally sniff out a victory or two, but its obvious that if the JAPS do not improve the quality of their players, they will not improve beyond their best ever finish of 5th place.


Liaoning - This team from China is actually Sinchi "Senior" with no more than 5 players from the ex Sinchi regime. Liaoning has impressed in their opening 2 games although they lost by a single goals in both outings. However, their performance since then has gone from bad to worse. Their defending was atrocious against SAF, Tampines n Gombak United. Their over realiance on their defender, Chen Bo is too heavy a burden for the ex-china player to bear.

Liaoning has achieved 2 victories to date, and both were gained by beating their foreign counterparts, Korean and Albirex. They have been using the Singapore climate for their poor performance, but how many more months or years do u need to get accustomised to the local weather after playing in Singapore for the past 4-5 months?! I am positive tat losing 8 out of 10 games is certainly not the type of standard the Sleague is looking for when they allowed the re-entry of a chinese club into sleague after a one year absence.

Korean Super Reds - Do not be fooled by their name, they are neither super nor do they play like typical koreans! They are simply a disgrace to Korean Soccer, i realli hope they can rename the club asap! Yes, they beaten Geylang 1-0 and drew 1-1 with Sengkang. They lost 8 out of 10 games and the being thrashed is as common as But are they here to fight it out with our Sleague no-hopers or to give the top guns a run for their money?

Their coach, Hong In Woong, has boasted of a top 3 finish in the league during the pre-season press conference. I doubt they can even achieve 3 wins in the entire season! How much a challenge can 2 to 3 over the hill K-League players pose together with a bunch of University students? Arent they taking the Sleague too lightly? So far, this korean team has the worst disciplinary record in the Sleague, garnering 7 red cards and 28 yellow cards in the process. This works out to a player being sent of in 70% of their games. I suppose their immediate task is to keep 11 players on the pitch and avoid losing by double digit scoreline in the league.

Going into the 11th week of the season, I wonder why is the SLeague willing to accept such sub standard teams playing in our league? Albirex Niigata itself is not one of the big guns in J-League! Is the standard of Singapore soccer tat low to the extend tat a feeder squad of a mediocre J-League club is capable of challenging for top honours in the Sleague? Yes, the japanese has been qualifying for the world cup on a regular basis, but that does not imply that ALL JAPs can play soccer! The same can be said of Korea and Liaoning.

I urge the Sleague not to judge a team based on their business models or their country of origin but rather the standard of players in these foreign teams Look at Chonburi FC who stormed into the finals of the Singapore Cup last year and Bangkok Unversity who is one of the favourites to lift the title this season. Although they both do not have the same "reputation" of the Japs, Koreans or the Chinese, these 2 thai teams certainly pose more challenge to our local clubs. Only with competition and challenges will a club progress and improve. No point pitting our skills against clubs where results are a mere formality.

In the clash of the "rubbishES", the koreans has lost both their games with huge margin. I doubt anyone will object if I were to give them the nickname of "Rubbish of the Rubbish"!

Time for Man U to exact Revenge!

I was hoing for Chelsea to stretch Man united all the way to the last match of the season, but still kudous to Mourhino's troop for rallying Fergie's devils till the 3rd last game of the season. As far as i rem, not since the 1994/95 season when Blackburn pipped Man United to the title has there been such a dramatic last day of the season.

To recall, that dramatic day for Man united, it was at upton park that the red devils failed to beat the hammers and the 1-1 draw meant that Blackburn halted man united dominance of the EPL title since its inception in 1992. I firmly believe that Man U will come all out at the hammers tomorrow looking to exact revenge for the hammer's heroic act abt a decade ago. With Ferguson promising to put out his strongest 11 and the trophy presentation after the game, the onli outcome for the game will be a Man U win and nothing else!

Whether West Ham will survive the drop will thus rely on the outcome of the Sheff Utd vs Wigan game. Given the controversy surrounding West Ham for the Tevez transfer saga, i have a feeling that they will compromise on a 1-0 wigan win to send the hammers down :)

Back to local soccer - Read from the papers that Chelsea might be coming to town on the 23rd of May with their full squad, wonder how much will FAS price the tickets at?

Sunday Nite Sleague sees Tampines plays Gombak. Gombak is playing excellent football at the moment and with the trio of Agu, Obatola and Kingsley all on 4 goals apiece, they will create all sorts of trouble for the aging Ah Peks of tampines. Tampines defence has been suspect all season long but with the return of Sead Muratovic, it shld plug the gaps though.

If he overcomes some slight injury, expect top marksman Alam shah to trouble the bulls defence esp their goalkeeper, Zaiful Nizam who looks suspect at crosses. Thus gombak will look to cut out the supply from the flanks by keeping close tabs on Santi and the pacy Ridhuan.

My pick for the game is for Gombak not to lose...

Post Exams Celebration

Time flies, I finished my LAST 30mins of school time in a flash and I am awaiting to start work in 2 weeks time. I hate working!! Besides the $$ factor, theres no other motivation for me to work :)..

Well, I am unable to update this blog regularly for the past week as blogspot dun allow me to create new posts. BUT thks to BRO ILSAHU, i managed to log this post by using "WWW2". I was also preoccupied with my post exams celebration w my kakis.. Heres where we went on thursday!



8 of us went for crossfire paintball at Singapore Discovery Centre (SDC). It was pretty fun except for the fear factor tat was induced when the coordinator warned tat if we are hit by the gun with a distance of <3m, it will DEFINITELY cause an open wound, tats when I regretted my decision to play this game. We were also advised to wear long pants n long sleeves top to protect ourselves, BUT all these were not listed on the website, so all is too late for me as I went in bermudas. In order to "SIAM" the bullets, I sustained some bruises on my knee as shown in the pic on the bottom right. Top right corner shows the "GUN" wound sustained by my fren. I am pretty lucky to escape w/o "kennaING" any paintballs from my enemies. Spent abt $50 for the entire game that last abt 100 mins.. not worth the $$ IMHO...

After the eventful morning, we headed to royal plaza on scotts for sumptous high tea. Its halal and for every 2 paying adult, the 3rd adult can makan for free. Theres a wide variety of food, from sashimi to popiah and laksa to ice kachang. Ended up paying abt $20 for 2hrs of buffet, pretty worth it. Interested parties can refer to this site --> http://www.stomp.com.sg/stfoodiesclub/diningout/135/index.html

All in all, its a pretty enjoyable day that was rounded off with a marathon karaoke session at my place. Thks BROss!!

Milestone...

4th of May is a milestone in my life.. After 4 years of slogging and 33 papers, I have finally took my last paper (paper no.34) today. To commemorate this last paper, I wore the same top as I wore for my 1st paper and i hope to achieve the same grades as well. haha..

Time flies and i will certainly miss school, the projects and deadlines as well as the yummy JAP food, my kakis, the lecture theatres, the knowledgable professors and of cos the wonderful "scenery" in school. I still got a presentation next week and after that, it will be byebye to a place i called home for the past 48mths.

Back to soccer....There was an Singapore Cup match today and Woodlands scrape through 4-3 to beat liaoning at queenstown stadium. Liaoning always seems to step up their game when they meet the top guns. For the record, they lost 1-2 to HU and 3-4 to woodies I was expecting the woodies to hand the NEW Sinchi a thrashing, but to my dismay, woodies struggled yet again.

Woodlands is another unpredictable team. They can beat HU and then come back from 2 goals down to defeat SK by the same scoreline of 3-2, yet they struggled against Liaoning? Liaoning was absolutely distratous last friday when they were overran by the bulls and theres definitely a problem with their player's stamina. They kept saying that the players arent used to the climate, but they have been here for 4 mths, so how much longer do they need?!

This Sunday, Home United FC will take on the Korean Super Reds (KSR) at bishan. HU exceeded all expectations in the opening match of the season by thrashing the korean kids 5-1, but subsequent games showed that the KSR arent in the same class as our local teams. From a pre-season "boast" of aiming for top 3 to 6 defeats in 8 games is simply nonsense! They cant pass, cant shoot, keep getting players red-carded and i has a with butter fingers! No two ways abt this sunday's result.. at least a two goal victory for my beloved protectors.

I just give up on the foreign teams these seasons, onli one word can be used to describe their standard of play - RUBBISH.

"Congrats" Liverpool

Did a search over the nite regarding past 10 Champions League winner and this is what i found from wiki.

Can you wonderful people out there realise which team is the ODD winner out?

Kudos to those who said Liverpool! Why? I term them as the ODD winner of CL, as all past winners of the CL are champions of their country in recent years. Liverpool shld be lucky that UEFA has grantedNON-Champions entry into the champions, else god knows when will liverpool ever qualify for the champions league?

No doubt, their inability to challenge for the EPL has given them a slight advantage over Chelsea. 2 yrs ago, liverpool were only challenging for CL, and this year, they are still challenging for CL.


You guys might argue that the champions league is the most prestigous title in europe, but in my opinion, to win the champions league, all you need is for lady luck to shine on you occassionally, as it is a knockout competition, the same reason why greece won euro'04 yet failed to qualify for world cup'06. Why do I say lady luck is on Liverpool? Well, they won the 2005 CL after PK and now, they are through to 2007 CL finals after penalty kicks AGAIN.

Year after year, they brag that they will win the EPL, I pity liverpool fans sia, when will they ever see their team lift the EPL title? :( The team that is able to perform consistently over a period of 9 mths is a deserving champion of that nation, no doubt abt that. But is liverpool consistent? Sad to sad no. They are consistently inconsistent!

I quote Steven Gerrard from Yahoo Sports - "That's Jose for you - he's been a credit to English football, he makes us laugh now and then," said Steven Gerrard. "I think he was a bit disrespectful calling us a little club. Two finals in three years - not bad for a little club."

Judging by their achievement in recent years, Liverpool as compared to Chelsea will ALWAYS be a little club. Liverpool is a club that is relying on past glory, so what if you have the most league titles (18 in all) when your last league title was won in 1989/1990 season? So how many years ago was that? Wait, Let me get my calculator.. OMG, thats 17 years ago since they last won the title! May I remind you that since the inception of the Premiership, the best ever finish for Liverpool was runner up spot and mind u, thats the only time Liverpool finished in top three..

Well, seeing how much Liverpool has underachieved in the past 17 years, I sent my sincere congratulations to all liverpool fans, celebrate while you can, but wait, Liverpool has yet to win the CL, they are only through to the final. May lady luck shine on the deserving winner come 23th May 2007.

Relive the 1994 Malaysia Cup Glory

A youtube video clip abt our last Malaysia Cup triumph in 1994. Oooohhhh yeah! Who can forget tat Abbas-Fandi Combination upfront and Sundram's deadly backheel?

Virgin Post

Hi All!

I have been following Sleague since its inception in 1996. Previously, I was a fan of Fandi Ahmad and the 4-0 drubbling of Pahang in the 1994 Malaysia Cup final is forever etched in my mind.

Has been supporting the protectors since early 2000 when they build a formidable team ard brazilian imports like Egmar and Peres de Oliveria. The year when HU last won the title, they were scoring goals for fun and I look forward to a repeat of that performance in this season's league.

I will use this blog to post my views on Singapore football and post pictures of the matches that I attended. I am an ardent Sleague fan that attends about 2 to 3 games per week, so look forward to the pictures ya? I will also post my picks about the upcoming matches.

Meanwhile, my virgin pick in this virgin post is to take gombak to defeat the young lions. Gombak has a deadly strikeforce with Agu and Kingsley upfront. Their midfield is one of the more creative in the Sleague and with Precious anchoring the defence, they should overcome the YL and progress to the next stage of the Singapore Cup..

I am in the midst of my exams, will go full throttle after it ends next week. Meanwhile, wish me luck for my papers!