Albirex Niigata (S) target Singapore domination after League Cup triumph

After achieving the first part of an historic trophy treble in Singapore, coach Naoki Naruo predicts that Albirex Niigata (S) will get even stronger when the S.League resumes this week.

The Japanese outfit successfully defended their Singapore League Cup title by beating Brunei DPMM 2-0 in Saturday night's final at Jalan Besar Stadium.

Albirex are already through to the semifinals of the Singapore Cup and hold a four-point lead over Tampines Rovers at the top of the S.League.


"I don't want to think about the titles but, rather, I just want to focus on one game at a time and we'll try to produce our best performance each time," Naruo told ESPN FC.

"But, of course, it was a good thing that we won tonight and it will give us the belief we can improve even more when the S.League resumes."

In the final against DPMM, Naruo outwitted a former Premier League manager in ex-Blackburn Rovers' boss, Steve Kean. Albirex relied on goals from Rui Kumada in the first half and Atsushi Kawata in the second to secure their record-equalling third League Cup title.

"The lads can hold their heads high with the way they've performed in this tournament," Kean said. "I'm disappointed with the result but not the performance, especially in the first half when we created the better chances.

"Up until tonight, we won our last five games so we have been in a good place and now we've just got to try and win our remaining matches in the S.League."

Defending champions DPMM are a distant third in the S.League on 22 points behind Albirex (38) and Tampines Rovers (34). They will host Albirex on Friday, a day after Tampines play Geylang International as the second half of the league season gets underway.

"It's not an easy thing to win all the titles and we'll still need to be at our best to do so," Naruo said.

Albirex's parent club in the J-League defeated the Singapore national team 3-0 in a practice match in Niigata last Sunday to underline the all-round strength of Japanese football.