In each of their three league-winning campaigns, Albirex Niigata have always won their first few games of the season to give themselves a good start in the title race.
They now find themselves in an unfamiliar position, however, having to play catch-up in the Singapore Premier League after losing their league opener 1-0 to Geylang International two weeks ago.
Throw in the Community Shield penalty shoot-out defeat to Home United last month, and it is almost unthinkable that the White Swans could lose three in a row if they fall to Brunei DPMM - who have two wins and two clean sheets from two games - at the Jurong East Stadium tonight.
The last time they suffered a hat-trick of defeats was in 2014, when the Brunei team beat them in both legs of the Singapore Cup before they lost to Tanjong Pagar in the League Cup.
On their part, Albirex have been pro-active to remedy their shortcomings.
General manager Koh Mui Tee said they went to Myanmar last week and played friendlies against their national Under-19s and U-22s, which they won 3-1 and drew 0-0 respectively.
He said: "We want to improve our attacking play, and general confidence ahead of the Brunei DPMM game and I feel we achieved our objectives during this trip.
"We scored against the Myanmar U-19s and managed to keep a clean sheet against their U-22s who are a fast and strong side."
Albirex coach Keiji Shigetomi was pleased to note that his attacking trio - pacey Daizo Horikoshi, and technically accomplished Hiroyoshi Kamata and Kyoga Nakamura - had a good outing in Myanmar.
Shigetomi said: "We didn't score in our first two games (this season) but we created a number of chances and that is a good thing.
"Against Geylang, we hit the post twice and had a shot cleared off the line.
SINGAPORE PREMIER LEAGUE
Albirex Niigata v Brunei DPMM
Jurong East Stadium, 7.45pm
Livestream: www.fas.org.sg/live1/
0
Goals scored by Albirex Niigata, in regulation time in their opening two matches of the season.
"You could say we were unlucky, but we have to improve our accuracy, the delivery of the final ball, as well as decision-making.
"We continued to create against the Myanmar teams and this time Horikoshi scored once and Kamata scored twice so that is good for the confidence of the individuals and the team.
"At the other end, we conceded just once in two games against Home and Geylang, and that was from a corner.
"This means our defence actually held firm in open play and we did not give opponents many chances, so I feel our defence is quite stable overall."
While Albirex aim to get off the mark tonight, Shigetomi recognises the threat after the Brunei side's perfect start to the season.
He added: "This year, DPMM have three new imports in defence, midfield and attack (Englishman Charlie Clough, Australian Blake Ricciuto and Belarusian Andrey Varankow) who are strong, physical and dangerous during set plays.
"Their local players have been together in the team for many years, so they have good chemistry and we have to be careful of them too.
"But we are going for our first win of the season and we want to continue playing our own game, staying solid in defence and relying on good combination play to break down opponent's defence to achieve our objectives."
So today we wanted to do a video on the seven best goalkeepers in world football right now, and depending on how many people watch it and what kind of response we get in the comments and on
Brian Jensen gives his take on Burnley's goalkeepers
Vincent Kompany: Man City are the best in the world
Chelsea hold on against Brighton to consolidate top four spot. BRIGHTON: Chelsea consolidated fourth place in the Premier League with a 2-1 win at Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday that became
Chelsea hold on against Brighton to consolidate top four spot
Real Madrid vs. Barcelona: El Clasico Could Provide Premature End to Zinedine Zidane's Title Hopes. By Tom Roddy On 12/18/17 at 6:55 AM EST. Cristiano Ronaldo, right, watches on as Ivan Rakitic
Failure at Valladolid would end Real's title hopes - Ancelotti
United will attack PSG, vows Solskjaer, Football News & Top
UK Rescuers Launch Bid to Recover Body from Sala's Plane British crash investigators on Tuesday launched an underwater operation to recover a body from the wreckage of the plane carrying Argentine footballer Emiliano Sala in the Channel.
UK Rescuers Launch Bid To Recover Body From Emiliano Sala's
NAPLES, Italy (AFP) - Alexandre Lacazette scored the only goal as Arsenal dispatched Napoli 1-0 on Thursday (April 18) to advance to the Europa League semi-finals 3-0 on aggregate.. Read more at
Arsenal beat Napoli to reach Europa League semi-finals
Crowds flock to Argentine village to pay tribute to footballer Sala Date created : 16/02/2019 - 17:35 Relatives and friends are pictured through a screen during the wake of late Argentine football
Crowds flock to Argentine village to pay tribute to
All eyes on France star in key clash BARCELONA • Antoine Griezmann had been set to move to Barcelona last summer in one of football's biggest transfers of all time. The seemingly nailed-on deal, however, failed to materialise after Atletico Madrid managed to convince the France forward that they were making progress, leading him to sign a new
All eyes on France coach Blanc ahead of key Romania clash
Women's World Cup: Argentina hold Japan for first point
Maurizio Sarri has dropped the biggest hint yet that Callum Hudson-Odoi will still be a Chelsea player once the January transfer window has shut. The future of the teenager has been widely
Sarri might not be heading to Juventus - Thewistle
Luis Suárez scores twice as Barcelona beat Real Madrid to
0 Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen