Written By: Kenneth Ho
Albirex Niigata (S) had a relatively comfortable game against Svay Rieng FC on Wednesday evening as they ran out 3-0 winners.
Kazuya Okazaki, Kazuki Sakamoto and Kazuya Fukuzaki each scored a goal apiece to send Albirex on their way to victory.
Albirex coach Tatsuyuki Okuyama was confident his side was good enough for victory, but revealed he was worry about his players becoming complacent going into the game.
“This is a first game of a Singapore cup, so I was thinking that we have to play against ourselves so that we could win the game today,” Okuyama shared.
“Playing the first game of a cup game is always of a tough game, so we have to overcome ourselves.”
However Okuyama stressed that his priority was still to challenge for the leagues title, and stressed he was not worried his team will face stronger teams as they progressed in the tournament.
“As a team we want to win the title so of course the league is important, but as for the cup game we want to go as high as possible,” he said.
“To win the cup of course we have to play the strong opponent sooner or later, so we just need to concentrate on winning the game.”
Svay Rieng coach Sam Vandeth was disappointed with the result and felt that mistakes by his side let him down.
Despite being outplayed, Vandeth thought his team had given their all and also added that the artificial grass surface of the pitch did not help matters.
“We felt that we lost today, but we tried our best. Normally in Cambodia we play on natural grass and we came here to play on artificial grass and it was difficult for us,” Vandeth said. “If we got the opportunity next year we will come back and try our best again.”