Scrubbing and cleaning part of Albirex's regimen

For the third year running, Albirex Niigata have continued their dominance in the Singapore Premier League (SPL).

The White Swans' youthful, new-look outfit have impressed with dazzling displays, silencing talk that they are a weaker side this season.

The ingredient to their success is no secret: hard work.

SINGAPORE PREMIER LEAGUE

ALBIREX NIIGATA

BALESTIER KHALSA

But their hard work extends off the field too.

After training, the players can be found sitting on the floor with pails placed beside them, scrubbing footballs meticulously to remove the stains left by the astroturf.

This regimen was initiated this year by Albirex's veteran goalkeeper Yosuke Nozawa, who also has J-League Division 1 experience with Albirex and Shimizu S-Pulse, to keep the young side grounded.

Explaining the reasoning, coach Kazuaki Yoshinaga said: "The equipment that is provided to the players must be well taken care of.

"These are things that help them make a living, so they need to take care of it."

Albirex striker Shuhei Hoshino - the SPL's top scorer with nine goals - was initially surprised by the routine.

It was a practice he was familiar with as a university student, but he had not expected a professional team to do the same.

But the 22-year-old recognised the importance of undertaking such tasks, saying: "We need to take care of things and cannot take playing football professionally for granted."

This is just one of the practices that Albirex adopt to instil a sense of responsibility.

CLEANING DUTIES

The players are also in charge of cleaning their dressing room.

The concept is not all that foreign and is practised by some of the world's most accomplished sports teams.

New Zealand's rugby team, who are three-time World Cup champions, also have the habit of cleaning their changing room.

On the pitch, Albirex's dedication to the game also knows no bounds.

What follows each gruelling training session is another 30 to 45-minute training session in the sweltering heat.

It is not rare to see players return for a second round of training later in the afternoon.

The White Swans are now perched at the summit of the SPL table, 14 points ahead of second-placed Balestier Khalsa whom they face on Sunday.

On their current form, Yoshinaga said: "It is a good thing to win all the matches, but we look at the individual performances and team performances.

"There are definitely a lot of areas for our team to improve."

In the last two years, they have completed back-to-back clean sweeps of all available silverware.

But, this season, they lost a number of key players, including Tsubasa Sano who scored 26 goals last season.

They retained only Nozawa and Hiroyoshi Kamata.

Kamata, who had earlier stated that the team were not ready to repeat the feats of the last two years, said: "The team have improved over the past three months, but there are still many things that they can improve on.

"It's not perfect yet. For the whole team to go up another level, all the players have to improve.

"They have to aim higher than our current condition."

TOMORROW'S FIXTURES

• Home United v Brunei DPMM

(Bishan Stadium)

• Young Lions v Warriors

(Jalan Besar Stadium)

SUNDAY'S OTHER FIXTURE

• Geylang Int'l v Tampines Rovers

(Bedok Stadium)

* All games at 8.30pm