BY ZULHILMI ZAINAL Follow on Twitter
Although Adam Nor Azlin scored Malaysia U22's winning goal against Brunei U22 in their Group A SEA Games match on Monday, it was his mistake that led to the minnows' 12th minute equaliser.
His failure to mark Zulkhairy Hady Razali properly allowed the forward to beat the offside trap before scoring in the 12th minute, to cancel out Safawi Rasid's fourth minute volleyed opening goal.
But at the hour mark, Adam headed in Safawi's corner kick to give the hosts a 2-1 win in their campaign opener.
When met by the press after the match, the Selangor man admitted to feeling responsible for the equaliser, but remarked that he had to make sure that it did not bog down his performance for the rest of the encounter.
"As a player, I can't focus on the kinds of mistakes that I committed in the first half. If I did it would only affect my performances.
"I decided instead to contribute by joining in on every corner kick and set piece, in order to make amends. And praise Allah, I managed to score the winner," said the 22-year old defender.
When asked about the likelihood of him scoring again, against Singapore this Wednesday, Adam responded that his priority will still be on defending well.
"I personally need to 'switch on' from the starting whistle and avoid the same mistakes like I committed today. I want to buck up against Singapore to ensure that they do not score against us.
"My priority will be on my defending duties. I may go up during set pieces, but defending is first and foremost for me," he explained.
Although Adam sees the positive in the hosts' performance, he urged his teammates to be more clinical in front of the goal.
"One of our strengths is that we can play very well with short passes, but we need to work on our finishing.
"There's no point of playing well if we can't find the back of the net. We have a lot to work on ahead of the match against Singapore this Wednesday," he pointed out.
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