James Kon
After taking a 6-2 advantage in the first leg on Saturday, Brunei Darussalam’s football team will not take Timor Leste lightly in the second leg of qualifying rounds of the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2022 (AMEC 2022) that will kick off at 2.30pm today at the Track and Field of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex, Berakas.
In the path toward securing historic qualification into AMEC 2022, national head coach Mario Rivera Campesino shared during a press conference yesterday that the team will continue to play its usual game and will not only rely on an all-defensive strategy.
“If we put an all-defensive strategy, it will be a big mistake for us. We need to play to win and we need to get out attacking as well as playing good defence. We have to focus on both offence and defence. We may have more chances to counter attack because Timor Leste will need to score early goals.”
He added, “We need to correct our mistakes in defence and fit some of the players’ movements and passes. We have won the first leg, which is good for us, but we need to focus on the second leg. We need to correct our mistakes in the first leg.”
Meanwhile, Brunei’s captain Hendra Azam said, “We need to keep that same mentality and momentum in the second leg. Our team will give 100 per cent to win the second leg.”
In a separate interview, Timor Leste head coach Gopalkrishnan A S Ramasamy said, “We will give our match in the second leg and we will give our best fight. Down by 6-2 coming into the second leg, Brunei is also one step into the qualification but we are always optimistic and will do our best.”
On his team’s downfall in the first leg, he said, “We were doing well when the score was 2-3. We were attacking, however, our players become overzealous and there were lapses in concentration. We allowed Brunei to counterattack which became our downfall.”
Timor Leste’s national footballer Mouzinho said, “We will try to come back and win in the second leg. We will do our best.”
