National Team head coach Wim Rijsbergen has confessed that he is looking forward to the challenge of the upcoming Digicel Cup with a high amount of curiousity as he embarks another opportunity to see what some new faces have to offer on the international stage.
Rijsbergen was speaking after Sunday morning’s training session at the Ato Boldon Stadium training pitch with his 20 players selected to begin the competition on Friday against Barbados at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
“We want to be on the positive side and think about winning the tournament and that’s good but we also have a lot of new guys who are getting a chance to show what level they are on,” Rijsbergen told TTFF Media straight out.
“We will keep doing that for a while… looking at new players. It’s unfortunate that we will not be using the Jabloteh players but we needed to make a decision on that. We know those players so in a sense on the positive side it’s good that their absence gives us a chance to see some of the other players in the competition.”
T&T faces Barbados, Martinique and the winner of the Bermuda/Haiti playoff. From that opening group phase, the top four teams will contest a semi-final and automatically progress to the CONCACAF Gold Cup in June. Aside from that, the winner takes home US$120,000. But it’s not all about the first prize, Rijsbergen said.
“Looking at players and working on developing a team will be the story for more games. This is exactly what other teams in other regions are doing when they are not playing World Cup qualifying matches. We have seen the whole League here and we have seen some of the US-based players. Now we are giving some players like Jemmot and Tinto and the other new ones a chance to show me and the rest of the staff what they can do on the field.
“One of the reasons we went to the United States was to look at players and now we can see what level they are on and then at the end we can say yes or no to if they can be on the level required for World Cup qualifying. Of course we always want to win but there will be a lot of guys playing for the first time. What is a plus for us is that the spirit is good and the guys are willing to work hard. I told them this morning that we have to see what they have to offer and it will be interesting for me and other people and then we can draw conclusions,” Rijsbergen added.
Marshall, a defender with University of South Florida was unable to get the time off from his University to play the tournament and Rijsbergen said he and other players will continue to be monitored.
“Yohance couldn’t get the time off from his school and on one side it’s bad for him but he also wants to study. He had to make a choice and maybe in the future he will get the chance again. We will keep our eyes on all the guys we have seen here and abroad. We will try to have more overseas camps in 2007. The other teams are brining in overseas players and on our side we have to continue working with both the locals and overseas and see what level they can be on as we look ahead to the qualifiers,” the Dutchman added.
Striker Abiola Clarence is currently nursing an injury but the rest of the squad remains in tact. The 18-man squad for the actual matches will be named later in the week and Rijsbergen will also announce his team captain for the tournament.