Trinidad and Tobago striker Gary Glasgow says he wants to keep wearing the national shirt for at least another three years or so and feels his latest set of performances may have kept him on the mind of national team head coach Wim Rijsbergen.
Glasgow netted six goals in five matches to be the top scorer in the Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals. But at age 30, set to turn 31 on May 13, the former Kansas City Wizards striker knows he cannot expect to be representing T&T for as long as he may want.
“Personally you want to prove people wrong. You always want to do it. Eventually you work hard and get the results to change people’s minds.
“That’s something I maybe learnt from Stern as well, As strikers you will always get chances, you will have your of days but you have to keep going because the game is 90 minutes. You just have to wait for the next one and try to put it away.
“This loss obviously hurt because we did well for the whole tournament and then we couldn’t get the result before this crowd in the final. It’s minor little mistakes when we could have avoided. We gave up soft goals,” Glasgow added.
He intends to keep on scoring for Joe Public as they look to defend their 2006 Pro League title and at the same stay in sight of the national coach.
“That’s my goal. I probably have two-three years in me again at this level,” Glasgow said. “Right now I will focus on playing for Joe Public. We have a good technical staff, a good boss and they believe in us. Hopefully I can have a good season and keep the coach looking at me,” he added.
Glasgow is expected to depart with the national team for Panama City on Monday. They also play Costa Rica on February 4. The squad resumed training Friday with standby players Christian Baptiste and Anthony Noreiga rejoining. Striker Kevon Carter was also recalled while US College-based players Makan Hislop and Keeron Benito were scheduled to depart back to their respective colleges and will not make the trip. Defender Osei Telesford is also recovering from an injury while Jan Michael Williams, Kerry Baptiste and Nigel Daniel were released back to their clubs after Tuesday’s game for CFU Club Championship action.
Rijsbergen said he hopes to at least have more training sessions with the current group but sees the importance of having a proper mix with the overseas-based players.
“Every time we he a group together we try to see what their level is and with this kind of games. We can see if some of the guys can make the next step. Some of them can make the next step, some reach their level and you see whether it’s good or not to play at the international level. If we see weaknesses then we try to work on it or we look for other guys,” Rijsbergen said. “We try play against international teams where we can improve these guys. Of course this is the same for every international game and tournament we will face , and the next one is the Gold Cup. Hopefully by the Gold Cup we will have the right players in the right positions for the tournament.”
On the subject of continuing training, the Dutchman added “Most of these guys will go back to their clubs. Hopefully we can find a solution where with the local boys we can train maybe once a week. What will happen is they go back to their clubs and they go back to their old rhythm and the rhythm here is not good enough to make the next step,” he added.
“So we have to find a new solution with maybe some more international games to get them used to a different level or otherwise we will have to work on the same thing every time we get together. That’s what I was saying, the experience of the foreign players can lift the level also in training because if you train well then you can play better, there was some improvement of some guys (in the Digicel Cup) and they can make the next step. Wee have some doubts with some but it’s also good,” he concluded.