With 2019 calendar promising to be an event-filled one for T&T on the international football stage, National captain Khaleem Hyland has high hopes that we will do well.
On the agenda is the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States in June, to be followed by the Nations League later in the year. However, before that, the T&T footballers will travel to the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham to face Wales on March 11.
Hyland wants T&T to stake a claim at the confederation’s showpiece event after missing out in 2017. “I hope we can continue to get good games in 2019 as we did in 2018, and we can give our best for the upcoming Gold Cup,” Hyland said yesterday."
“The Gold Cup is a great competition. We made it to the quarterfinals consecutively in 2013 and 2015 and we all know this competition gives us the chance to come up against teams like Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and USA, and therefore it will be important for us to have good preparation with games and camps in order to be ready for the tournament,” the Saudi Arabia-based midfielder added.
He said, “I hope we can put T&T back on the map football-wise, and I think by doing well in the Gold Cup and striving to even win it will do a lot for us. But we need our people to support us like other countries do and bring back the love in the country through sport, especially football. We have what it takes but we need everyone on board.”
In 2018 T&T earned victories over United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Guadeloupe in two out of six international friendly matches that also included clashes with Iran, Panama and Thailand. Hyland said “2018 was good with both country and club as a player. I picked up a few more things in my career and developed more as a player both for Al Faisaly and the national team as captain. We the ‘Warriors’ played a lot of good countries in 2018 and we took a lot on board from those games."
“Every player’s dream is to represent their country and once we are called upon, we will do what it takes to be the best at it,” Hyland concluded.