Hyland eager to work with new coach Saintfiet

The two men have football whereabouts in common as Hyland currently plays for KVC Westerlo, the same club that Saintfiet represented as a player between 1990-1992. Saintfitet also underwent his UEFA Pro Licence at the club of which he lives less than 15 minutes away from.

Speaking on Saturday, Hyland, age 27, said it was important that he and the rest of the selected players adapt quickly to Saintfiet as the man in charge of the team.

He also mentioned that Westerlo technical director Wim Van Hove had already spoken to him about Saintfiet as the two are well acquainted.

“The manager Wim said to me a couple days ago that he knows coach Saintfiet well and that he was here at Westerlo and they are good friends. I had a conversation with coach Saintfiet today and he spoke well of Wim whom he said was one of the first persons that sent him a note of congratulations when he got the job,” Hyland said.

“We have our task ahead with our new coach. We have a job to do which is the same job we had from the start of the campaign which is to go to the World Cup and we as players really want to go to a World Cup. We as players have the job to do. The coach is only there to guide the players. We have to perform on the field and it doesn’t matter what the situation is, the coach cannot come out on the field and he can only guide us from the sidelines.

“The player has to make the final decision when he is on the field and give 100 (percent). I, as a player, always give my full hundred and will continue to do so once I have on the Red, White and Black.” TT face Nicaragua in two international friendlies in Nicaragua on December 27 and 30 before returning home to square off with Suriname on January 4 and Haiti on January 8 in CFU Gold Cup playoff matches at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva. The next two CONCACAF Final Round qualifiers are against Panama and Mexico at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on March 24 and 28 respectively.