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"To be a good goalkeeper, you need to have complete belief in your ability and yourself," said Trinidad and Tobago and Dundee goalkeeper Kelvin Jack. "And you can only get that by training hard and being totally at ease with your own game because it is a very lonely position.


"For example, you will never see a striker put his hand up if a goal scores through his own goalkeeper's legs even if the play broke down when he lost the ball. Who would they blame? The goalkeeper is always to blame.

"That is the nature of the position and you have to be a strong character to deal with it."

In a sport built on scoring rather than preventing goals, most goalkeepers have their gloves forced upon them. A youth team coach might have forced them between the uprights because they were taller than their teammates or awful in every other position.

The 29-year-old Jack may be one of the strangest in a weird bunch. As Trinidad and Tobago tuned into the televised 1982 World Cup and mesmerised children declared an affinity with Italian top goal scorer Paulo Rossi, Brazilian attacker Zico or Argentine midfield playmaker Diego Maradona, a six-year-old Jack chose English and Belgian goalkeepers Ray Clemence and Jean-Marie Pfaff respectively as his idols.

"I loved the sound of Ray Clemence's name and that attracted me to the position," said the Scotland-based custodian, with a laugh. "I also remember Jean-Marie Pfaff wore a bright yellow kit and I fell in love with it."

His rise in the game, thereafter, was steady and sure; more a testament to hard work than freakish fortune.

On September 3, Trinidad and Tobago coach Leo Beenhakker will face his toughest job in charge of the national team when T&T tackle Guatemala in a decisive World Cup qualifier.

Beenhakker's use of team captain and ex-Manchester United star, Dwight Yorke, as well as all-time leading scorer and Coventry City forward, Stern John, will be issues for national debate.

Jack, almost certainly, will start in goal with minimal fuss. It is a notable achievement considering that the goalkeeping position is the most hotly contested berth in the squad with the likes of Shaka Hislop, the country's most successful export, and multiple Caribbean Goalkeeper of the Year, Clayton Ince, in reserve.

Remarkably, in a rare moment of self-doubt, Jack nearly conceded the fight for the number one shirt before it began as he was mentally drained by an injury ravished 2004/05 season when Beenhakker initially invited him to stake his claim.

"I was not going to take the invitation," said Jack, who played just five times for Dundee last term. "Last season was a nightmare for me. It was the first time in my career that I ever had so many injuries and it affects your self-confidence because you start wondering if you could just get back to

your best level straight away.

"I only had two reserve games as preparation (before the World Cup qualifier against Panama) and I wondered if it was sufficient preparation. I also wondered if I should rest through the summer to get my body right after a serious injury.

"But, at the last minute, I decided to go."

The six-foot-three and 215-lb goalie might remember his decision to rejoin the national team in June as a pivotal point in his career.

Jack beat Ince to a starting place in the qualifier against Panama, which Trinidad and Tobago won 2-0, and was already entrenched in the position by the time Hislop turned up at the July CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament. He started in all six competitive matches under Beenhakker.

The ex-CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh custodian and Holy Cross College student credited the friendly rivalry for his form since inheriting the number one position.

"Trinidad has three other very good goalkeepers as well as young Daurance (Williams) who will eventually take over," said Jack. "So you know that to get the number one jersey, you have to be on top of your game for not just every minute of every game but of every training session too. I think that is only a positive thing.

"Everyone wants to be number one but, saying that, Shaka is a top pro and we talk a lot and always bounce things off each other so it is a very healthy rivalry."

Jack did not say it but, in some ways, his single-mindedness and work ethic might mirror his coach's intensity.

Beenhakker, who prefers points to panache, does not conform to the Dutch stereotype while Jack's obsession with punctuality and perspiration also seems at odds with the image of Trinidad and Tobago athletes.

"The comment about Trinidadians that most upsets me (in Britain) is that we are lazy," said Jack. "As a goalkeeper, I am very intense and work very hard. I am also very vocal because I think communication is crucial I don't play with a smile on my face because it is not in my personality.

"Although off the field, my friends usually say I am one of the biggest clowns around who likes to have fun and joke around and wind up people."

Jack is adamant that Trinidad and Tobago will qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany while he also set himself the target of leading the newly- relegated Dundee back into the Scottish Premier League (SPL).

He has already played four games for Dundee in the 2005/06 season and is yet to taste defeat while he picked up a Man of the Match award and was selected as the First Division's "Goalkeeper of the Week" by the Scottish Sun newspaper.

"The pace of the (First Division) game is frightening," said Jack. "From what I have seen so far, it is better than many people think and it is certainly quicker than the SPL. You have to be switched on all the time because it is end to end football.

"There is much more physical contact here and you can't come gracefully and take a ball in the air without someone challenging you. So you have to be strong physically and have an aggressive mindset."

Jack, one thinks, has the tools for the job.