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Bermuda World Cup U-20 team departs for Haiti and face a stiff test

IN the opening qualifying round of the Under-20 World Cup Bermuda smashed 18 goals past their opponents ? the Bahamas, US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.

But it is going to be hard to get to double figures when the next round is staged next week.

On Sunday the team departs for Haiti to play in the second round and national assistant coach Paul Scope knows that the players will have a tough task in order to get through to the last four in the Caribbean round.

Bermuda will play hosts Haiti, Jamaica and the Netherland Antilles.

"As well as our boys did down in St. Croix, seeing off BVI, USVI and Bahamas, we know we will have to step it up to another level against Netherland Antilles, Jamaica and Haiti," said Scope this week.

Scope is irked that the schedule for this round in Group G has been changed. Originally the matches were to have been "double headers" in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. And Bermuda were set to take on the Netherland Antilles first, Jamaica second and finally hosts Haiti.

"This schedule would not only have given us a fair shot, with the two favourites Jamaica and Haiti taking points of each other before we played them," said Scope.

Now however that schedule sees Bermuda playing Haiti in their first match at Saint Marc which is about 45 miles west of Port-au-Prince with Jamaica also playing at the same time in Cap Haitien. Subsequently Bermuda cannot scout out either powerhouses Jamaica or Haiti before meeting up with them.

"They have now scheduled the games with the thinking that the last game between Haiti and Jamaica will just be academic with those two teams going through to the Caribbean final round of four teams. They have also arranged games at venues and times which make sure none of the visiting teams will be able to see Haiti play before playing them ? and it also involves a fair amount of travelling around the country for us.

"Home field advantage is always important and the Haitians are being very canny with their scheduling. The Caribbean Football Union seem to let the host nation have carte blanche in the scheduling and Haiti have taken full advantage of it."

But Scope said that he and head national coach Kyle Lightbourne will uses this setback as "motivation" for Bermuda's youngsters.

Scope added: "At the end of the day we will probably have to beat, at least, one of either Jamaica or Haiti to advance."

And that will not be easy.

Both Jamaica and Haiti have seen their senior national teams go to the World Cup ? Jamaica in 1998 in France and Haiti in 1974 in then West Germany.

And this year Haiti's Under-17 team were crowned the best in the Caribbean and have qualified for the finals of the 2007 Under-17 World Cup.

Joe Namphy, an official at the Haitian Football Federation and who was head of his country's football association back in the World Cup year in 1974, promised that Haitian fans will flock to watch the games next week.

"Thousands will come out ? especially when Haiti plays Bermuda and also for the final match in the group between Haiti and Jamaica who are our main rivals in the Caribbean," said Namphy. In fact Jamaica's first ever international football match was against Haiti in 1925.

Namphy said that the stadium at Saint Marc holds about 5,000 fans while the stadium at Port-au-Prince where Bermuda will take on the Netherland Antilles holds thousands more.

And while Haiti is an extremely poor country beset by massive social and political problems, Namphy said the people were fanatical about football.

"We will be trying to get to the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa and many of our Under-20 team will be involved in that," he said adding, "unfortunately we are not a wealthy country like Bermuda. But we have a very talented group of youngsters coming along ? especially at the Under-17 level."

Namphy said that while all the players in the Under-20 team live in Haiti, he expected that some will go abroad at some time in the future to play professionally.

"We have six of our senior players playing abroad professionally ? Fabrice Noel is with the Colorado Rapids, Stephane Guillaume and Jamil Jean Jacques are both with Miami FC, Pierre Jean Jacques is with Nantes FC in France and Josue Mayard is playing in Norway while Marc Herold is playing in France. And we have a 16-year-old who has been signed by the (MLS) Red Bulls and has been coming off the bench for them."

While admitting Bermuda must take points off either Haiti or Jamaica to advance, Scope said: "We are in the last eight of the Caribbean already, trying to get into the last four, which will be a heck of an achievement."

The top three of the final four then go through to join two qualifiers from Central America (Guatemala and Costa Rica), plus USA and host nations Panama and Mexico.

Bermuda will leave for Haiti on Sunday.

On Tuesday Bermuda play hosts Haiti in Saint Marc and then on Thursday they take on Jamaica in Saint Marc and on Saturday they play in Port-au-Prince against the Netherland Antilles.

Bermuda are definitely in the toughest of the two groups. In Group F the teams are St. Vincent, Trinidad, Dominican Republic and St. Kitts.