<p>Antwan Russell, left, and Darius Cox may have played against each other in the Digicel Premier League, but this weekend they&rsquo;ll both be in the Bermuda kit as the national team plays Puerto Rico, Haiti and Saint Martin. <em>*Photo by Ras Mykkal</em></p>

Antwan Russell, left, and Darius Cox may have played against each other in the Digicel Premier League, but this weekend they’ll both be in the Bermuda kit as the national team plays Puerto Rico, Haiti and Saint Martin. *Photo by Ras Mykkal

Bermuda’s team

Players:

  • Freddie Hall
  • Tahj Bell
  • John Barry Nusum (captain)
  • Darius Cox
  • Khano Smith
  • Seion Darrell
  • Tryell Burgess
  • David Signor
  • Marquel Waldron
  • Taurean Manders
  • Shakir Smith
  • Drewonde Bascome
  • Domico Coddington
  • Ian Coke
  • Damon Ming
  • Antwan Russell
  • Reggie Lambe
  • Clay Darrell
  • Lejaun Simmons
  • Jahnai Raynor

Staff:

  • Andrew Bascome (head coach)
  • Richard Todd (assistant coach)
  •  Larry Smith (assistant coach/manager)
  • Baden Cashmore (physio)
  • Anthony Francis (head of delegation)

WEDNESDAY, SEPT 5: Bermuda’s fate in the CFU Digicel Caribbean Cup could very well be decided on Friday.

The island’s footballers will take on Puerto Rico in the first of three round robin matches that will also see Bermuda play the hosts on Sunday and St Martin on September 11.

The top two teams will advance to the next round. Haiti is the top seed and is 80th in the FIFA rankings. As hosts they should be hot favourites to advance, leaving the other spot up for grabs.

Bermuda is ranked 120th and Puerto Rico 138th. St Martin is not ranked.

Assistant coach and director of the national academies, Richard Todd said advancing “will be a challenge. Let’s be realistic with that. Puerto Rico is very similar to us in the rankings.

He said the way the schedule is set up “it’s important that we get a result out of that first game. That is essential. If you don’t come with a positive result you put  yourself on the back foot right from the beginning and we would certainly like to go into the final match-up where we face Saint Martin and Haiti and Puerto Rico play each other and that game has some meaning to them. If it’s a dead rubber stamp, then it becomes easy.”

Todd said having Freddy Hall playing for Toronto FC in the MLS should be a  big boost.

“This is going to be great because the confidence from playing regular match sharpness will be good for him. He’s feeling really good having started multiple number of games.”

Todd said he is looking for all the overseas pros (Hall, Reggie Lambe and Taurean Manders) to exert their influence in the dressing room.

He said with both Khano Smith and John Barry Nusum having pro experience, Bermuda should be in good stead.

Optimistic

“We are cautiously optimistic that we can get the group to peak and gel together.”

Lambe has been clearance by Toronto FC to play after suffering from an injury and been unavailable to play in the MLS the past few weeks.

Senior defender Darius Cox said having Andrew Bascome is a big positive.

Cox said: “Andrew is a very good coach and he used to coach me at Devonshire Rec and his way of getting to the players, helps us. It is very informative and everybody listens to him a lot. He gets a good bit of respect out of every player.”