Thursday, April 3 2008

BERMUDA Football Association (BFA) president Larry Mussenden has declared an all-out football war on Trinidad and Tobago ahead of their second round South African 2010 World Cup qualifying home and away tie in June.

Bermuda, after defeating Cayman Islands 3-1 in Grand Cayman on Sunday, will meet the Soca Warriors in the first leg on June 15 before hosting Francisco Maturana’s men on June 22.

The winners will move on to the CONCACAF Semi-final round which begins in August.

Mussenden is confident Bermuda can overcome TT who played in the World Cup Finals in Germany two years ago.

“On behalf of Bermuda, I’d like to say that Bermuda has declared football war on Trinidad and we call upon every resident of Bermuda to dig in and bring victory to this country,” Mussenden said. “Because we recognise Trinidad is a powerhouse, we also recognise it’s going to take the entire effort of the 60,000 population of Bermuda to get behind our country.

“I think everybody in Bermuda is happy the national team defeated Cayman Islands in order to advance to take on Trinidad.

“We know that Trinidad is going to be a tall order as they are a powerhouse of Caribbean football, having been to the World Cup in 2006. So for us, we have to properly prepare physically and mentally and I encourage the country to get behind our team and give them all the support they can.”

The BFA chief revealed plans were already in motion to have the national team play a series of international friendlies and embark on training camps both on local shores and abroad.

He said: “In order to prepare ourselves for Trinidad, the coaching staff have put forward for the consideration of the techncial committee and executive committee a series of friendly matches coinciding with some of the international match dates, as well as some training camps.

“We have some good players and if we can really scout them well and put a game plan together, I don’t see any reason why we cannot be successful.”

The TT team will resume training on April 21 prior to the next friendly international against Puerto Rico on April 27 at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva.