Bermuda 0

Chile 2

Bermuda Under-17’s campaign in the Mexico Cup of Nations got off to a losing start in Mexico City yesterday when they went down to Chile.

Defeat in a group that also contains Colombia and Portugal was compounded by news that Ajai Daniels, the goalkeeper, tore a leg muscle and has been ruled out of the tournament.

Daniels, who was a stalwart in goal for Bermuda during their Caribbean Championship qualifying series in Bahamas last week, was central to the key events in today’s match, as it was his handling error that led to the opening goal from Walter Ponce after 26 minutes.

Until then, Bermuda had given as much as they got without seriously threatening the opposition goal.

Daniels, who would be replaced in goal by Nathan Trott after his injury, soon atoned for his mistake with a fine save, but Bermuda went into the break a goal down.

They came out for the second half full of energy but it was Chile who struck again within three minutes, with a goal scored at the near post by Luis Salas on the counter-attack.

Bermuda pressed for a way back into the match but the Chile goalkeeper was not seriously called into action until Jerome Bailey, who scored twice in the 4-0 win over Bahamas last week, fired in a shot that forced a scrambling save from the Chile goalkeeper.

Bermuda, who are back in action today against Portugal before completing group action against Colombia tomorrow, plan to assess the fitness of striker Jahkari Furbert. The first-choice striker was injured in training yesterday.

Portugal beat Colombia 2-0 in the other group D match.

Other results

Group A: Mexico I 0 Ecuador 2; Honduras 2 Scotland 0.

Group B: Canada 0 Costa Rica 1; South Korea 0 Brazil 3.

Group C: Mexico II 0 Paraguay 4; United States 6 China 0.

Bermuda Under-17: A Daniels (sub: N Trott) — J Symonds, J Bailey, T Harris, A Furbert — J Chapman, A Lewis, O Lowe (sub: A Simons), O Bascome (sub: M Walker), K Butterfield — J Bean-Lindo (sub: A Burgess). Substitutes not used: Z Bowen, J Gooden, L Millett.