they arrive in Trinidad this weekend, the next stop on the long and arduous road to the Youth World Cup in New Zealand in a year's time.

Barbados are the last of three opponents Bermuda must overcome if they are to progress to the final qualifying round of the competition in El Salvador in February. The others are host nation Trinidad and the Netherland Antilles.

Little is known about those two teams although they are expected to provide tough opposition. As Bermuda Football Associtation general secretary David Sabir says: "They normally have very competitive senior teams and we suspect their coaches will have given them a stiff drilling.

"If we can get a good start against Trinidad, we hope that will set us up for the rest of the tournament.

"We think we have a realistic chance. It's not going to be easy playing away from home and with the support that Trinidad are likely to have but we hope to neutralise that.'' Barbados are a different matter: Bermuda had the opportunity to see their under-17 side at close quarters during the International Youth Tournament here in July.

The two sides fought out a pulsating 1-1 draw and Barbados went on to contest the final against Glasgow Rangers, but Bermuda were certainly not overawed by their seemingly older and slightly stronger opponents and were unlucky not to clinch a victory.

However, they will have to watch the foraging moves of striker Riviere Williams, one of the players of the summer tournament.

Bermuda have made three changes to the squad who twice beat St Vincent by a single goal to qualify for Trinidad.

Regeno Gomes and Sergio Wilkinson make way for Justin Lambert and Gregory Johnson while defender Georon Trott, one of six members of the team to be invited to train at Glasgow Rangers two months ago, returns to the 18-man squad, who will be accompanied by six BFA officials.

If Bermuda do manage to top their group, they will then head to Central America early next year to do battle with El Salvador, Mexico and Canada.

The winners of that group -- and a parallel one competing in Jamaica -- will provide two sides for the World Cup from November 10-27. Teams finishing second in the groups will then play off to provide a third team from the region to the competition proper.

Whatever happens, Bermuda's players will be sure of improving their academic educations alongside their footballing ones: with players expected to miss almost ten days of school during the trip to Trinidad, teachers from establishments such as CedarBridge have come to the aid of a BFA initiative.

They have set a number of academic tasks which the youngsters will have to spend two to three hours a day completing while away.

The squad leave for Macoya in Trinidad on Sunday, with their first game scheduled for Wednesday evening, and return to the Island on December 8.

Sabir will remain in Trinidad for three further days to take part in a workshop on football management designed by the English Football Association to celebrate 90 years of football on the Caribbean island.

DAVID SABIR -- `It's not going to be easy playing away from home.'