Bermuda coach Michael Findlay has urged his players to be brave as the island’s football team take on Dominican Republic in their opening Concacaf Nations League match in Antigua on Saturday (12pm).

Since arriving in Antigua & Barbuda on Sunday, Findlay and his technical team have been working on culture of playing without fear as they prepare to take on the highest-ranked side in the group.

“In the players we've been instilling a no-fear type of attitude,’’ Findlay said.

“If we’re going to improve in this region and we’re going to start to see success, we have to play these teams.

“We have to go with a mindset that we’re going to be competitive and we’re going to establish a very high standard of performance. Hopefully, that gets us a win, but that’s never a guarantee.

“If you look at a side like Dominican Republic, they've had some great success. Their under-23 team qualified for the Paris Olympics and they have new players who are playing in European leagues.

“We had a very good look at Dominican Republic and what we feel their best parts of their game are. Hopefully, we can find something in their game that we can take advantage of.

“I know the players are excited, myself and the staff are always excited about pitting ourselves against teams that are considered better than us. That gives us an indication of where we are and what we have to work on.”

Having put in hours of work on the analysis of his opponents, Findlay shared what he feels are the key components for his side to walk away with a positive result.

“It’s going to take a very strong performance to put us in a position to gain points from this match,’’ he said.

“It’s going to take an incredible commitment to fight for what we feel we deserve. We need a smart approach from a tactical point of view, and we have to be patient.

“We have to be compact as Dominican Republic are a technical team and they like to control the tempo of the game. They have strong players in key positions, which we must be aware of, and hopefully we've prepared well enough to see some benefits from that.

“The environment here is very challenging and the heat is quite high, so we’ve been careful with how we were preparing the players.”

The last time Bermuda took to the field in June they played brilliantly in the first half before tiring in the second half during their 6-1 defear at home to Honduras, ranked seventh in the Concacaf region, but Findlay insists lessons have been learnt.

“It’s never enjoyable to lose, I don’t care what the score is,’’ the coach said.

“As a group we had an opportunity to review that performance. We found some very positive things from that game, but we also saw some gaps and mistakes that we were responsible for and that created opportunities for Honduras.

“We also got an idea of what it actually takes to compete against a team like Honduras, physically, emotionally and technically, all of those pillars are important.

“Up until half time in that match, I think we were very competitive. We had gaps and deficiencies in our game, but we also saw a few good things too.”

Findlay is still experimenting with his squad and Willie Clemons, Enrique Russell, Kosi Basden and Daren Usher have all been drafted in this time around, while T'syi Showers, Blaiz Hall and Milai Perott have an opportunity to make their debuts for the senior team.

“We’re still in the process of identifying and evaluating as many players as we can,’’ Findlay said.

“When we began the project a year ago, we were fully aware that one of the main objectives was to create a much more expanded squad. This is to ensure that we cycle through these competitions and have access to players who are capable of performing when called upon.

“We have players like Djair Parfitt-Williams, Zeiko Lewis and Remy Coddington with club issues that they have to deal with personally, which eliminated them.

“Andre Kempe, Sachiel Ming, Daion Swan-DeSilva and Caleb McDowall are in university programmes and don’t get released because they have school commitments and scholarship responsibilities.

“Reece Jones Jr is on his road to recovery from injury. He’s been carrying a specific injury for the last two camps and this has not provided an opportunity for him to participate. Our decision was to give him more time to recover, so that he puts himself in a better position when we look at the October squad.

“All of this is a reality when you are a member association the size of Bermuda. The way we’re trying to address is by stretching the squad.

“We’re really excited about having these new player and getting an opportunity to see players that played for Bermuda in the past but due to injuries they were unavailable in Willie and Kosi.

“We also have a player in Enrique, who was unavailable due to work commitments when he was asked to come in, but is now available.

“We also have players such as Blaiz Hall and Daren Usher, who have performed well domestically. We feel positionally they can provide us with something we haven't seen before.”