BERMUDA'S fans can help spur the team on to victory on Sunday if they follow the example of the El Salvadoreans.

That's the view of national team boss Kenny Thompson who wants to see the National Sports Centre full and very, very noisy.

"It's very important that we get strong support," Thompson said. "In El Salvador, the crowd was very, very vocal in their support and they were vocal when they weren't happy with their team too.

"The crowd can play a part. They can give the players a lift, a lift that could carry us through to the next stage of the World Cup."

Bermuda fans were generally not as exciteable and noisy as others around the world, said the coach, but he hoped that this time they would respond to an exciting situation.

"Our fans are not as passionate as fans in other countries," Thompson said. "In El Salvador we arrived at the stadium just over one-and-a-half hours before kick-off, walked out on the field and the noise was deafening, even at that time.

"A match official said to me, 'it doesn't look like there will be 20,000 here today'. I said to him, 'but look how full it is already'. He said, 'if they're not here now they won't be coming'.

"I've not seen anything like that in Bermuda. It would be nice for the stadium to be packed one hour before kick-off. And it would be nice for the fans to get into the festivity of the occasion and to cheer us on and be noisy in their support of the team.

"It's not every day that they have a chance to see a Bermuda team playing in the World Cup with a real chance of progressing to the next stage."

Thompson is hoping for a repeat of the kind of support Bermuda's under-17s received when they met Jamaica in the final match of a Junior World Cup qualifying tournament.