THE tour by Santos has given Bermuda the perfect boost to get the National team up and running. But it must not be allowed to only be a one-off ? regular tests from touring teams are a must if the Bermuda squad are to go from strength to strength.

That's the verdict of Bermuda's assistant coach Paul Scope following the 3-0 victory by the Brazilians over Bermuda on Sunday at the National Sports Centre.

And Scope also said that the huge crowds, estimated to be nearly 4,000, just showed how much the fans in Bermuda want to see the National team in action on a regular basis.

Scope said that he and National team coach Kyle Lightbourne are hoping to get five or more teams a year touring Bermuda as well as perhaps having the National squad fly to England for a tour in the summer.

"Kyle and I would like to get a team a month ideally during the season. If got five or so teams a year it would be ideal. We have started a bit of momentum with the Santos game and we are hoping that a MLS team will be looking to come down here because they are just going into pre-season and so all the MLS teams are looking for games at end of February and the beginning of March.

"And we already know that Manchester City's Youth Team will come in at the beginning of June with Shaun's (Goater) Grassroots Festival. If we can get an MLS team in at the end of February and maybe, say an English team in March or April who are out of the FA Cup competition, that would be ideal. And we would also like to have a tour of England in the summer."

While 20 years ago Bermuda managed to attract the likes of Spurs and Manchester United to come on tour, the modern-day finances of such ventures are impossible now, said Scope.

"Basically you can forget bringing in the top Premier teams. They get huge appearance money to go to places like the Far East. But what would work would be First (Championship) Division teams who have big name players. Those teams don't really get those invitations (from the Far East). You have teams like Sunderland and Derby ? clubs like that. We could probably get them to come here relatively painlessly."

And Scope said that what they have also learned from the Santos tour is that the public will come out and support matches from top teams touring with their B or youth squads.

"Even though Santos did not come with their First team, we have discovered that we will get the support for a youth team or B team. We now know that the Bermuda public will come out and watch, say the Chelsea youth team or the Manchester United youth team. So we would look at a First Division team or a Premier club's youth team to come out here."

But Scope also said that Lightbourne and himself also want Bermuda to be tested against teams they will come up against in regular competition like the recent Digicel Cup staged in the Cayman Islands late last year.

"I don't think we would get the same sort of crowds out for Caribbean teams as we had for the Santos match but from the point of view of Kyle and I we would like to pepper these touring games like Santos with games against teams that we will be competing against in (real) competitions.

"Realistically we are going to lose most of our games against these touring sides like Santos. But we want to be able to measure ourselves against teams we will come up against in competitions even though we know we will not attract the big crowds as we had on Sunday ? but it is important to play those teams. After the game against Santos on Sunday, Kyle made the point to the guys in the dressing room that if we had played like that against teams in our region there would not have been many teams that would have lived with us. Although I thought we did quite well down in St. Vincent (in the Digicel Cup), our performance on Sunday certainly was an improvement on our performances down there.

'We have worked with the squad an extra couple of months now and they are starting to buy into our style and system of play. We hope it is organised and attractive as well. We want men behind the ball but we also want them to play an nice attractive counter-attacking game on the floor. We have fast and athletic players. We want men to be behind the ball and then use our speed with good passing. We do have genuine pace in the team. We are never going to be as fit stamina wise as teams that train every day. But on a pure pace basis we have guys who are quick as anyone."

Of Sunday's 3-0 score-line, Scope said: "Overall we are quite pleased. Obviously you always want to get a better result than 3-0 but given that two of the goals came late in the game when we had made a number of substitutions was understandable. Also fitness played a part."

Scope said of those numerous second-half changes: "We wouldn't have made those changes in a competitive game ? one which really counted. But we wanted to have a look at a number of players and it would have been a wasted opportunity if we hadn't taken advantage of the substitutes to see how they played at that level. If we had been in a competition we would have probably have made only one or two substitutions and would have managed to keep our shape which at the time was working quite well."

And Scope also pointed out that Bermuda did have some very good chances to put the ball in the back of the Brazilians' net.

"Bermuda had a few good chances. Shaun (Goater) said himself that if he had been sharper he would have taken those chances ? but to be fair to him he created those