BERMUDA'S women national football team will travel to Antigua on Monday to take the first step in qualifying for the Olympics.

Head coach Vance Brown said Bermuda will play three matches in this Concacaf group. The first match will be against Jamaica and Brown knows the Bermuda women will have a stern test.

"We have played Jamaica before and we know they are going to be strong and very aggressive. We will have to be at our best to compete with them," said Brown adding that this Bermuda team will be a young one.

"The team will be a combination of the girls we have here and also those who are in college. Right now we have about seven in college and I expect about four will be made available to us."

Brown said the players in Bermuda have been training hard in anticipation of this qualifying round.

"The training has been pretty good. We have been training four nights a week between Bernard Park and the National Sports Centre. The girls who are away playing for their colleges in the US should also be in pretty good shape. I just have to make sure that the girls here are fully fit."

Bermuda take on Jamaica on Wednesday, (October 3) and then have a rest day before taking on Dominica next Friday and finally host country Antigua on Sunday, October 7.

The fact that Bermuda's women have played in the last two Island Games and won the bronze in Rhodes will also help, said Brown.

"They have competed in the last two Island games and I think that helps them ¿ it gives them a lot of motivation. Hopefully they can use the experience and motivation they got in Rhodes to give them a boost in Antigua.

Brown is seeing the rise of women's football all around the world.

"Before there used to be only one tournament and that qualified you for everything but now they are holding qualifying tournaments for the World Cup and the Olympics. This is the first qualifier in our Concacaf region. The winner will then go on to the next qualifier."

Antigua's team last weekend warmed up for the qualifiers with two victories over their Dominican counterparts.

In the first match played last Saturday at the Geneva playing field in Grand Bay, Antigua scored an easy 4-1 victory with Kate White hitting the net twice and Britney Jacob and Addel London adding one each.

The home team's lone strike came through an own goal.

Last Sunday Antigua enjoyed a similar margin of victory in the second encounter with Amelia Green converting a hat-trick and Allaina Mussington scoring the other goal.

Emaline Lockhart converted for Dominica from the penalty spot.

The Bermuda coaching staff going to Antigua on Monday will be Vance Brown (head coach), Jeremy Salaam (assistant coach), Kevin Bean (goalkeeper coach), Wenda Godfrey (medic) and Fred 'Pinks'Lewis who is the head of delegation.