Bermuda's national team and supporters should go out in a blaze of glory come December 6 when we play our last 1994 World Cup qualifier against Canada at National Stadium.

It will be a final chance for the players and supporters to show their appreciation of one another.

But not because many are over the moon with the fact Bermuda reached this far.

The team should be praised instead for the fight they showed against the odds in the past two matches.

Let's look at this realistically for a spell. Don't sell Bermuda soccer short.

Were we not as good as Haiti? Were we not a heck of a lot better than Antigua? In each case the answer should be a resounding "Yes''.

So, as beaten US politician Ross Perot would say, "Let's talk about the issues.'' Once we reached the second round, which was predicted in this space from the outset, we should have been ready and we were not.

We showed in spurts that we could match El Salvador, Jamaica and Canada but in every match except our only win there is one common denominator.

The amount of chances created by the opposition in the first 15 minutes. In the first match here against Jamaica, we got off lucky but since which goals have been pouring in at a time when we should be solid, especially away from home.

That serves as an indictment of coach Gary Darrell's inability to get his troops mentally prepared for the wars that lie ahead.

It is no excuse to say that we got caught flat. That should not happen in international soccer.

El Salvador showed that they could be in a different class but not the other two. After scoring our first goals against both Jamaica and Canada, a transformed Bermuda team proved that we could play with them. So why not for the first 15 minutes? Dwayne Adams can only carry the team so far and Shawn Goater will not score enough goals to offset the gaping holes that have been ever so common recently in defence.

Darrell finally got the message in regards to Paul Cann and sat him down for the Canada match. But the lack of options elsewhere meant that he had to again turn to Shawn Smith to play out of position to fill in for Kentoine Jennings in midfield. Jennings replaced the injured Leroy Stevens at centre-half.

It worked dreadfully for Darrell as Smith was ineffective and Jennings was nowhere to be seen when Canadian striker Alex Bunbury scored three times in a little over a half-hour.

It was said also in this space that Voorhees Astwood has overstayed his welcome at left-back. He retained his spot and from his misdirected pass came the first goal. There were several indiscretions later, but none as costly.

Albert Smith, a second-half replacement for injured Neil Paynter, was caught in possession just outside his penalty area and that quickly led to the back-breaking fourth goal as Bermuda sought a miracle comeback.

Gary, when you left Bermuda you said it was likely most of the 20 players might see action. Well, not including reserve goalkeeper Carlyle Crockwell, four others were kept on the sidelines.

The dangerous thing about jumping on the bandwagon and being afraid to criticise is that you can find yourself settling for second best.

That is definitely not the case here. Yes, we are a small country but on the field it is 11 versus 11 and it is no fun watching your defence get picked apart as soon as the match starts by opposition that is not much better. It had to be a hopeless feeling for goalkeeper Adams.

That Bermuda were a step quicker in each of the last two matches AFTER scoring, stemmed from motivation. Motivation that they could win.

When the game is scoreless at the start, the same motivation is needed and that is where coach Darrell and his staff are held accountable.