CARACAS, Venezuela -- Bermuda embark on a damage limitation exercise today as they take on Cuba in their final group match of the CAC Games ladies hockey tournament.

Coach Dai Hermann-Smith entertains no outlandish thoughts of a giant-killing, nor even the almost equally distant prospect of a point.

The aim, he admits, is simple: to keep them down to single figures.

"There is no hiding from the fact that they are massively better than us,'' he says. "They will definitely medal at the Pan American Games. They will beat the US and Canada; the only team they probably won't beat is Argentina.'' To that end, Hermann-Smith is planning to ditch the all-out attack approach his team have used up until now in the tournament.

Instead, he will pack the defence and aim to keep Cuba at bay as much as possible.

"We will play a very defensive formation,'' he confirmed. "You don't want to be conceding 18-20 in international games.'' Cuba, gold medallists at Ponce, Puerto Rico, five years ago, are not in the mood to give up their title. They have a 100 percent record in their four games so far, which have brought them 19 goals at a cost of only one.

Venezuela, almost certain to provide Bermuda's opposition in the play-off for fifth and sixth place on Wednesday, felt their wrath to the tune of 9-0; Barbados were walloped 5-0, while Mexico succumbed 2-0 and Jamaica had the temerity to score in a 3-1 defeat.

Just in case you were in any doubt, Nicola Wilkinson, Bermuda's team manager, stresses: "We're going to get well beaten. It's just a case of by how many.

Cuba are phenomenal. When they let in their goal against Jamaica they got a right ear-bashing from their coach.'' HOCKEY HOC