Bermuda's Olympic squad will be without promising striker John Barry Nusum for their tour of Florida next week.

The 6ft-1, 200-pound teenaged striker, who is likely to figure in the squad for the under-23s' Olympic qualifiers in Panama in April, has been forced to pull out as he is studying for term final exams next week.

Two other young students have also been forced to withdraw from the tour squad because of schoolwork -- Ralph Bean, who studies in Washington and Kaiya Darrell, who is at school in Georgia.

But their absence has opened the door for Adam Outerbridge, Jelani Scott and Dennis Zuill, all of whom also study in the US, who will take their places.

Nusum has been described by his coach Doug Allison at Furman College in South Carolina as one of the best players in US collegiate soccer and was last December named in the NSCAA All-South regional team.

Mark Trott, who along with Dennis Brown coaches the under-23s, admitted it was a blow to lose Nusum, but looked on the bright side.

"It is disappointing, but we cannot interfere with his schoolwork,'' said Trott. "But it will allow us to find out how far we can go without his services.

"The loss of the students will allow us to try players we would not have seen on this tour otherwise.'' The schedule for Trott's team while they are based in Orlando will be a tough one, with three matches in successive days, starting with a clash against New York MetroStars next Thursday.

And there is an outisde chance that could mean coming up against the all-time leader in World Cup appearances, Lothar Matthaus.

Matthaus, who has played in a record 25 World Cup matches for Germany and is the only outfield player to have played in five World Cups, has signed for the MetroStars and will move from Bayern Munich in the near future.

Trott hoped his team would get a chance to learn at first hand from the 38-year-old Matthaus, Germany's 1990 World Cup winning captain and a former World Player of the Year.

"It would be great for us if he was playing, but either way it will be a great test for us, because they have a number of good players,'' said Trott.

"It will probably be the best calibre of competition we play before we go to Panama. At the end of the day, we would like a good result, but other things will be more important, such as developing a team understanding and getting fit.'' The day after the MetroStars match, the under-23s will face the US under-20s, among the most talented players in the world of that age group.

"I would not be surprised if they included a number of players who have graduated from the team which did so well in the Under-17 World Cup in New Zealand,'' added Trott. "So we are not dealing with players who are anything less than very capable here.'' Bermuda's World Cup squad will accompany their Olympic colleagues in Orlando and their fixture against Tampa Bay Mutiny will give them a chance to play against Carlos Valderrama, one of the most recognisable faces in world soccer.

The flamboyant 38-year-old Colombian midfielder, known worldwide as El Pibe (The Kid), is renowned for his incisive passing and creativity, which will guarantee a stern test for the Island team's defence.

Technical director Clyde Best said: "Every time our players get a chance to play against professionals, they should learn something. Valderrama may not be as good as he was, but he's still a fantastic player.'' Valderrama may also feature in two internationals, also in Florida, in the week preceding the Bermuda tour, as Colombia take on Jamaica on Saturday and Honduras next Wednesday, in the Gold Cup.

The Tampa Bay match, a week on Saturday, will be Bermuda's second of the tour following their clash with the University of Central Florida the day before.

And on Sunday, they will travel from their Orlando base to Fort Lauderdale to take on another Florida MLS team, Miami Fusion.

Again the Bermuda defence is sure to have its work cut out, with two US national team strikers in the Fusion forward line.

Eric Wynalda, 30, is the all-time leading goalscorer for the US, having found the net 32 times in his 102 internationals, while Roy Lassiter, also 30, has scored six times for the US in 24 appearances.

The 12 MLS club sides will all be in Florida for a pre-season cup competition, which concludes next Friday.

Hence, the dates of the New York and Tampa matches could be altered if those teams progress to the latter stages of the MLS Spring Training 2000 competition.

Bermuda's first-round World Cup opponents next month, the British Virgin Islands, showed they will be no pushover as they lost only 3-2 in a friendly against St. Lucia, the team ranked 138th in the world, 25 places above Bermuda.