Miami Fusion 1 Bermuda 0 Bermuda's part-timers matched the professionals of Major League Soccer club Miami Fusion play for play yesterday but went down to an early goal from a controversial free kick.

The Island's World Cup squad reacted well to Saturday's rollicking from technical director Clyde Best after their poor performance in Tampa (see story below) and were unlucky not to come away from the impressive Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale without at least a draw.

Bermuda have suffered some dubious refereeing decisions in every game on this tour and another bad call cost them the decisive goal in the fourth minute.

Kofi Dill made what appeared to be a clean tackle on the edge of the penalty area only for the referee to award a free kick against him.

Andy Williams produced a classy finish, curling the ball over the defensive wall and into the bottom left hand corner to give goalkeeper Dwayne Adams no chance.

Bermuda spent most of the early stages in their own half and the central defensive trio of Dill, Clifford Roberts and Shannon Burgess were kept busy.

Paul Cann, playing just behind the forward pairing of Stephen Astwood and Rohaan Simons, looked the biggest threat to Fusion. Cann played several dangerous balls in behind the Miami rearguard, including one which sent clear right wingback Tokia Russell, but the goalkeeper was quick off his line to smother Russell's shot from a narrow angle.

Bermuda's first real chance came in the 33rd minute, when Fusion gave the ball away to Simons who ran 30 yards with it and turned the full back inside out before his shot was blocked by the goalkeeper.

Despite playing his third match in successive days, Simons looked sharp and full of running and embarrassed the full back again with his pace just before half-time. The frustrated defender hauled him over and was shown the yellow card.

Substitutes Devarr Boyles, Andrew Rahman, Khari Sharieff and Richard Todd were thrown into the fray in the second half. Midfielder Todd, who has been in Alabama for several years, where he coaches high school soccer, was a late addition to the training camp.

The tourists best spell of the match almost culminated in an equaliser in the 67th minute when Russell surged through the middle but was denied by a last ditch tackle.

For the most part, the Bermuda defence, in which Roberts and Burgess were excellent, came under little pressure.

Bermuda were pressing hard for an equaliser, which nearly arrived eight minutes from time. Russell's run down the left earned a corner which was partially cleared as far as Dill who crossed beautifully for Simons, who beat the turf angrily after fluffing a free header from 10 yards.

Coach Robert Calderon was pleased with his team's improved performance. "The intensity was better and the defending was better but I think Fusion were the better side overall, as you would expect from professionals,'' he said.

"I'm satisfied that we are achieving significant things on this tour but it's difficult for players to play two or three games in a row and train hard every day when they are not used to it.'' Every day of the tour has seen temperatures climb well into the 80s with high humidity and Calderon added that the weather had added to the challenge. "The heat has really affected the boys, but I'm not trying to make excuses -- it's shown that we have to get fitter for the BVI game when conditions will be similar,'' he said.