BERMUDA will be relying on John Barry Nusum to knock the goals in on Sunday when the first round of 2010 World Cup qualifying is staged at the National Sports Centre (3.00 p.m.)

Although New England Revolution pro Khano Smith is out through injury, national coach Keith Tucker said that he was confident that Nusum would do the job up front. One thing he doesn't want Nusum doing against Cayman is "running all over the place".

Tucker, who since taking over the job has overseen Bermuda's two matches against St. Kitts and the two against Puerto Rico in the lead-up to the Cayman fixtures, wants the Philadelphia Kixx striker to just concentrate on banging in the goals. "We have the guys who will feed him the ball," said Tucker after a training session this week.

In all honesty, Bermuda should have one of their easiest opening matches to a World Cup qualifying campaign when they face Cayman. After all Cayman are 191 on FIFA's world ranking list as opposed to Bermuda's ranking of 147. And Cayman only have a 42,000 population ¿ even smaller than Bermuda's. The small Caribbean nation only joined FIFA in 1992.

Nusum, who flew into Bermuda this week and had his first training session with the squad on Wednesday, seems to be in fine form as he scored a hat-trick for the Kixx on Monday night in a win over New Jersey. That snapped the Kixx's three-game losing streak. The Kixx eventually won 17-13 in the Major Indoor Soccer League game before 6,142 fans at the Wachovia Spectrum.

Tucker said of Nusum: "We want to make it like he has a little indoor court. I am not expecting him to run wide and all of that. We are going to get him the ball inside."

The coach added of the 205 pound Nusum: "He is so strong. I wouldn't like to tangle with him. We have to get the ball to his feet ¿ our players can run off of him. We are going to try and make it easy for him ¿ I do not want him to get tired early on. The indoor game is different than the outdoor game.

"My feeling is that everyone has a job to do and the striker's job is to put it in the back of the net ¿ I don't want to see him running all over the field tiring himself out."

Bermuda's players have been training twice a day this week ahead of the Cayman match. "It has been going very well ¿ all the players act like professionals which they are in that most are with the Hogges," said Tucker. "We train between 10 and noon in the morning and then come back from 6.30 to 8.30, sometimes 9 in the evenings. We have so much energy. This is the World Cup and for most of the guys this will be the first time in World Cup matches. Most of them are rookies and they are excited by it. What I am hoping for is that 12th man ¿ we want the public to come out and really give us their support. This is the real thing."

Tucker has been working on certain aspects of the game with the players having watched them against St. Kitts and Puerto Rico ¿ Bermuda lost both games to Puerto Rico and split the matches against St. Kitts.

And one aspect he wants to see is for Bermuda's players to slow their game down ¿ but use their speed when it is needed.

The coach said: "They are used to a very fast game. We are trying to slow it down but still look for that speed when we need it. This is probably the fastest team I have ever worked with. But we do have to slow it down. International games are usually slow paced except when it is time to break.

"We have slowed the game down but we want that speed for that through ball. Against Puerto Rico they gave us a lot of space but we never looked for it (the through ball with speed). That is what we want against Cayman. We want to change the pace as it is needed. If the players use their speed all of the time they can't play together."

And he wants Bermuda to be more patient. "That is something we are working on as well. We have also been doing a lot of work in running off the ball."

Tucker realises that the players for Bermuda are all individual stars for their club teams. "These are the guys who have to do the individual stuff with their club teams but I have to get them working together ¿ and they are responding. I am getting excited ahead of Sunday."

The Cayman team arrive in Bermuda today following their training trip to Jamaica ¿ the home of their head coach Carl Brown.

Brown took over the Cayman national team a year ago. He previously had been the assistant coach to the 1998 Jamaica World Cup team and had also worked with Sam Allardyce during the Bolton years.

During their training trip to Jamaica earlier this month the Cayman team lost four matches and drew one.

Cayman lost to Portmore 1¿0, Harbour View 4¿0, Sporting Central 4¿0, Tivoli 6¿0 and drew with Boys Town 1¿1. But all those teams are top sides in Jamaica.

Harbour View are the Caribbean Cup champions, Portmore won the same trophy last season and Tivoli are the National Premier League leaders.

Speaking to journalist Ron Shillingford of the Caymanian Compass, Brown said of the tour: "The tour was great. I think the players themselves were pretty happy with what we got from it. That to me was very important, that they came away with the sort of experience that will make them better players.

"That's what we set out for and it was great that we were able to achieve that. The work attitude and discipline was what I was most pleased with. We hear so much about the Cayman players' attitude but it was great. They really behaved like ambassadors and I was very proud of them. I'm sure this will go far to helping the players' confidence and to believe in themselves some more. One thing that is lacking here is that belief in being able to do it. Get out there and do the job. They've come away from that tournament far more appreciative of what they're able to do."

Midfielder Marshall Forbes was one of the key players for Cayman and he gave high praise to the Jamaicans and found the experience exhilarating.

"Playing against the Jamaican teams has definitely made me a better player," he said.

"Carl Brown is one of the best technical directors I have ever worked with. If he gets the full support of the Cayman Islands Football Association, the Ministry of Sports and the corporate community football will definitely take off here. This coach knows what he wants, knows how to do it, all he needs is the support behind him."

Forbes said the squad that went on the training camp was the best he has ever seen since his involvement in the national programme and the players were eager to learn. He also praised fitness coach Thiago Cunha.

"He works wonders in his fitness training, I personally feel that this squad, the coaches and the management staff are a unique unit and we all can work together in making Cayman football a success on the international level."

Cayman drew 0¿0 with Bermuda in the Olympic Under¿23 qualifiers in Cuba in September so they will not be a totally unknown quantity.

Coach Carl Brown is very upbeat about Cayman's chances. He said: "My players' attitude has been great. We've been doing a lot of work in improving the physical conditioning of the players and their technical areas. That's what I've been concentrating on and I'm pretty happy with the progress that has been made.

"We stopped during Christmas week and they worked pretty hard up till then and they've come back in pretty good condition. The holidays were in the week which is not as bad as if it had fallen on the weekend, so I don't believe we had a lot of players partying over the festive period.

"It is tough to say whether we're where we want to be. For a World Cup qualifier you always want as much time as possible to prepare. But with the time we've had and the work they've put in, I'm satisfied so far."

l Hector Vergara, executive director of the Manitoba Soccer association is heading to Bermuda to officiate in the match between Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.