Cuba 4 Cayman Islands 1 Cuba showed enough in last night's opening game of the Caribbean Cup qualifying tournament at the National Stadium to suggest they will be the biggest obstacle between Bermuda and a place in the finals.

They effectively sealed victory inside the first 27 minutes with a spell of scintillating attacking football which yielded three goals, but were unable to keep up the tempo.

And their patchy second half performance left the Cuba technical director William Bennett-Barracks unhappy and promising that the best is yet to come from his side.

Barracks said: "I am not happy because we did not play well. Cuba always needs one or two games before they start to play well. I hope we will do better in the second game.'' Barracks had made his feelings clear throughout the match, blazing his players with verbal volleys machine-gun style.

The Caymans, who have made it clear they are using this tournament to build for the future, fielded an inexperienced line-up, but they continued to battle hard after the sort of start which could have destroyed teams of lesser spirit.

The Cubans relished playing on the "carpet'', the near-perfect surface ideally suited to their passing game.

They took the lead in the sixth minute after powerfully built striker Luis Marten-Pellicier left two defenders in his wake with a devastating sprint and squared the ball to Lazro Dacourt-Martinez to roll into an empty net.

The Latin flair then started to show as the Cubans piled forward in waves, often leaving just two defenders to guard their half of the field.

Their second goal, in the 23rd minute, was magnificent and sparked the small crowd into life. Again, Martinez was the creator, rising at the far post to nod a left-wing cross back across goal.

Manuel Bobadillo-Gonzalez swivelled to smash a right-footed volley on the turn into the top corner and raced towards his bench to celebrate.

Gonzalez looked the most gifted player in a team oozing with talent and it took him only four more minutes to claim his second of the night.

A long diagonal ball from lively right-sided midfielder Ariel Betancourt-Cepero caught the Cayman defence napping, not for the first time, and found Gonzalez unmarked beyond the far post.

The striker killed it perfectly with his left foot and finished with a crisp left-footed drive which gave Cayman goalkeeper Alfredo Whittaker no chance.

Again, in the style of a true showman who could prove to be one of the players of the tournament, he ran across to take the plaudits of his bench, milking the applause of the crowd on the way.

The Caymans struggled to hang onto possession against a well-organised and motivated Cuban side, but striker Eric Brown looked their danger man on the rare occasions they managed to get forward.

Despite the paltry service he received he looked sharp enough to signal a warning to Bermuda, who meet the Caymans tomorrow night.

Brown earned the Caymans' goal when he got in behind the Cuban defence on a well-timed run in the 29th minute and was tripped from behind by Alexander Cruzata-Rojas.

Garth Anderson confidently slotted home the spot-kick to score a goal which could prove costly to the Cubans if it all comes down to goal difference after their clash with Bermuda on Sunday.

Cuba appeared to be able to slice through the Caymans defence at will in the first half and a neat one-two between Martinez and Osmin Hernandez-Hernandez ended with Hernandez firing over the bar.

In the second half, the Caymans added extra organisation to the determination and tigerish tackling they showed throughout and managed to keep the Cubans at bay, with Romeo Thomas and Colin Rowe outstanding at the back.

And after Cuba had missed a string of chances, the Caymans almost pulled another goal back when Brown's slide-rule pass found Gary Whittaker, but his shot was well saved by the underworked goalkeeper Odelin Molina-Hernandez.

But after the Caymans defence stopped for an offside flag which never came, substitute Andres Roldan-Amoroso calmly took the ball around Whittaker and tapped home the Cubans' long overdue fourth goal two minutes from time.