THE ride's almost over. But what a ride it's been!

World Cup 2002 comes to a close on Sunday when the two most successful teams in the history of the competition, Brazil and Germany, meet in the final.

But a clash between two of the game's traditional powers with starkly contrasting styles, who strangely have never met before in a World Cup, is hardly reflective of the four-week festival which, in Bermuda at least, has left most of us bleary eyed yet thirsting for more.

Sunday's game could easily have been contested between South Korea and Turkey who began the tournament as rank outsiders but like so many of the smaller footballing nations rapidly earned the respect of fans around the world not to mention their more illustrious rivals.

Turkish coach Senol Gunes probably said it best when he proclaimed: "There are no longer any small countries".

In effect, what he was saying was that on any given day any team good enough to reach the World Cup finals is good enough to beat their opponents, no matter what their pedigree.

And his statement has been backed up by statistics.

Save for Germany's 8-0 mauling of Saudi Arabia, there have been few instances where a team has outclassed another.

Turkey and South Korea weren't the only 'small countries' who made an impact.

Ireland, Senegal, Japan and USA, like the two surprise semi-finalists, came into the competition as huge underdogs yet managed to claim some big scalps.

And many clashes between the so-called giants of world football and relative minnows were settled by the odd goal, often via the penalty spot.

What all of this tells even the tiniest of nations such as Bermuda is that there is hope and that it is OK to dream.

Bermuda's football may still be a long, long way from reaching the heights of a World Cup final, but what has been emphatically demonstrated over the past month is that any country with professional players in the big European or South American leagues can compete, and can be a threat.

Clyde Best, a trailblazer in that regard, has been telling Bermudians for years that the only way we can expect to compete on the world stage is to get more players involved in the professional game.

Having watched this World Cup, Bermuda Football Association must now make that a priority as they plot their course leading up to the next qualifying tournament.

There's no doubt that there exist in this small island several more Shaun Goaters and Kyle Lightbournes.

What we need to do is identify them and ensure they're given the very best chance of being exposed to the professional ranks overseas.

Given our efforts in the last qualifying campaign, Bermuda may appear light years away from a World Cup finals.

But it's not an impossible dream.

We've seen enough in the last few weeks to realise that in football anything can happen, and often does . . .

- ADRIAN ROBSON