Bermuda football coaches Naquita Robinson and John Barry Nusum are anticipating strong performances from their semi-final opponents at the Island Games on Thursday.

The women’s senior team will square off with Gozo at 8am Bermuda time, while the men have Jersey to contend with at 1pm Bermuda time to secure their spot in the final.

Robinson, whose side topped the group after winning all three matches, believes that Gozo’s approach to the game should allow her players to fully express themselves.

“This will be the toughest test for us so far,” she told The Royal Gazette.

“I’m looking forward to playing against Gozo because I know they’re going to bring the game to us. They’re a bit more technical than the teams that we played and they’re organised.

“It will be a really good game for us. We’ve pretty much played against low block teams, and we found it difficult to break them down.

“Gozo looks to go forward so we have to be cautious with that. The other teams that we’ve played have been sitting and looking to counter, so that’s going to be the difference between the teams we played and Gozo.”

Robinson admits to frustrations at the style of play employed by their previous opponents but is proud of her team’s resilience

“Frustrating as it has been, what has impressed me the most is that the players have been able to grind out the results,” she said. “They've stayed as a unit on and off the pitch and been there to support one another.

“We’re creating plenty of opportunities to score. It’s just a matter of scoring, that’s been impressive and frustrating at the same time.”

Nusum’s under-23 side suffered a setback in the 2-2 draw with Ynys Mon on Tuesday when right back Caleb McDowall was stretchered off with a broken leg. In their semi-final they take on Jersey, who won gold in Guernsey two years ago.

“It’s going to be a tough one for us because Jersey have always been a tough team in the competition,” the coach said.

“We had a look at them and they have some crafty players who like to play the ball wide. We’re going to try to negate some things that they can do, but also focusing on the positives of what we can do.

“It will be a mental and physical challenge for our players. We’re ready for it and we want to put ourselves in a position to get gold or silver.

“Unfortunately, we have to do without Caleb McDowall, who is one of our captains. It was a rough game on Tuesday with a couple of ill-advised tackles and he has a broken leg.

“We have a few injuries that we’re trying to manage and hopefully we have as many people available for our remaining matches as possible.”

After three back-to-back fixtures from Sunday to Tuesday, the women enjoyed a break on Wednesday, with Robinson not making too many tactical changes with the players already geared up for action.

“There’s nothing that I’ll be able to do or change in preparation for a match on Thursday,” Robinson said.

“We played three games on the trot and we gave the girls time to rest. All we did during the break was theoretical as opposed to any practical session.”

Robinson feels that the Bermuda’s reputation as defending champions has so far led to the opposition being determined to deny them any opportunities.

“They prepared to play us but not to beat us and just do not want to allow us to beat them by a lot,” she said.

“We’ve allowed these teams to play. We've played our best football in the second half in three matches, so we need to start a bit faster and harder, especially in the semi-finals.”

Robinson is not putting too much pressure on her players to win the competition, with her sights set on bigger things to come.

“This is a good tournament for us as we use it as a training camp to prepare for the Concacaf Women’s Championship,” she said

“We love coming to the Island Games because it gives us an opportunity to play teams we don’t get to play against.

“Obviously winning it is the reason why we’re here, but what we do know is that our ultimate goal is to do well in the next tournament that we’re in.

“I’m not applying pressure on my players by saying we have to defend the title. Defending the title will come from us doing the right thing.”

The men’s team were knocked out in the semi-finals in 2023 and also missed out on the bronze when they lost the third-place play-off to Isle of Wight. With a young team this time around, Nusum is lowering expectations

“We have a different team filled with a lot of young guys,” he said.

“This is new for most of these players. We have asked them to play their own game as opposed to playing someone else’s game and worrying about what happened in the past.

“In our two group games, we did what we needed to do to qualify. Both games were physically challenging, which I feel was good in preparing us for the semi-finals.

“That’s what our players are saying to themselves, that we've come across some tough challenges and risen to the occasion in both games, so let's keep pushing forward.”