Bermuda will be put to the test when they come up against World Cup debutants Cape Verde in a friendly at Pratt & Whitney Stadium in Hartford, Connecticut today (4pm).

Interim head coach John Barry Nusum stressed that his players are up for the challenge and is hoping they can make a good account of themselves against their opponents, who are ranked 96 places above the Gombey Warriors in the Fifa rankings and are the second smallest nation to qualify for the World Cup behind Iceland.

“It’s a World Cup team so the boys are excited and eager,” the former Philadelphia KiXX forward told The Royal Gazette.

“They are playing against a team that’s going to be in the World Cup, so it’s massive in a sense being able to test yourself, being to able to test where you stand and us as a country, and making sure that we are able to be in and around these types of teams. We want to push to be one of these teams that get to the World Cup, but it’s a massive test.

“They have quality players and the way they move the ball is immense. But we have to apply ourselves to what we want to be and we want to do. It’s a big test but it’s also a big opportunity for a lot of these guys.”

The match against Cape Verde will be the second time in recent weeks that Bermuda have played a team who will be in action at the World Cup after they lost 2-0 to the Democratic Republic of Congo in an international friendly in March.

Nusum said Bermuda’s performance in that match proved that they can hold their own at this level and he is hoping his squad can be just as competitive against their African opponents today.

“That’s one of the measuring sticks, so we looked at the Congo game and the fight that particular team had in that moment shows that we can compete at this level, so we just want to maintain that focus,” he said.

“We want to make sure that we are difficult to beat and, when you look back at the last World Cup games like Curaçao and Jamaica at home, there were blips that we don’t want to see again.

“We want to make sure we are in and around every game. So if a team is a World Cup level team that on paper is better than us, we want to make sure that we are still in the fight and we are still able to maintain our space within a game. We want to make sure that we are able to fight with a lot of desire and be in a battle every game.”

Bermuda’s squad contains a host of young players that have been granted an opportunity to prove themselves at this level as the national coaching staff look to the future.

“There’s a lot of young people in this team, so for a lot of them this a trial type situation to determine if they’re ready to step into the senior team when it comes to Nations League in September,” Nusum said.

“There’s a lot of new faces just learning the system, learning what we want from them so very positive in that sense.”

Nusum had the opportunity to run the rule over his young squad in a training scrimmage against Rhode Island FC, managed by former Bermuda team-mate and fellow professional Khano Smith, at Centreville Bank Stadium on Wednesday night as part of the Gombey Warriors preparations for today’s friendly.

Also in action over the weekend is the Bermuda Women’s team who will square off against Belize for the second time in four days in a friendly at Flora Duffy Stadium tomorrow night (7pm).

The Lady Gombey Warriors are the firm favourites heading in having won the first encounter 4-0 at the same venue on Thursday night. However, interim head coach Karl Roberts isn’t taking the opposition lightly.

“We’re definitely not going to take Belize for granted as they are a good team and are going to come to play,” he said.

“It took us a while to break them down, so they are a good team.”