With Cup Match over for another year, the focus of many will switch to the upcoming football season.

The Premier League makes its return in just over a week and in less than a month Bermuda will be hosting Jamaica in the first match of the final stage of World Cup qualification.

The Reggae Boyz will play at Flora Duffy Stadium on September 5, and barring injury Bermuda’s best player, Nahki Wells, will be in the home side’s starting line-up after announcing his intention to play.

That decision is music to the ears of national coach Michael Findlay, who now has the biggest weapon in his armoury to deploy in the most crucial games of his two-year tenure.

“Nahki and I have had a very good relationship since I arrived and we were very excited when he made it clear that he was ready to play,” Findlay said.

“It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to recognise his quality in critical areas of the pitch. He is a player of great distinction, great experience and he has the ability to transfer that professional football mindset into the group.

“But the most important thing is that he scores goals. We have struggled over periods of time in regards to completing actions that we’ve built and execution has been high on our list of things to deal with, but Nahki coming in provides us with that.

"He also has great leadership skills, he sees the game well and he communicates well in game situations.“

Findlay faces a number of selection dilemmas in the build-up to the game with Justin Donawa also making himself available to play and the coach may have to decide whether to jettison some loyal, committed players who helped Bermuda reach this stage.

“A coach is about selecting the best players possible but what is the best player?” Findlay sad.

“Is that the one who understands the team culture and dynamics? There are a lots of things that come into consideration. The nice thing about this group is we have expanded the long list and we’ve used more than 35 players since I’ve arrived.

“Given the environment that most of our players play in, you’ve got no guarantees over who is available at any time. Take Justin Donawa, for example, he’s always been on our key list and he could have been part of the group in June, but he chose his club commitments.

“We’re not holding that against him but we do want 100 per cent commitment and that has always been our goal. What we’ve done in getting to this final stage of World Cup qualifying is we’ve sent a message to everybody that this has been a group effort, there has not been one key player but different players performing to their best at different times.”

The core particpants in the Jamaica squad will be easy to name, but Findlay is again keen to point out that it is only through commitment to the culture that players will be selected.

“It wouldn’t take a brain surgeon to guess what the core of the team is,” Findlay said.

“But what we’ve done is create internal competition for places and that means you have to be in the best environment, the best physical condition, living the high-performance lifestyle and you have bought into the culture to get in the team.

“There are a few spaces in the squad that are still to be decided and there are players we have to monitor through injury. When I arrived in August 2023 the team was picking itself but what we’ve done over time is told people that nobody has a God-given right to wear the jersey of Bermuda, you have to earn it through performance and commitment.”

The preparations for the Jamaica game have been under way for a while with some players heavily involved in the plans.

“We’ve had a large player meeting to set the guidelines for what is coming and individual player meetings,” Findlay said.

“We’ve started to build the camp structure as it relates to preparing for Jamaica and Curaçao. We’re monitoring the players through preseason and how many minutes they are getting. Not all of our players are full time, so we’ve created personal plans for a lot of them to commit to. We have our first draft selections and look at where the pieces will fit nearer the time.”

Jamaica, Curaçao and Trinidad & Tobago’s appearance at the Gold Cup finals last month gave Findlay the perfect opportunity to study Bermuda’s upcoming opponents and set about exploiting any potential vulnerabilities.

“I’m aware of what Trinidad, Jamaica and Curaçao are doing,” Findlay said.

“Obviously, Bermuda is seen as the afterthought in this group, and that’s fine, but I think the group is incredibly competitive.

“Jamaica did not have the best Gold Cup, but they have great individual quality and the ability to hurt you. Steve McLaren is a very experienced coach who will attempt to rectify any deficiencies and you cannot underestimate them as one of the top ten teams in Concacaf.

“Curaçao are exactly the same in their ability to hurt you, but — and I know it’s a cliche — we’re going to take one game at a time. This is actually a wonderful opportunity for our team to put their best foot forward.”