Things do not get any easier for Bermuda as they prepare to take on Curaçao in their first away game in the final stage of World Cup qualification.

After a 4-0 home defeat by Jamaica in their opening match at home on Friday night, a possibly disappointed Bermuda squad have travelled nearly 1,500 miles to the Dutch-Caribbean island of Curaçao, which is home to 165,000.

Although that figure is far closer to Bermuda’s population than the 2.83 million living in Jamaica, it would be wrong to assume that tonight’s opponents will operate at a lower standard than the team the Gombey Warriors faced just a few days ago.

A constituent country of the Netherlands, Curaçao and its football association have used Dutch connections to attract some top professionals into the squad. Eight of the 23 players selected in this international window play in the Eredivisie, Holland’s top division, with a further four playing in the top leagues in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Belgium, and two plying their trade in the second tier in England.

Curaçao also featured in the group stage at the recent Gold Cup tournament, drawing 1-1 with Canada, 0-0 with El Salvador and losing 2-1 to Honduras, who qualified for the tournament by beating Bermuda 7-3 on aggregate in the play-offs.

National coach Michael Findlay was disappointed with Bermuda’s performance against Jamaica but is backing his team to produce a brighter display in the match tonight, which kicks off at 9pm Bermuda time.

“We have work to be done, but we’ll look to bounce back like we have done in the past,” Findlay said.

“We’ll learn from the Jamaica game, do our evaluations and look at where we’re at. That was one step in six, and the challenging part about World Cup qualifying or any international window these days is trying to put two matches together.

“Right away, after the Jamaica game, it becomes more of a recovery and regeneration process because we’ve now got to prepare to step on the field in Curaçao and look to gain points away from home.”

Findlay made no secret of the emotions bouncing off the walls at the cramped Flora Duffy Stadium dressing room after the Jamaica game, but is hoping his players use those feeling to motivate themselves for another big fixture.

“Each player has his own way to mentally bounce back,” Findlay said.

“I said to Harry Twite after the game that if people are upset, disappointed, angry — whatever description you would like to use — that is a sign of progress. It means they care and they think they are capable of being better.

“If they just went, ‘Oh well, it was Jamaica’, then I would be a bit worried. But when you’ve got a dressing room that’s disappointed and feel they could have done better, that tells me that we’re slowly and surely building towards where this becomes commonplace.”

Striker Nahki Wells knows that Bermuda are now on the back foot in the attempt to qualify for the World Cup, but believes the squad has the mental toughness to continue to defy the critics.

“We will galvanise ourselves, we'll look at our position, set up and go again,” he said.

“There are six legs to this competition and we know that losing the first game doesn’t define what the outcome is going to be, but it’s going to be an uphill task for us.

“We’ll recover, hydrate, travel, reassess — the things that every footballer does in preparation for another fixture — and we’ll attack the second game with everything we’ve got.”

Bermuda struggled to cope with the pace of Jamaica’s front three last week, but Wells is hoping that playing away from home will mean less pressure is on the side and allow them to focus on expressing themselves.

“Every team is different,” Wells said. “Curaçao are a very good side with top players and I can expect just as difficult a task.

“But at times we’ve picked up good results away from home where the pressure has not necessarily been on us, and that has to be our approach come Tuesday night.

“We’ve got a team who haven’t had a great amount of experience at playing in games in front of that amount of people before — whether that’s on the island or overseas.

“We’ve got a young squad and a lot of them stood up and tried their very best. It was not down to a lack of effort, but the better side and the quality of the other team came through.

“When that is the case, you just have to hold your hand up and appreciate the fact that 24 square miles is competing with these nations, and we shouldn’t be coming up with anything.”

The Jamaica game was not all doom and gloom, with Bermuda having spells, especially at the start of the second half, during which they could have found the net. Wells is happy to draw some positives, but knows that he himself has to execute.

“We had periods in the match where we had chances, so there were some positive aspects to the game,” he said.

“We had moments and we always knew we would need to take the chances that came our way. Myself and the other attacking players could have done better. We knew they had the firepower to score goals and if we were to have any chance we were going to need to take our opportunities. That was something we didn’t do.”