Bermuda’s reward for making it through to the final round of the Concacaf Women’s Under-17 World Cup Qualifiers is to be drawn against three of the top seven teams in the region.

In the draw conducted on Wednesday, Bermuda, the lowest-ranked team left in the tournament at thirteenth, were drawn in group B alongside the top country in the region, the United States, as well as Haiti and Puerto Rico, ranked sixth and seventh respectively.

The matches will take place at the Costa Rican Football Federation headquarters in San Rafael, Alajuela, from March 17 to 22.

The winners of the three groups and the best runner-up will earn the right to represent Concacaf at the Fifa Under-17 World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in Morocco later this year.

Gary Adams, the Bermuda coach, knows his side face a huge challenge against some of the region’s giants.

“It’s an exciting but also daunting challenge,” Adams said.

“Let’s be forthright and honest about it, the US is the regional powerhouse. It’s a great challenge and if we want to get better, these are the games that we need to prepare for.

“We had the chance to play Puerto Rico and Haiti last year in different rounds and the girls did well enough to compete against them. We can take some heart from that and hope to apply and get better this year.”

Bermuda qualified for the decisive round as one of the best group runners-up after performing superbly on home turf, inflicting heavy defeats on Suriname and Bonaire before drawing 2-2 with Panama to finish second in the group on goal difference.

Days before taking to the field in Costa Rica, Adams has plans to hold the final preparations outside Bermuda.

“We will look to have a weeklong training camp to get the whole team together,” the coach said.

“We can look to go over some tactics, shape and everything else that we need to do to get the team cohesiveness back together so that we are as prepared as much as we can for the opening game.

“Our first game is March 17, so we’re hoping to leave at least a week in advance to do a training camp, whether that be in the United States or in Costa Rica.

“We play Puerto Rico two days after the US, then we have a three-day break before we play Haiti on March 22.”

The coach has identified areas that could prove key for Bermuda in the three matches.

“We just need to make sure that we are disciplined,” Adams added.

“We have to work as hard as we can as a team, play with no fear and just stand our ground.

“It would be amazing to get to the World Cup, you know, especially for the smallest country probably ever in the world to make it.

“While we need to keep the dream alive, we also need to be very realistic about the challenge that we face, so that we’re not caught up in the hype.

“This ensures that we prepare the best we can to give us the best chance of any success.”