Excitement filled LF Wade International Airport on Tuesday morning as the Bermuda under-17 women’s team departed for the final round of World Cup qualifiers in Costa Rica.

Sixteen of the 21-member squad flew out from Bermuda, with five overseas-based members of the team linking up with the rest of the squad in Miami.

One of the senior players in the side, Janiya Sealey, is looking forward to facing the United States, their first opponents next Tuesday.

“This is my first time playing against the US, a really top team,” Sealey told The Royal Gazette.

“I’m just excited to see what my team can do as we’ve been working together for a couple of months. It’s just time for us to go and show what we can do against higher competition.

“We have played Puerto Rico and Haiti before, so we’re trying to see if we can come up with a better result against these teams. We’ve lost against both of them before so we’re hoping to get a better result this time around.

Sealey, who is in her final year in the age group, was part of the team which also played in the final round in Mexico last year and feels they are better prepared on this occasion.

“This time around I think we’ll battle in all aspects,” the 16-year-old said.

“We’ve been working on different things because obviously against lower teams we’ve been crashing them, but we know that we’re going out there in the heat and against higher competition.

“We’ve been working on tactics to try to hold them as long as possible and once we get that opportunity we just need to finish.”

Evans Welch, one of Bermuda’s outstanding players in the first round at home last month, is relishing the prospect of playing against players who might become big stars in future.

“I feel really good about playing the top teams in the region,” she said.

“Some people might be scared and nervous, but I look at it as a good opportunity. One day those girls that we’re playing against will probably be big professionals especially from the US. We could look back at playing them and it’s just a good accomplishment.

“We have a team of fighters who will stay together no matter the result and we’re just looking to do well and continue to make our country grow.”

Welch spoke of what they would like to do differently from last year when they went to Mexico.

“I would say be a lot more defensive as a team,” the 15-year-old said.

“Knowing that we’re going to be fighting against some harder teams that are going to be better on the attacking side than teams that we've played previously.

“We need to stay compact and stick together as a team and when we get those chances on goal, make them count with everybody getting up the field to attack the goal.”

Welch, a student at Williston Northampton School, is eagerly anticipating the match against Puerto Rico. Last year, Bermuda suffered a heartbreaking loss to the same team in the first round, which denied them an opportunity to top the group.

“ I’m looking forward to playing against Puerto Rico,” she said.

“We had a good fight against them last year and we ended up losing, but maybe we can get a good result against them.”

Milan Gibbons-Thomas, who scored six goals to help Bermuda secure a qualifying spot as one of the best group runners-up, is ready for what lies ahead.

“I think it’s going to be a bit of a challenge, but it’s nothing that we won’t stand up to,” she said.

“We’re looking forward to it. The US is the best in the region, so we’re ready for the challenge. We’ve been training together and keeping the intensity high at training. Also, as we’re leaving a week prior to the tournament, to get used to the atmosphere there, so we can be ready.”

Daley Outerbridge was one of the star performers on home turf and the 15-year-old wants to test her skills.

“I’m very excited to see where the levels are,” Outerbridge said.

“We’re going to try our best as always. If we don’t succeed then it’s OK, but we still try as hard as we can. I’m really looking forward to the Puerto Rico game. I’m trying to beat them this time because last time they beat us.”

Goalkeeper Kyra Simmons kept two clean sheets to help Bermuda make it to the decisive round. While the 14-year-old indicated that she is edgy about facing the big teams, she trusts her capabilities.

“I’m really nervous but I’m trying not to show that,” Simmons said.

“I’m feeling really confident in my abilities. I am excited to go away, it’s a great opportunity for our country and the players.”

Coach Gary Adams expressed his appreciation to the Bermuda Football Association for making arrangements for the team to arrive in Costa Rica a week before their first match.

“It’s a blessing the BFA is sending us a week early because it's 95F in Costa Rica right now,” the coach said.

“We’re really looking forward to getting there and having the whole team together, especially a week early. It’ll give us a whole chance to acclimatise to the weather and have the whole team together.

“We have training sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, then we should have a practice game on Friday. The girls will get a little recovery over the weekend and we’ll continue training, getting ready for the US next Tuesday.”

Adams believes that his players were affected by playing at altitude when they went to Mexico.

“I think last year was interesting,” the coach said.

“When we were in Mexico, you had to take into consideration a lot of the different factors. We were 10,000 feet above sea level, so that played a massive factor and hopefully we won’t have that extra external impact.

“We learnt a lot of lessons playing against Mexico last year and they came third in the actual World Cup.

“Some of the girls are repeat players from last year. They understand the hard work that has to go into it and the team discipline, we look to kind of just take those naivety moments away, especially at this level, to kind of compete at the higher level.”

When the squad was announced last week, a number of changes were made to the squad which secured the qualification at home. The coach attributed the adjustments to some players having school commitments.

“The changes that we made were just basically due to academic studies at this time,” the coach said.

“It’s a little bit difficult because around this age group some girls have a lot of IGCSE exams and those are basically set in stone on dates that they can do them.

“We totally understand student-athletes, but education is always the priority in the long run, so we just had to make a couple of adjustments based on player availability.

“It could be a blessing in disguise where we have a lot of new players coming in to give them experience.

“At the same time this will help them from next year to see what the level is like, what the expectations are like and just continue this revolving development through this programme.”