Maurice Lowe is excited about taking charge of the senior men’s team against Democratic Republic of Congo in an international friendly in Mexico today.

Congo are using the game as a warm-up for their World Cup play-off against Jamaica or New Caledonia with Lowe, technical development director at Bermuda Football Association, temporarily overseeing the team after the BFA parted ways with Michael Findlay.

The interim coach he feels privileged to be preparing Bermuda, a team ranked 169th in the world, to face DR Congo, rated 48th on Fifa rankings.

“It’s an honour to even have this match,” Lowe told The Royal Gazette.

“It bodes well for us to be in a practice match versus a country that could possibly go on to play at the World Cup. They see value in playing us at this point when they're preparing for something really important for them.

“We have ambitions of making it to the World Cup, so if the teams that are going to the World Cup see value in playing against us, it’s a chance for us to measure ourselves against them.

“As far as the rankings are concerned, there’s a big gap in their Fifa ranking and ours, but we have big ambition. Our big ambition lends us to want to do well against this level of opponent.

“Ultimately, we have to try to prevent them from scoring and we have to try to score ourselves. I believe in Bermuda, our ability and our talents. We have everything that everyone else has and we just have to prove ourselves at this high level.”

A number of uncapped players are in the squad, including goalkeeper Nathaniel Swan, North Village midfielder Amir Dill, Elisha Darrell, Senoj Mitchell, Ajani Burchall, La Zai Outerbridge and Joshua Joseph, with Lowe grateful to be the man potentially handing out caps to them

“This is a beautiful opportunity because it gives us a chance to play other players,” he said.

“So while it’s a high-level opponent, it’s not in competition. It gives us the opportunity to see different combinations of people and to see what the players can actually bring to the table. It gives them an opportunity to shine and show themselves in a positive light.”

The Bermuda squad of 22 players arrived in Guadalajara in the early hours of Tuesday, with little time to acclimatise before the match.

“We had just one training session as a group but that’s fine,” Lowe said.

“We don’t make any excuses. Every camp and every competition, there are going to be challenges, but we still show up and we do our best.

“That’s all anyone can ask of us, is that we do our best and represent ourselves and our country well.”

Lowe, a former Bermuda assistant coach, has been in the BFA role since July 2015. While the association hunts for Findlay’s successor, he has been asked to step in, the second time he has temporarily taken over, with the first occurring in 2021.

“I’m always involved, but this is my second time having to lead the team,” he said.

“Again, that’s only on a short-term, interim basis as we go through the process of hiring a coach to take on the position properly. I performed this role during the pandemic when we played versus Canada in Florida due to coach Kyle Lightbourne’s unavailability.”

Lowe is working with X-Roads coach Farid El Karfa and Jake Littlejohn, a Fifa talent coach on secondment in Bermuda.

“Jake and Farid are both familiar to me,” he added.

“Farid was an old team-mate of mine at Dandy Town several years ago, so we have a good relationship.

“I’m a part of Jake’s family away from home in Bermuda. We get along quite well and we’ve been doing quite a bit of meeting, so that we can plan out what our approach towards this match is going to be.”