Three members of the Dominican Republic?s squad disappeared en route to St. Thomas ? with the head coach William Ramirez prepared to admit yesterday that he would probably never lay eyes on them again.

A total of 21 players boarded a flight on Monday from the capital Santo Domingo to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

And during the two and a half hour stopover, goalkeeper Manuel Abreu, striker Jimmy Bautista and team physio Junior Bautista wandered away from the waiting area near the boarding gate, telling the coaching staff and team-mates that they were going to buy some food.

But an hour and a half later they had not returned and despite the intervention of the police and San Juan immigration officials, the trio were nowhere to found and the plane took off without them.

?It has shocked us all,? said Ramirez yesterday, who added he would face a political and media storm when he returned home early next week.

?We were all just waiting by the gate for our flight to be called. One minute they were there and the next they were gone.

?I can only guess at what has happened. I do not know for sure. But I think they saw this as an opportunity to get out of the Dominican Republic and to find a better life.

?Maybe they have family or friends in America who have promised them a home and some work. It is quite common in a country like ours for this to happen ? I just did not expect it to happen to us.

?To start a tournament like this is not good, but the players are strong mentally and we have talked about what has happened and we are going to try and not let it affect us.?

With almost half of the remaining 18 players in their mid-teens and given that, according to Ramirez, they have also been unable to select around 20 native professional players because the national association cannot afford to pay them, the Dominican Republic go into tonight?s match against table-toppers Bermuda as the clear underdogs.

It would be dangerous to dismiss their seriously depleted side too quickly, however.

Only two weeks ago, much the same team travelled to Haiti ? traditionally one of the strongest footballing nations in the Caribbean ? for back-to-back friendly games in the capital Port Au Prince.

And though they lost both, 3-1 and then 2-1, the close nature of the scorelines makes it clear that they are not a side who lie down easily ? with Ramirez insisting that they could have won or at least drawn the Haiti games had it not been for some ?dodgy? refereeing by a local official.

?We went there and people were expecting us to get beaten badly and we showed them that we could play,? he said.

?Up until half-time in both games it was very even and each time we were beaten in the second half more by the referee than the Haiti team.

?Yes the team is very young and we know Bermuda are a good side ? very direct in their passing and very quick in the strikers and in midfield ? but we are not scared of anybody at this level.?

As is the case in USVI, football in the Dominican Republic struggles to impose itself in the face of the overwhelming popularity of American sports ? in particular baseball.

Ramirez said that most young sportsmen in the country dream of one day securing a lucrative contract with a high-profile franchise, and that the limited financial incentive to pursue a career in local football means that many a talented player has been lost to the sport.

But that is not to say the Dominican Republic does not produce good footballers, Ramirez added.

?There is a lot of natural football talent in the country, but those that are good tend to go to South America or Europe and never come back.

?Our association does not have very much money and so for international games, we cannot afford to pay our professional players the salaries they want to take a break from their club sides.

?Just this year we had a player called Mambo Nunez who was born in Santo Domingo but has a Costa Rican father and though he played with us for a few years, we lost him two years ago and he played for Costa Rica in the World Cup.

?To put it in perspective, after we had paid for all the flights and accommodation for this tournament, we could only afford to pay the players ten dollars for the entire week!

?They have actually given the money back to us and said they are happy just to represent their country ? which I think was a fantastic gesture.

?But despite all the problems, we?ve shown we are capable of playing good football and we want to show that to Bermuda.?