Shaun Goater yesterday defended Bermuda Football Association?s decision to send the senior national team to Central America to play a series of friendly World Cup warm-up matches earlier this month.

Goater, currently training with the national team as they prepare to take on El Salvador in the first leg qualifying match in San Salvador on June 13, said playing against international teams was ?never a waste? unless the opposition were of ?poorer quality?.

Since the team returned, after losing three matches, some critics have complained it was a waste of money to send a national squad missing several of its top players.

But Goater disagreed. ?I think the only way you are going to be able to better yourself is to play consistently against good opposition. And those opponents were very similar to the opposition (El Salvador) we are going to play against,? he said.

The Reading striker, who missed the trip because of club commitments, admitted the tour would have been more beneficial had the national team been at full strength, but insisted it still ?served its purpose?.

?I think it served its purpose because the players that went down there now have an idea of what the environment in El Salvador might be like. Yes, we lost three games but at the same time a number of players were missing. But we must not allow anything to knock us off our main focus which is to go down there and try to win a game.

?I think it was good for the coach (Kenny Thompson) to see what some of the players who have not been playing recently are capable of producing in environments like that so he has a better idea of their capabilities.?

Goater remains highly optimistic over the national team?s chances of performing well in El Salvador and acquiring the desired result.

?I certainly feel we are capable of getting through to the next round. I feel very confident and having already experienced playing down in El Salvador (1992) gives me even more confidence,? he said.

?I don?t think we are going down there to lose . . . and I personally don?t think we will lose. But if we were to lose then I don?t think it will discourage our morale. I think it will depend on the result . . . if it is a 1-0 loss then I think that is a respectful result to bring home for the second leg.?

Goater also made a bold prediction ahead of next Friday?s friendly between Bermuda and Manchester City?s Youth Academy at the National Sports Centre, a match vital to the Island?s World Cup plans.

?We are going to win the game,? he declared. ?They (City) played against a select team that I organised last year and they were head and shoulders above. But with the experienced players that we now have in the national team, I think it is going to be a very good game.?