Bermudian soccer will have a bright future if the Island's under-16-year-olds learn from mistakes made during their current European tour.

Coach Kenny Thompson said that despite losing three of four matches in a cup tournament in Holland over the weekend the youngsters had shown the kind of team spirit needed to succeed at a higher level.

If they were now able to take on board lessons handed out by opposition players they would not go far wrong, he said.

The side went down went down 3-0 to FC Twente, 2-0 to VVV Venlo and 3-0 to Ajax in the Jaartsveld Cup Under-16 Tournament in Zutphen, Holland yesterday.

They did manage a 3-3 draw with Regional Select Team, Gelderland, and finished the day sixth out of the eight teams taking part.

"The tour as a whole has given us the chance to see what football is like at a higher level,'' said Thompson. "It is difficult for the young players to understand when they play locally or against teams in the Caribbean because the level is not so high.'' The visit had given the players an opportunity to see their weaknesses laid bare against some of the most up and coming young talent.

"The boys know now that football is played at a higher level and intensity with players that have good technical skills and those are the things that we need to improve on,'' Thompson said.

The players also needed to adapt to a higher pace and minimise the number of elementary errors they were making.

"Many of the goals we are conceding are the result of mistakes, especially in possession -- mistakes that go unpunished in local football or against the Cayman Islands or USVI,'' he said.

"It is not something we can fix on this tour -- technical skills take a lot of practice.'' Thompson said despite several heavy defeats on the tour the team had not adopted an attitude by which they were happy to be beaten.

"We don't go out expecting to lose,'' he said. "We don't want to be thinking along those lines whether we are playing Tottenham, Bayer Leverkusen or Ajax but the reality is that those teams are much more professional in their approach and get to play at a higher level week in and week out.'' Thompson said post-match meetings with the young players had borne fruit.

"We have had meetings and have listened to them talk among themselves and the talk is of how different the game is here and how much they need to do to improve and that's a good thing,'' he said.

"I explained that to them from day one but they could never know -- to them it was just talk.'' After yesterday's games, Thompson said the players were disappointed but not downbeat.

"They are disappointed when they lose and one should be whether it's losing against North Village or Cayman Islands or Ajax,'' he said.

"But they are upbeat, they are not hanging their heads low. In fact, I have noticed there's a better camaraderie among the boys -- they are willing to speak to each other about the mistakes they have made and before matches get together in a huddle to try to motivate each other.'' Thompson compared the team's attitude to that of the Brazilian national team several years ago.

"Whenever Brazil walked on the field they would do so hand in hand -- that wasn't something the coach had told the players to do, that was to do with the rough time that had gone on before when the media and fans were criticising them for poor performances,'' he said.

"They had to get together as a group to try to improve within themselves and motivate each other and make each other feel that each person was there for the next. This is what I see from our boys.'' The team have two more games to play. Tomorrow they travel to Germany to play Bayer Leverkusen and on Wednesday they play RKTVC's Under-17's in Holland.