Bermuda Under-20s 1Surinam Under-20s 2Bermuda Under-20s suffered a heartbreaking defeat in their ‘winner takes all’ match against Suriname Under-20s yesterday to miss out on qualifying for the Concacaf Championships.A Bermuda victory would have seen them go through as the group winners to qualify for the 12-team Concacaf Championships the final stage before the Under-20 World Cup.In the end, though, that proved to be a mission too far for Gary Darrell’s young side who came second in Group E behind the hosts Suriname who will now be heading to Guatemala for the Championships in April.PHC winger Casey Castle had given Bermuda the perfect start to their ‘do or die’ clash with a ninth minute goal which they preserved into the dying seconds of the first half when Suriname struck with a sucker punch to level the score.Early in the second period Suriname took the lead to leave Bermuda with a proverbial mountain to climb, and despite a spirited effort they were unable to find an equaliser which would have set up a thrilling finale to yesterday’s third and final group match at the Franklin Essed Stadium.Bermuda’s 18-man squad will head back to Island today wondering what might have been had Dame Fortune been smiling more pleasantly upon them during the qualifiers, although the team’s technical director Derek Broadley insists the players should be proud of their efforts in the Caribbean.“The boys played absolutely fantastic in all three matches and that’s why it’s hard to take that we’re not going through,” said Broadley who will be leaving his post at the Bermuda Football Association in April.“It would be easier if there was someone or something to blame but in truth we did everything we could and if we’d had a bit more luck then we would have been going through. Suriname’s equaliser was an absolute ‘worldy’ and there’s nothing you can do about that. It’s frustrating because this team is not very far away at all from being where they need to be.“The boys have won a number of admirers out here but obviously we would have much rather to have won the games we needed to.”Broadley praised the squad for their mature performances in Suriname but gave special mention to central defenders Reiko Trott and Roger Lee as well as Casey Castle who he described as a “revelation”.“We had some excellent performances. The young boys like Jaylon Bather, Lejuan Simmons, Dante Leverock and Quadir Maynard were terrific,” he said.“Reiko Trott and Roger Lee played superbly well in all three games and Casey Castle was an absolute revelation for us when running at defenders with his pace.“The boys are a bit down at the moment but I’ve told them they did everything they could and that they should take a lot of heart from how they performed.“They were the youngest team at the tournament and may be that’s one of the reasons why we didn’t quite have enough to progress.“That’s why it’s important the national academy remains as it is with a team in each birth year. Eventually we’ll be able to pick a side who are all the required birth age, which was 1991 for this competition.”In yesterday’s previous match Guyana beat Curacao 3-1.Bermuda Under-20s beat Guyana 3-0 in their opening game last Monday before losing to Curacao 2-1 two days later.