[papabear]

Yep, fantastic game. If you would have told me we would come out of Mexico city with a point I would have taken it in a heartbeat. Watching the game it is one I feel we should have won. Our backline has major problems against faster opponets....they are slow, but some of it last night was just lack of focus. It's also amazing to me how good Jaqua can be on corners on one end, but so bad on the other. That's not his job, but there are plenty of times when we need him to defend set pieces.

I thought this was much better ref'd match than most of the Super Liga games. I thought their could have been at least a few cards handed to the Pumas for diving, but you can say that in just about every game.

I thought the tackle on Holden was pretty blatant and should have drawn a card as well. There is a pattern of hard late fouls with a high potential for injury from the Mexican clubs any time they lose or are down to a US side. That and the fact that Pumas got their first goal with Holden on the ground had me more than a little irritated. It wasn't like they played for several minutes and didn't play it out of bounds, and they were in a attacking position so I understand....but throw that in with the fact that Holden was down to a dirty tackle got me a little excited. There was no reason for our defense to be that flat footed, and Holden being on the ground really shouldn't have affected our D on that particular play. I really hope Holden's injury is not to serious.

Any time you can get any points on the road in a competition like this is a plus though. I'm really starting to like this team more with some of the younger guys on the field. I really enjoy watching guys like Cameron, Ashe, and Holden. As much as I would hate to lose D-Ro I think we are capable of filling that hole...I woulds till rather keep him though.

Kamara was fantastic last night....even if you take away his two goals. He did a beautiful job of holding possession until the attack could get organized. Another genius personnel move for the Dynamo.

I think Kinnear's next move will be to work his magic and find some youth for the backline. Hopefully Ianni develops, but it would be nice to have one more young guy back there. As much depth as I think we have at forward and especially mid-field I don't have that same comfrot level with the backline.

The schedule is brutal, but I'm pretty optimistic about our chances to gain some respect internationally in this tournament.