No place like home

I told Alexi Lalas about the theory I had that the national team playing in the U.S. in front of crowds cheering for their opponents made the team stronger in the long run because they were used to hostile environments.

Basically, Alexi kind of agreed, but kind of didn't. His take, "Well, we learned from it, we learned to play well anyway, but it kind of sucked."

At the same time - I think it's telling that his favorite U.S. versus Mexico memory was actually in Azteca, when the team got a point out of a match there for the first and only time thus far.