Second string

I had the chance to go out to Home Depot Center yesterday for the first time in a while. I was hoping to hit up the USMNT camp but Pumas UNAM was my first priority, and it took forever to talk to them. By the time I was done there, the US was probably back at their hotel.

Anyway, this Pumas is Pumas in name only. All their players worth a damn are back in Mexico. There are some decent players here and some good prospects but this team is Pumas in spirit only. Some of the reporters were joking around and saying that they'd have to ask players to tell us their names and positions before interviewing them.

The way it worked out, all the players pretty much made a dash from field to the bus at about the same time. Most of us reporters out there talked to Marco Antonio Palacios, Ismael Iniguez and Tuca Ferreti. This is what I got for the PE.

Quite a few fans turned out yesterday, so many that security had to put up a mini-barricade to allow the players room to move from the field (which was gated) to the bus. Most players, from what I saw, stopped to sign autographs even if the fans didn't know who they were. The last person to go into the bus was Tuca Ferreti who stopped to sign nothing. The fans were none too pleased and let him have it briefly before the bus left.