Well, so we got 3 points tonight against St. Lucia so I guess I should feel happy about that. And I certainly feel happier after watching the second half than the first. After 45 I was thinking we would be lucky to make it out of this minnow group.

I can only think that that Hart started Jazic and Beaulieu-Bourgeault because he is saving his A game of Peters and Klukowski for the “tougher” opposition of Puerto Rico on Tuesday. Not that Jazic is out of place (I still have warm fuzzy memories of him as an integral part of the 2007 Gold Cup squad and he is a steady presence for Chivas) but JBB looked woeful, defending and going forward.

Positives for me. Josh Simpson continues to impress, and I think playing in Turkey has done his game a world of good. He was in play to go back to Germany this fall, but I’m happy he is sticking around in Turkey. Whatever is happening at Manisaspor is doing him good. Interesting to see his best goal of the night coming from the middle as opposed to the left side where I’m used to seeing him. Oh, and Sportsnet – naming DeRo the player of the game ahead of Simpson was just wrong.  The guy scored 2 goals and caused problems for St. Lucia all night, and DeRo gets the glory? Bah.

Will Johnson scoring his first goal for Canada. Good for him. I’m a big fan & nice to see him get a goal.

Toisant Ricketts came on with energy and pace. Oh the pace, killing tired St. Lucia legs. Was robbed just before Johnson scored.

Andre Hainault. Tough & made some good tackles. Another young player who is getting better with each outing. With Dejan Jakovic I think we’ll have a decent back line for the future.  And with Edgar, I’m thinking we’ll have some depth in the coming years.

Atiba Hitchinson. The real heart of our midfield. Would like to have seen Hart pull him a bit earlier considering his shaky injury status and the rash tackles St. Lucia was unleashing in the second half as they got tired and desperate.

Those were the positives. But lots of negatives.

Lars Hirschfeld. Many years ago, I was a Lars fan. But years of rotting on the bench at sub-par European teams has me reconsidering whether Hirschfeld is the second coming of Greg Sutton – always answers the call, can do a journeymans duty, but chokes at the worst possible time.

DeRo. The man we all love to hate, and tonight I hated him. WTF is he doing taking every friggin corner when every friggin corner was a duff? Do we not have a person who can deliver a ball into the box???? Ahem KLUKOWSKI? I know I shouldn’t be so hard on DeRo – I think he feels the pressure that he has to do EVERYTHING BY HIMSELF when really, if he just relaxed and let those moments come he would be so much easier to like.So many times I think he is a liability as his erratic behaviour must make it so tough to play with him. What the hell is he going to do? Who knows?

JDG. So frustrating to think that his best years were 4 years ago. Oh, how we need the JDG of 2007/08 to show up.

Simeon Jackson. Oh man, if you want to be the guy up front, you gotta finish. Gotta finish.

Iain Hume. Same thing.

How many opportunities did we waste? When we get to the Hex, those opportunities are going to happen once per game, and those are the opportunities that will make the difference between qualifying and having the 2014 campaign end like the 2010, 2006, 2002, etc.

That said, I do take a lot of positives from tonight, and from this round. I’m pretty happy that this new CONCACAF qualifying format gives us the opportunity to play extra games against these smaller clubs so we can fine tune the team and get things right for the rounds that matter later on. Getting a cohesive group of players who know each other will pay off as we move deeper into the qualifying rounds.I’m convinced that the reason we have had problems qualifying over the Hondouras of the world is because the core of our team isn’t playing together week in and week out like many Central American teams are in their domestic leagues. So the more opportunity our players have to play together only helps us even out that Central American advantage.

Okay. Onto Puerto Rico.

Not even a questionable call.

Unfrigginbelievable.

By all accounts, the game between Mexico and Panama last night was a nasty affair, culminating in one of the most bizarre displays by a manager I have ever seen.

Mexican coach Javier Aguirre tries to trip up Panama’s Ricardo Philips as he makes a run down the line in front of the Mexican bench, which led to a lot of pushing and shoving by the players and a barrage of debris from the fans.

Aguirre, to his credit, took full responsibility in the post game press conference.

“I’d like to apologize to everyone involved with the Mexican national team,” Aguirre said during a post-match conference. “I shouldn’t have come out of my designated area. I deserved the red card. I honestly regret it. I think the ref did the right thing.”

Still, regardless of how contrite Aguirre was, CONCACAF will no doubt be investigating and I would not be surpsied to see further action taken against the Mexican coach.

I cannot see how the CSA can deny the man the top job. With Canada’s 1-0 win over El Salvador tonight, Hart has strung together 4 wins for the nats. Dale Mitchell couldn’t string together 4 wins as a coach, never mind consecutively. I could be wrong about this, but by my account Hart has a record of 9-1-4 with the MNT.

So, CSA. When the time comes to announce the man who will lead the troops into 2014, I believe the choice is becoming quite obvious.

About tonight’s game – it was a fantastic performance all around, especially in the midfield. We must have had 70% of the possession in the first half with Hutch, De Guzman and Patrice Bernier bringing their A games. Julian must have known a few extra eyes from the Metro area would be on him tonight what with all the buzz about the TFC contract offer and he certainly did not disappoint with a stellar performance .

Once again CONCACAF”s most lethal weapon Ali Gerba poached the goal after a sloppy clearance by El Salvador. I don’t know how he does it, but he just scores goals. Period. The rest of his game is no screaming hell, but when it comes to bending the twine, the guy gets the job done.

Again, the back was solid with Jakovic and McKenna, and we got decent wing play from Johnson and Simpson. Of the two, I think Johnson has a bit more flair and creativity than Simpson, who does have the speed andgle down pretty well. But in Will you can see the genesis of a very good player forming. He and Diesel work well together on the right. Johnson is able enough going back to give Stalteri some room to overlap and push up, adding to the attack. Sure, Johnson could have done better on his finish (as could many of our players), but I think Will is going to be a crucial part of the nats for a long time to come.

I was glad to see Hutch have a stellar game. I rate him highly, his work in the midfield often overshadowed by JDG, and it was nice to see him so visible tonight. He could have also been more lethal with his finishing – I counted at least 2 occasions where he should have taken the shot and instead tried to pull an Arsenal and go for one more pass – but there is no doubt that when he is on his game our midfield purrs.

Sutton did the job in the pipes, not really being pressured by many decent shots by El Salvador. But like against Jamaica, the ball seemed to go from his feet/hands directly to opposition players a bit too often for my liking.

Still, that seems like minor nitpicking when we have 2 wins and 6 points under our belt and a date with the Ticos on Friday.

Here’s a post game interview by V’s Max Bell with Julian De Guzman. Catch more interviews on the V’s YouTube channel.

More coverage

• Canada picks up second clean sheet from the 24th Minute
• The boys at SCGWAS are drunk and asking the same question – WHY!?!?!?!
• Gian-Luca rebukes the notion that the Gold Cup is meaningless over at The Voyageurs