His side may well have fired blanks at the National Sports Centre last night against LD Alajuelense, but New England Revolution coach Steve Nicol was more than happy with the performance.

Against a physical Costa Rican side who were content to sit back and absorb wave after wave of Revolution attacks for most of the 90 minutes in this first leg, New England commanded the majority of possession but failed to capitalise on a number of the openings they carved out.

But the unflappable Nicol insisted he was perfectly content with the quality of the play, particularly against a side who are right in the middle of their domestic season.

"To be honest, I think it was difficult to tell which team was in pre-season and which team wasn't," he said.

"At this stage, I cannot complain about that performance at all. We kept the ball really well and passed it around nicely at times. We did have a few chances to score, but unfortunately we weren't quite sharp enough to take them.

"The pitch here is extremely quick, even a little too quick for football, and a few of our attacks broke down because the ball was skipping away from some of our guys when they were played into space. Overall though, I'm pleased. We played some good stuff in the 90 minutes and we're all looking forward to the challenge of the second leg down in Costa Rica."

Nicol's upbeat mood was tempered however by the fact that US national team striker Pat Noonan pulled a hamstring in the second half and is very unlikely to be fit for the second leg down in Central America.

The 26-year-old, who was named in the American squad yesterday for their friendly game against Poland on March 1, is expected to be out for up to six weeks.

"It's far too early to say exactly how bad his hamstring is," said Nicol.

"We will be able to assess the situation better in the morning but hamstrings take a notoriously long time to heal so the situation does not look good for him. It's a major blow for us as well."

LD Alajuelense coach Rolando Villalobos meanwhile made no apologies for his side's negative tactics, praising them instead for their defensive organisation and discipline throughout.

"We have done what we came here to do," he said, while looking perfectly at home outside the team changing room with a clutch of cellulars, microphones and tape recorders belonging to the rather excitable Costa Rican media no more than an inch from his face.

"It was a very physical game and both sides worked very hard. Away from home it is always difficult but we are happy to draw the game and go back to Costa Rica to be more attacking in the second leg and put them under more pressure at home."