Actionscript 3.0 :: Pull Up A Particular Xml Node Based On An Id Value?

I've got a section in my code where I am trying to pull up a particular xml node based on an id value I have. When I try to pull it up via the method shown the code stops executing at that point. In other words, the "got here" is traced but neither of the two lines after it or any code below that point in the function seem to get executed. If I take that line out the code executes just fine. I'm using this same xml object in many places and the xml data is fine it is just when I try to use this syntax that it gets confused.

I'm also a bit confused as to why the code just stops. I realize that flash doesn't generally display errors at runtime, but if it doesn't show up as a compile error or warning what is the best way to avoid the code hang up? Also is this the correct way to access the node? I actually am trying to retrieve the team attribute on the same node with an id that I'm using in the xml search query. Should playXML.players.(@id == '18431').@team get me that value? It seems to cause the same behavior any time I try to use that syntax even with other attributes from the player nodes and if I use something like playXML.players.@id it returns all the nodes id attributes.

Code: Select alltrace("got here");
trace(playXML.players.(@id == '18431'));
trace("also got here");

Here is the xml:

Code: Select all<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<play>
<players>
<player id="18431" pos="LOT" realpos="OT" name="TT1 Tackle 4" team="1509" number=""/>

[code]....

Edit:I dropped a try/catch statement around this block and that solves the code execution issue but I still can't access the node I want with a given id using the playXML.players.(@id == '18431') style syntax.