RSS feed with custom additional values - how best to

Hello all,

I am using Java (EE 5) using standard XSL transformer and would like
to perform a relatively simple activity: take a valid RSS 2.0 feed
that has some additional elements and process it using XSL to create
an HTML page.

Here is the feed format:
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:customns="http://www.helpyoulist.com/customns">
  <channel>
    <title>Daily listings for Acme Inc</title>
    <link>http://www.acmeinc.com/</link>
    <description>Daily listings for Acme Inc</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <copyright>Copyright 2009</copyright>
    <customns:companyName>Acme Incorporated</customns:companyName>
    <customns:address1>123 Main Street</customns:address1>
    <customns:city>Anytown</customns:city>
    <customns:state>NJ</customns:state>
    <customns:zip>12345</customns:zip>
    <customns:phone>(123) 555-1212</customns:phone>
    <customns:fax>(123) 555-1213</customns:fax>
    <customns:email>info@xxxxxxxxxxx</customns:email>
    <item>
      <title>2008 Acme Floor Sander</title>
      <guid>http://www.acmeinc.com/ACL1.html</guid>
      <description>What a great floor sander!</description>
      <customns:listingID>ACL1</customns:listingID>
      <customns:manufacturer>Acme</customns:manufacturer>
      <customns:model>FS1</customns:model>
      <customns:year>2008</customns:year>
      <customns:serial>5207</customns:serial>
      <customns:condition>New</customns:condition>
      <customns:askingPrice>519.00</customns:askingPrice>
      <customns:contact customns:sortOrder="1">
        <customns:firstName>Raul</customns:firstName>
        <customns:lastName>Jones</customns:lastName>
        <customns:email>rjones@xxxxxxxxxxx</customns:email>
        <customns:phone>(123) 555-1213</customns:phone>
      </customns:contact>
      <customns:contact customns:sortOrder="2">
        <customns:firstName>Brandon</customns:firstName>
        <customns:lastName>Boyd</customns:lastName>
        <customns:email>bboyd@xxxxxxxxxxx</customns:email>
        <customns:phone>(123) 555-1214</customns:phone>
      </customns:contact>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>2007 Acme Belt Sander</title>
      <guid>http://www.acmeinc.com/ACL2556.html</guid>
      <description>This belt sander rules!</description>
      <customns:listingID>ACL2556</customns:listingID>
      <customns:manufacturer>Acme</customns:manufacturer>
      <customns:model>BS1</customns:model>
      <customns:year>2004</customns:year>
      <customns:serial>4006</customns:serial>
      <customns:condition>Used</customns:condition>
      <customns:askingPrice>299.00</customns:askingPrice>
      <customns:contact customns:sortOrder="1">
        <customns:firstName>Brandon</customns:firstName>
        <customns:lastName>Boyd</customns:lastName>
        <customns:email>bboyd@xxxxxxxxxxx</customns:email>
        <customns:phone>(123) 555-1214</customns:phone>
      </customns:contact>
      <customns:contact customns:sortOrder="2">
        <customns:firstName>Raul</customns:firstName>
        <customns:lastName>Jones</customns:lastName>
        <customns:email>rjones@xxxxxxxxxxx</customns:email>
        <customns:phone>(123) 555-1213</customns:phone>
      </customns:contact>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

As you can see, it is standard RSS (and I checked! -> it's a valid RSS
2.0 feed) with some additional data within in. RSS encourages this.

Here would be my XSL file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:customns="http://www.helpyoulist.com/customns">

<xsl:output method="html" version="4.01" />
<xsl:output
doctype-system="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"
/>
<xsl:output doctype-public="-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" />

<xsl:template match="rss/channel">
    <xsl:apply-templates select="item"/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="item">
<xsl:if test="customns:guid='http://www.acmeinc.com/ACL1.html'"> <!--
WILL REPLACE WITH VAR LATER -->
    <xsl:value-of select="title" /><br /> <!-- WORKS FINE! -->
    <xsl:value-of select="customns:model" />|<br /> <!-- IT'A NO LIKA! -->
/xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>


I would consider myself a beginner to intermediate with XSL, and as
such have spent about four hours reading and researching, trying to
figure out how to do this. I am comfortable with other XSL concepts
(looping, nodes, XPath, etc).

There has been a mound of things to wade through (including the XSL
2.0 docs, which I did spend some time reading),and I am using this to
get my feet wet into more advanced namespace stuff.  Interestingly
enough, I would think an RSS-based tutorial would be the PERFECT way
to introduce namespacing.

What am I missing? I've tried aliases and such to no avail.