Alright, we’re less than 7 percent of the way through the regular season and I’m fired up already.

Who are these jimokes who are saying New York had the better of the play on Saturday night at Giants Stadium, that the Revs were “lucky” to get out of there with a point?

Yeah, well the Revs made their own luck. Now, if you told Steve Nicol before the game that he’d be missing Matt Reis, Taylor Twellman, Steve Ralston and three other starters, sure he’d be happy to take a point of the road before a ball was kicked in anger.

By my count, however, in the actually game, the Revs out-chanced NY 4-2 in the first half while New York had the edge in that department in the second half by a 5.5-to-4 margin. By that tally, the Revs had half a chance more than the Red Bulls over 90 minutes. Shots on goal were 11-3 in favor of New England! While three of those “shots” were in fact Chris Tierney free kicks that ended up in NY keeper Danny Cepero’s mitts, SOG for the night were still indicative of the attacking play created by the Revolution.

There are a few players who should be singled out for the Revolution, starting with Shalrie Joseph, who set up the Revs’ late-game equalizer and generally put himself about all night. Although the improved Sinisa Ubiparapovich battled him all evening, Shalrie was the best player on the plastic pitch, drifting up high to contend for long balls, winning tackles, making thrusting dribble runs and settling the play on a bumpy surface.

How about Wells Thompson? I gave him a 6.5 out of 10 – tied for second highest of any Revs player and if his shot in the first half off of Joseph’s through ball has been better, Wells’ rating would have gone up as well. He got up and down and turned his wing into a rock fight as he always does, but he also demonstrated a real attacking instinct, a clean touch on the ball in tough circumstances and overall good decision making. Kudos to Wells.

The story of the night was the emergency start and solid-plus performance by GK Brad Knighton. Making his first-team debut, B. Knight looked composed and commanding and made a couple of key saves. He sent one long kick out of bounds, but other than that, his distribution was good (and he can send those punts a mile, eh?). No question, New England wants Matt Reis back from his knee injury asap, but if Knighton can be the kind of backup he looked like on Saturday, it will be less of an emergency.

Kenny Mansally and Kheli Dube need to take a drink of whatever confidence juice Thompson and Knighton are drinking. The Revs forwards got into good spots but, until Kenny opportunistically ran Joseph’s 90th minute feed into the goal to make it 1-1, never looked particularly like scoring, even when Cepero beat away Mansally’s angled drive from inside the area in the first half. You’d like to see both of them just go for it when they get the ball in dangerous positions. That said, both have delivered important goals when the chips were down in the first two weeks.

Rookies Kevin Allston and Darrius Barnes, by the way, continue to impress at the back. Amaechi Igwe looked solid in the second half as well. I like Tierney on the left side of midfield better than at left fullback – I think he does too!

And Jay Heaps was unlucky on the own-goal. When I read the fan-generated, in-match discussion threads and see criticism for Heaps based on that play - or in general - I just don’t think the people writing it are paying attention to all the important little things he does in back for NE. Jay was arguably more consistent than Michael Parkhurst last season and he’s played very well the first two games this year. Think about how inexperienced the guys he’s been out there with are.

The outrage of the night, however, the thing that fired me up the most, was when a member of the New York sporting press suggested the Revolution didn’t want Taylor Twellman back from his neck injury because they won without him early last season and so far this year. That had to be the dumbest thing I’ve heard someone say about pro soccer in this country in a while. The Revs are grinding out good results with a couple of young forwards right now, scoring a goal per game while doing so. But you wouldn’t have the best scorer in club history out there instead?

Get well soon, Taylor. And Steve, and Matt…Chris…it’s a long list right now and the Revs are undefeated through two. Can they keep it going?

Update: My guests for “In the Net” this Wednesday, 4/1 at 11 a.m. ET are scheduled to be TV analyst and former Dallas head coach Dave Dir, DFW-based espnsoccernet and mlsnet.com pundit Steve Davis, and Buzz Carrick of espnsoccernet and 3rddegree.net. Please send emails questions and comments to revradio@revolutionsoccer.net. If you can’t listen live, why not go ahead and send your emails and hear them answered on the archive/podcast?

Update 2: I will be in-studio around 8:30 p.m. this Thursday night on the Planet Mikey Show on WEEI. Email the show or call in with Revs talk - (617) 779-0850 or (888) 525-0850.