It’s really a shame that the Revolution’s 4-2 victory over Santos Laguna was marred by cheap shots and bad feelings on both sides. The Revs mounted an impressive comeback and played some really good soccer in some pretty poor weather conditions.

Several Revs players deserve praise for their work in the stormy conditions, starting with Kenny Mansally, who has been a revelation on the left side of midfield. Powerful, fast and tough, his one-goal, one-assist performance against Santos was his best so far since taking over on the left side. The quality of his service from the flank – both on dead balls and in open play – continues to improve. Mansally also did an excellent job standing up to some of the intimidation tactics Santos tried to direct his way without taking the bait.

Jeff Larentowicz. Wow. What a shot that was in the 38th minute to open the scoring. But that was the tip of the iceberg for ol’ Jeffers, who, in the absence of Shalrie Joseph stone bossed the affair in the middle of the park. You needed to have your head on a swivel with all the cheap shots flying around out there, but Jeff didn’t seem bothered. He just won his tackles, got it, gave it, and kept the Revs playing. Major kudos.

Mike Videira. Keep on doing that, my son, and you’ll be a regular starter in this league. Videira has an exquisite touch, good game awareness and he takes up good spots on the field. Once they figured out that he could play, Santos looked like they wanted to hack and hit Videira, too, but Mike displayed a good savvy and didn’t give an inch.

Kheli Dube. If he keeps on shooting like he did on the fourth goal, Dube will have Mexican teams fighting to sign him up. He also played a big part on the Mansally and Jay Heaps goals. More than that, after some uncomfortable-looking touches early, Kheli held the ball up top as well as he has since the first portion of the 2008 season.

Heaps and Kevin Alston also deserve praise for the way they pushed into the attack, created goals, and kept Santos pinned back in their own defensive half.

Overall it was really nice to see the Revs keeping and moving the ball minus (arguably) their three top players – Joseph, Taylor Twellman and (after the 39th minute) Steve Ralston.

But what the blanket-blank were the Santos players carrying on about? That blind-side sucker shot that Juan Pablo Santiago hit Pat Phelan with was about as gutless a thing as one player can do to another. Yes, Santiago was handed a three-game suspension from SuperLiga play, but that’s getting off lightly. He should be barred from the competition for the rest of 2009 (if Santos make the final, Santiago could play) and be fined. There should be implications for other competitions as well. That wasn’t a reactive strike or part of a confrontational situation between players. That was a premeditated, cowardly cheapie.

What got Santos so wound up – besides blowing a 2-1 lead to a team I’m sure they feel vastly superior to – was Phelan landing an inadvertent forearm or elbow to the head of Santos midfielder Johnny Garcia.

Sergio Bueno, the Santos manager, gave Steve Nicol a disapproving scowl when the two shook hands post game. I’ll bet Bueno privately felt a bit sheepish when he watched the game DVD and saw that Phelan was making an honest attempt at the ball and only made contact with Garcia because the Santos player didn’t jump.

But it appeared to me as if Santos was looking for an excuse to go off. You just wish that they’d exact their revenge  – as misplaced as it was – in a more straightforward and honorable way, if they feel they have to do it at all. And it’s not the first time we’ve seen this in a SuperLiga match. Credit to the Revs for not retaliating, especially after all four members of the refereeing crew inexplicably missed – or at least chose not to make a call on – Santiago’s shameful right hook that was so clear to see on the TV replays.

Hopefully, after such a nasty-tempered game, the Revs and Wizards can put their recent red-card antics from their last two games (actually, it’s been all Revs’ red cards – they have all three of them!) behind them on Wednesday night as this competition continues.

If New England hasn’t learned by now that Claudio Lopez is a windup artist extraordinaire then they aren’t learning very quickly. Emmanuel Osei, who won’t be suspended for Wednesday night’s game because it’s not an MLS contest, must be disciplined in his defending, especially when matched up with Lopez.

Same too, for Amaeche Igwe (assuming he starts). The fans (and I) love his attacking instincts and athletic runs forward – one such run produced the corner that led to the game-winning goal – but he needs to be conservative against an MLS team that has the fire power up front to punish loose defending.

The Revs learned the hard way on June 13 in Kansas City that the Wizards have enough good players to hurt them. Lopez, Josh Wolff, Davy Arnaud and Herculez Gomez (who is likely out injured) can all hit quickly in the attack and Santiago Hirsig is a proper player, pulling the strings in the middle of the field.

The Revs will have to work extremely hard to replicate their second half performance from the other night against the Wizards. KC will close the Revs down more quickly than the Santos players did, and they know the Revs’ tendencies. Not to mention, the New England is still minus Twellman, Ralston, Joseph, Chris Albright, Gabriel Badilla, Mauricio Castro and now likely Alston, too.

But if Mansally, Videira, Phelan, Dube, Igwe et al. continue to play at their peaks, the Revs could go a long way toward claiming a spot in the SuperLiga semifinals versus KC.

Get me your email questions and comments for this week’s In the Net (revradio@revolutionsoccer.net). My guests are Kansas City Wizards TV analyst Zoran Savic, goal.com writer Allen Ramsey and I’ll also have an encore presentation of Revolution Radio’s interview with National Soccer Hall of Fame broadcaster Seamus Malin.