What a survival act that was for the Revolution, winning their group in SuperLiga and not losing any more players to injury in the last two matches. It’s a credit to the players – and the coaching staff – that the Revs are 5-0-0 all-time against Mexican opposition in the tournament and that they did not retaliate against some truly off-putting baiting and cheap shots from both non-MLS teams they faced in the group phase.

There’s a reason that Steve Nicol is the longest-tenured coach in MLS, and we witnessed it again this past week: he gets it. “It”, in case you are asking, is the big picture and that includes player psychology, managing on multiple fronts in multiple tournaments and contending with crisis situations (such as injuries to star players, suspensions and a shortage of players). The fact that the Revs were able to manage a lead against Atlas from minute 32 on, with just three available outfield subs and in the middle of a five-games-in-14-nights stretch says a lot about Nicol’s macro-level team management.

For example, the Revs were going well at 1-0 playing down a man against Kansas City and Nicol made a couple of substitutions that raised a few eyebrows, taking off Sainey Nyassi and Kenny Mansally, who have been playing extremely well as of late. Then, the Wizards scored a late equalizer and you had a few folks saying, “I told you so”, despite the result versus KC being a perfectly acceptable one, given the early sending off.

Well, Stevie Nic’s the one who looks clever in the end, because Mansally got the winner against Atlas and was fresh enough to play like an absolute horse four nights after the Kansas City game. Tactically, Nicol played the right cards in terms of the big picture of the competition.

But, boy oh boy, Nicol’s deck is getting short-stacked.  Not only are none of the injured players from the past two matches likely well enough to start on Tuesday against the Harrisburg City Islanders in the U.S. Open Cup, but Wells Thompson is out  with a suspension, and Jay Heaps (bravo, well-deserved) is off with the U.S. National Team.

So, on Tuesday, we will likely get to see more of the likes of Nico Colaluca and Stephane Assengue.

Colaluca had a nice debut in a Revs uniform against Atlas. You can see he’s nifty with the ball at his feet and plays with some swagger. He nearly scored – driving a shot off the post after an impressive dribble run – and what a story that would have been.

Assengue, as you may remember, almost scored on his debut back on May 3 versus Houston, but has seen such limited action it’s hard to gauge him as a player. From what I’ve seen, he still has a long way to go before being a polished pro, but, as I’ve said before, has such great pure ability that he could surprise some people if he gets some real playing time.

Who are the Harrisburg City Islanders? Well, they are not Harrisburg United and they’re not Harrisburg Albion Thistle, either. In fact, they’re not even supposed to be referred to as Harrisburg City. This the deal…they play at Skyline Sports Complex on City Island (in the Susquehanna River, which runs through Pennsylvania‘s capital city). “How are you such an expert on things Pennsylvanian, Feldman?” you may ask. Well, it just so happens that my lovely wife Liz (Happy Anniversary, babe) hails from the Harrisburg-Hershey-Carlisle area and we were married in Mechanicsburg, PA. I’ve been to City Island (I know, I’m so cool).

So it’s Cleveland City, but it’s just “Harrisburg”, when referring to USL-2 teams with “City” in their name. Please.

Harrisburg is in first place in the third-tier of U.S. pro soccer and should prove to be a legit opponent. These cup games almost always mean more to the lower-division teams, and the Revs had a reasonably close call against Harrisburg two years ago in their run to the USOC title, winning just 2-1 at Gillette Stadium.

The City Islanders feature a few guys with experience further up the pyramid, such as midfielder Kai Kasiguran (Chicago Fire) and defender Tim Velten (Charleston Battery). The danger men up top are Chad Severs, who is the club’s all-time leading scorer despite shuttling back-and-forth to the Rochester Rhinos from 2006-08, and South African Ty Shipalane. Both are among the tops in USL-2 in scoring. So these guys are no muppets and they are going to want this game, badly.

I’m looking forward to calling the match with my usual Open Cup radio analyst, Andrew Hush of ESPNsoccernet. If you can’t make it to New Britain, CT, tune in here on revolutionsoccer.net at 7: oo p.m.

In the Net this week will feature interviews with Revolution COO Brian Bilello, Andrea Canales of Goal.com, Luis Bueno of Si.com and Revs goalkeepers coach Gwynne Williams. The email address is RevRadio@revolutionsoccer.net.