OBETZ, Ohio – To keep their season alive, Columbus Crew SC will need a quality defensive performance against the Montreal Impact on Sunday in the second leg of their Audi 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference Semifinal series (5 pm ET, ESPN).
And that defensive performance will have to come against Didier Drogba, who has scored 12 goals in 13 matches since his MLS debut.
In the teams’ first match-up last weekend, Columbus largely shut Drogba down. Center back Gaston Sauro matched the striker’s physicality, and surrounding defenders crowded Drogba’s space whenever he touched the ball.
Drogba got some looks, however, and Crew SC boss Gregg Berhalter knows those opportunities will come again.
“I said it all last week and I’ll say it again this week: He will get some chances,” Berhalter said. “It’s about limiting the chances he gets and making sure those opportunities aren’t good chances. I think we did a reasonable job of that last game, and now it’s continuing to have the same focus, the same intensity, the same strength to do it again.”
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Berhalter said it was a “coincidence” that Sauro – rather than Michael Parkhurst – was so frequently matched against Drogba. But the Argentine said he relishes the opportunity, and knows the danger Drogba presents.
“For me, it’s a challenge,” he said. “Any time you play a guy like Drogba, it’s definitely a challenge. You have a player who’s very strong and if you get too close, he can turn on you. He knows how to move his body well and get in certain places.”
But Drogba’s style involves much more than pure strength. In addition to his force and skill, the striker is a master of getting under the skin of opponents. He came close to baiting Sauro into a second yellow card in the match, and has built a reputation for bothering opponents by talking, fouling and going down easily.
Crew SC midfielder Wil Trapp says those extra-curricular activities bother onlookers more than players.
“I think it gets in the fans heads more than it gets in ours,” he said. “Ultimately, you have to move on as quickly as possible. If the ref calls a foul, he calls a foul. You arguing is only going to aggravate the ref. So with a guy like that, you know he likes the contact and he’ll go down. You just have to be smart with how you approach him and how you deal with him.”
For Berhalter, those antics aren’t out of bounds.
“That’s the game of soccer,” he said. “In the game of soccer, you have different personalities on the field, different attributes of the players, and you’ve got to deal with all of that. So that’s part of it, as far as I’m concerned.”
But Berhalter and his team know that Montreal is more than just one player.
Parkhurst said Drogba will need to be contained, but the team’s defensive job will be to limit the chances he creates for dangerous teammates like Ignacio Piatti, Dilly Duka, Dominic Oduro and Patrice Bernier as well.
“The layoffs and the guys running through are extremely important,” Parkhurst said. “The midfielders did an excellent job of tracking those guys and Gaston did a good job of being physical with him and knocking him off the ball a couple of times. It takes a whole team effort, it’s not just the center backs.
"A lot of help is needed, and it’s going to have to be the same thing – a concerted effort to neutralize [Drogba] as well as the other pieces they have in the attack.”
