FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The memories, or maybe more accurately the nightmares, are still fresh in the minds of the New England Revolution.
It was less than a month ago that they stepped onto the pitch at Stade Saputo, only to find that the Montreal Impact’s newest addition, Didier Drogba, was as real as the legend that preceded him.
Allowing a goal and an assist to the Ivorian national in a 3-0 loss on Sept. 19, the Revs dropped their first opportunity at clinching a postseason bid and have been unable to rebound in their following two matches, drawing at home against Philadelphia on Sept. 26 and losing at Chicago on Oct. 3.
Saturday’s rematch with the Impact (7:30 pm ET, TSN2, RDS in Canada, MLS LIVE in US) provides New England an opportunity to get back on track and into the Audi 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs, but the Revolution know they will have to do a better job defending Drogba in order to pick up a win.
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“He’s been killing it in the league,” Revolution defender Andrew Farrell said. “We all knew he was probably going to be doing that. It’s a big challenge for us, especially coming off the three results, one of them being against them, where we didn’t play our best. We’re not real happy with how we came out of those three games.”
Farrell and the rest of the defense, in particular, know the importance of figuring out the entire Impact attack, which the Revolution could face again down the road with much more at stake.
“’We’ve got to get a good result at home against a Montreal team that will most likely be in the playoffs, a team we might have to match up against again in the playoffs,” Farrell told MLSsoccer.com. “It’s a big opportunity for us, a big challenge. I think we’re all excited for it. Me and Jose [Goncalves] are really excited, because the first time we played them, we didn’t do that well. We kind of let ourselves down and the team down. I’m excited for the opportunity to play against them.”
The Impact will enter Gillette Stadium on the heels of a 1-0 win against Colorado, but Saturday will mark the Eastern Conference club’s fourth straight road game, one that could be played in front a record crowd, according to Revolution president Brian Bilello.
The Revs are hoping such a crowd can help quiet Drogba and company, but they know a positive result starts with their game plan to stop the prolific forward and his teammates.
“You can see he’s an excellent player,” said midfielder Scott Caldwell of Drogba. “Just from his first 8-10 games in the league, he scores goals, he holds balls up, he does plenty more. We just have to be aware of him and everyone else on their team. Just like any other game, we have to be prepared to play well ourselves and handle whatever they throw at us.”
Added goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth: “We’re obviously going to watch a lot of video on them this week and see kind of what they’ve done from there. I don’t think there’s going to be any surprises for us; we just have to worry about ourselves and handle our own business and try to get three points at home.”
