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Revolution wary of Drogba threat as MLS playoffs loom

Reuters

When the New England Revolution host the Montreal Impact on Saturday, the Revs' players will have one key objective in mind in order to secure a win: keep Didier Drogba off the score sheet.

The Ivorian international has scored nine goals in as many games this season and is the biggest obstacle standing in New England's way as the team searches for early playoff qualification.

New England needs just a win or a draw to secure a spot in the MLS postseason, while the Impact will be looking for all three points as they currently sit sixth in the Eastern Conference.

"He’s been killing it in the league," Revs defender Andrew Farrell told reporters. "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."

Related - VIDEO: Didier Drogba scores his 9th goal with a perfectly-placed free kick

Farrell isn't the only one keeping Drogba at the forefront of his focus: defensive midfielder Scott Caldwell will also need help contain the former Chelsea man.

Winger Andres Romero has been ruled out with a long-term injury, so Montreal will be much more direct up the centre of the field in its intentions to find Drogba. Caldwell's job will be to make sure interplay is broken up before it turns into dangerous situations.

"You can see he’s an excellent player,” Caldwell said. "Just from his first eight to 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."

Goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth said the Revs will be doing their homework before taking on the Impact, too.

"We’re obviously going to watch a lot of video on them this week and see kind of what they’ve done from there," Shuttleworth said. "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."

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