Montreal Impact’s Dominic Oduro primed for clash with old pal Kei Kamara

In Thursday’s 3-0 drubbing of Toronto FC in the Knockout Round, Montreal strategized to stop Giovinco by denying midfielders Benoît Cheyrou and Michael Bradley the time and the space to feed him the ball.

The Chelsea legend has 12 goals in his 12 appearances in MLS and his success there had reignited these rumors of him potentially coming back to Chelsea (or Bologna in Serie A?) on loan during the offseason.

Because Montreal finished third in the east and had to pass through the knockout round this week, the game tonight against Columbus will be Montreal’s second in only four days – and by soccer standards, that is a remarkably a quick turnaround. He obliterated rivals Toronto FC in back-to-back weeks, scoring to end their season by costing them a chance at a first-round bye, then putting them to the sword in the first round itself. A second half goal from Erik Friberg won it for Seattle, with LA coach Bruce Arena saying his team had gift-wrapped all three goals for the Sounders. (Federico) Higuain too, but Kei is the main target.

Drogba is now playing for MLS side Montreal Impact and has scored 12 goals in as many matches, but despite being available from December to March, Mourinho is not considering a loan. “I told him to spellcheck it”.

Oduro and Kamara have been friends since the 2006 MLS draft, when Kamara went ninth overall to Columbus and Oduro was taken 22nd overall by Dallas. Probably not, but you have to admire the effort and the originality of telling someone to use spell check during smack talk. Impact defeated Toronto to advance. “This is one of the most satisfying games for me in an Impact uniform”, said Patrice Bernier. The whole squad allows us to play games like these, to score. But despite the challenges, he never complained publicly, he never wavered in his responsibilities as a leader of the team away from the field and he did what was asked of him on the field. Both games are to start at 7 p.m. ET.

The Columbus Crew don’t have a solution for shutting down Montreal Impact star Didier Drogba.