Drogba has struggled in regular season play this season, but the 38 year old lives for the big games and could be instrumental to the Impact’s MLS Cup run. Photo Credit: Isadora Vasconcelos
Didier Drogba may have played his last game for the Montreal Impact — a brief cameo appearance off the bench in what ended up being a 3-1 for the Impact versus the San Jose Earthquakes. As well as being a relative non-factor, the magisterial Ivorian was booked for his troubles. No wonder he didn’t want to come off the bench against Toronto.
The 38 year old has been out with a “back injury” — fitting, right? — since “Toronto-gate,” and missed Montreal’s pivotal first leg Eastern Conference semifinal win over the New York Red Bulls, a team that many had pegged to go on to win the MLS Cup. In the build up to the game, Mauro Biello had given fans a slither of “hope” that their designated player might play stating that “if he [Drogba] is healthy, he’ll play.” Fourteen and a half hours before kick-off, however, the former UEFA Champions League winner tweeted this:
Tres déçu de ne pas être de la team à cause de cette fichue douleur au dos malgré tout besoin de vs les @ultrasmontreal pour mettre le ??
— Didier Drogba (@didierdrogba) October 30, 2016
“Very disappointed not to be of the team because of that darn pain in the back still need vs the @ultrasmontreal to the ??”
In the throws of what has been an up and down — okay, mostly down — season for Drogba, it’s been very easy to forget the player he was for Chelsea; for Galatasaray; heck — it’s hard to remember him being the player he was last season.
Drogba has been back in training since Tuesday and there’s a good chance he at least makes the final 18 for the return leg in New Jersey for the Impact. This comes as good news to some and bad news to others, after all the Impact has been better without Drogba on the field this season — results back that up —, but to assert that the Impact doesn’t need Didier Drogba? Frankly, that’s insane.
If the soccer Gods had ever set out to create the perfect big game player it is Drogba. There have been others, sure; Eric Cantona played in two FA Cup finals and won both; Geoff Hurst? He scored a hat trick in England’s one and only World Cup win versus West Germany in 1966; what about Steven Gerrard? He’s scored in every possible club final. That’s all fine — and they’re all legends in their own right, but none of them are qualified to polish the Ivorian’s golden boots when it comes to playing in big games.
Across his career Drogba has played in 12 finals, scored 10 goals, and secured 11 trophies.
A quick look back at Drogba’s exploits — while at Chelsea — in games where there is intense pressure makes for mesmerizing reading. It’s hard to believe anybody could achieve what he has:
2005: Carling Cup Final vs Liverpool. Winning goal.
2007: Carling Cup Final vs Arsenal. Equalizer; winning goal.
2007: FA Cup Final vs Manchester United. Winning goal.
2008: Carling Cup Final vs Tottenham. First player to score in 3 League Cup finals.
2009: FA Cup Final vs Everton. Equalizer.
2010: FA Cup Final vs Portsmouth. Winning goal.
2012: FA Cup Final vs Liverpool. Winning goal. First player to score in 4 FA Cup finals.
2012: Champions League Final vs Bayern Munich. Equalizer; winning penalty kick.
Drogba’s performance during the 2012 Champions League final was other-worldly. When the game is on the line, he’s exactly the person you want on the field. He can, and will, make the impossible happen. He will put himself on the line when the occasion demands it — Drogba doesn’t take the 5th and final penalty kick for the attention, he takes it because he knows he can cope with the pressure.
Drogba has that “big-game” mentality. Don’t believe in it? Just watch Paul Pogba’s performance in the Champions League final for Juventus. That’s not to say Pogba isn’t a wonderful player — but some people have to develop that “big-game” mentality, like Pogba, and others are born with it.
Didier Drogba was most certainly born with it.
Part of having this mentality, this state of mind, is that you have to be a leader. On the pitch, off the pitch, and you have to be confident in yourself 100% of the time. Sometimes these kinds of people can rub people the wrong way — there’s no doubting Drogba has done that —, but as Carlo Ancelotti has explained to The Guardian: That is a game of “centimeters.”
The Italian was boss of Chelsea in 2009/10 and said this about the eclectic Chelsea striker:
“There are leaders that speak a lot. Before the match, he can do this, but then he leads by example with the way he plays. This happened from the start for me. I did not have to talk to him; straight away he was like that. [ . . . ] I know some see him as a prima donna, but the difference between a prima donna and a leader is a centimetre. The leader uses his talent for the team, the prima donna for himself, but Drogba has never been a prima donna for me. He reminds me of the great players, the way he has been this season. If he is feeling a good sensation about the game, if he is confident, he is impossible to play against.”
So sure, you can call Drogba a prima donna, but maybe that isn’t an insult and besides — It’s clear Drogba still has the support of his teammates. After the Impact’s 1-0 first leg win he stuck around to chat with his teammates for close to thirty minutes. The Drog was his playful, happy-go-lucky self. That aloofness that he brings to the table in the locker-room could prove pivotal to the energy of the Impact’s players and ultimately help take the pressure off.
Montreal’s captain Patrice Bernier, for one, is already well aware of what Drogba can bring to the table. “When he comes [into the game]he’s a factor, he’s an X factor. Didier Drogba what is he known for? Scoring goals, being there in big moments” said Bernier, “I’m already hoping that he can get fit so he comes in because it’s a boost to the team to know that now we have eleven plus that can make a difference. It will be a great confidence booster becuase he’s a great leader and also he’s a big game player.”
Drogba is a born winner, this much is clear. If Mauro Biello and the Impact’s hierarchy really are holding a grudge against Drogba for “Toronto-gate,” going into the second leg of one of the most important games in the Impact’s history might be a good time to bury the hatchet.
