With Didier Drogba, Ignacio Piatti and a welcome postseason surprise in Patrice Bernier all playing well, the Montreal Impact could not be blamed for thinking about going on the offensive on the road vs. the Columbus Crew.

That apparently is not the game plan, however.

The Impact and Crew will meet in the second leg of their Eastern Conference semifinals series at Mapfre Stadium on Sunday (5 p.m., ESPN), and it is the Canadian club that currently leads on aggregate after picking up a 2-1 win at home last weekend.

After falling behind in that match at Stade Saputo, the Impact came out victorious through goals on each side of halftime from role players Bernier and Johan Venegas.

Because of the away goal conceded, many teams in the Impact’s shoes would insist on coming out aggressively in the second leg despite being ahead and on the road. Still, the club foresees the Crew coming out guns blazing, and they are taking a more defensive-minded approach as a result.

“We expect them to (play a) really high-tempo game, right on the whistle just come as hard as they can,” Impact winger Dominic Oduro told SBI. “Obviously they need to win, so they’re pretty much going to attack as much as possible to get an early goal at home and see if we can open up. This is where we have to be smart and order ourselves and stay compact.

“Once we’re able to weather storm after like 20 minutes, the pressure will mount on them and we’ll try to hit them on the counter if we can.”

It was on a counter that the Impact found the go-ahead goal in this series. In the 77th minute of the tightly-contested and intense opening leg in Montreal, Venegas stripped Michael Parkhurst of the ball and raced in untouched before slotting the ball past goalkeeper Steve Clark.

The match-winner has put the Crew in a hole that they need to climb out of in order to avoid being disappointingly eliminated in this round of the playoffs for the second straight year. The club has identified the area that needs most improvement, though, and is ready to go out and execute a better game plan.

“I think a lot of it had to do with our ball movement,” Crew head coach Gregg Berhalter told SBI. “It just wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t up to our normal standard, so that’s something we took a look at and we focused on this week.”

True enough, the Crew’s attack mostly fizzled in Montreal despite finding a potentially-crucial away goal. Regular-season catalysts Kei Kamara and Ethan Finlay were neutralized for much of the match, so much so that Berhalter yanked the latter after 67 minutes when the match was still even at 1-1.

Getting the offensive duo going again is imperative for the Crew, and Berhalter admitted that the club is focused on making them effective in this game by providing them with more opportunities to get on the ball.

On the other end, the Crew defense did fairly well despite conceding twice. Drogba, who has been on a tear since joining MLS, was held in check and off the scoresheet. Few teams have been able to accomplish that feat during the past couple of months, but the Crew believe they know the recipe to limiting the veteran forward’s contributions in a match.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say (you have to be rough with him) because I think he thrives on physical games. That’s a very good quality of his,” said Berhalter. “We need to be smart, and we need to pick and choose when we’re being physical and when we’re laying off of him and giving him a little cushion. It’s a tough assignment for our centerbacks and our back line, but they’re going to have to remain focused the whole time.”

The Crew expect Drogba to have a few scoring chances here and there at Mapfre Stadium, and they will live with that so long as they are not “clear looks.” Attention is not solely on Drogba, however, as the Crew know that the Impact have a number of versatile weapons like Piatti, Bernier and Oduro that can hurt them.

Mauro Biello’s side, meanwhile, is concentrating on trying to find their talisman in more dangerous positions. Drogba, who was at fault for the goal the Impact conceded in the first leg, needs to get a healthy dose of the ball for the club to be at their best. The last couple of months have proven that.

“We just have to feed him the ball like we always do,” said Oduro. “It was just unfortunate. I thought he had a goal in the first half – it was disallowed for some reason – but he’s a guy that when he has one or two chances he will bury at least one of them. We just have to feed him the ball in the right places, especially crossing.

“We just have to find him a lot and give him a little bit of service up in the air or for him to hold it so we can run off him. We’ve been doing that this season, but we have to go to Columbus and have the right mindset and go and execute. The ball is in our court. We just have to play it right.”

One away goal from the Impact in Columbus would force the Crew to have to find at least two to keep their season alive, which would likely open the hosts up and play right into the hands of the counterattacking Impact. Conversely, one goal for the Crew without any from the Impact would leave the Canadian outfit to have to be a bit more desperate.

With so many possible scenarios in this pressure-filled fixture, both clubs are aware of the importance of managing the game and their emotions. They also know that the margin for mistakes is as small as ever.

“I think there can’t be any room for error because this is not a regular-season game where you can just get over a loss. This is do-or-die,” said Oduro. “You either win or you go home. No room for error. If you get a chance, you have to bury it. When you have to make a tackle to stop a play, you have to do it.”