The Montreal Impact and New England Revolution have quick turnarounds for their matchup Saturday night in Canada, and lineup changes are likely for both.
The Impact are expected to welcome back six starters to their lineup, including stars Didier Drogba and Ignacio Piatti, when they try to end the Revolution's six-game win streak.
These teams played Wednesday, with New England (13-9-7) moving atop the Eastern Conference with a 2-1 home win over the New York Red Bulls. Diego Fagundez matched a career best by scoring in his fourth straight game and Kelyn Rowe added the winning tally in the second half.
The Revolution have matched a club-record six-game win streak from 2005. They are 7-0-1 in their last eight.
"We're hoping that it keeps going," Rowe said. "We don't want to let down now and there's obviously chances where we can get better. We want to get that fight still there, but we want to be able to play a little more and more and be able to control more games."
New England used five different starters Wednesday than it did in Sunday's 3-1 win at Toronto. Rowe, London Woodberry, Kevin Alston, Daigo Kobayashi and Juan Agudelo entered the lineup.
"I was really proud of our guys 'cause we were able to rotate our roster enough to make sure that we had some legs," coach Jay Heaps said.
Montreal (9-11-6) played to a 1-all draw at San Jose to cap a two-game West Coast trip. The short-handed Impact let designated players Drogba and Piatti, along with goalkeeper Evan Bush and midfielders Marco Donadel and Justin Mapp, travel home after last Saturday's scoreless draw with Los Angeles.
In addition, defender Laurent Ciman completed his two-game suspension and will be available to face the Revolution.
The Impact were thrilled after their makeshift lineup salvaged a point Wednesday despite Ambroise Oyongo getting sent off in the 49th minute, with Oyongo suspended for this match. Kyle Bekker scored the tying goal in the second half.
"It's even more encouraging that we earned this point having gone into the half down a goal," defender Hassoun Camara told the league's official website. "We want to continue this run of form and play well over our next few games to earn a playoff spot."
Montreal holds the sixth and final East playoff spot. The club is 1-0-2 since Mauro Biello took over as interim coach after Frank Klopas became the first coach to be fired.
Piatti has a team-high eight goals while Drogba will make his third start after recording a hat trick in a 4-3 win over Chicago on Sept. 5 in his last home match.
Revolution playmaker Lee Nguyen has six assists in his last three matches and 11 for the year.
These teams played to a scoreless draw at New England on March 21, with Camara getting sent off in the 61st minute. Montreal didn't have an injured Piatti for that contest while Drogba had yet to join the team.
