---

FOXBORO -- He may not receive much notice when ballots are cast for Major League Soccer's Rookie of the Year. He may not even be considered the most valuable member of his own team. But, there is no question what an indispensable piece of the puzzle that he has been for the New England Revolution this season.

Selected to the MLS All-Star game, he has started all but one match (the first of the season) that he able to participate in. He has scored the first goal of the match four times for New England (having seven tallies overall). Even more impressively, he commits and attracts fouls like no other member of the New England Revolution.

At merely 21 years of age, Clint Dempsey gives and takes abuse, he creates chances, he attacks, he scores goals and he is not afraid to dirty his uniform and subject his body to harm on defense.

`` We're going to keep it going,'' said Dempsey, who scored the first goal of the match for New England in its MLS playoff berth-clinching, one-goal victory against Chicago Saturday in Foxboro. `` It's been a long, often frustrating, season for us with all of the injuries.''

Dempsey knows that all too well, having to sit out five matches with a broken jaw, then spraining an ankle in his first match back. Healthy and brimming with confidence, as a first-year player is wont to do, Dempsey will be stationed at midfield for the Revolution Saturday evening at Gillette Stadium in the first of a two-match, total-goal playoff series against the Eastern Conference champion Columbus Crew. Dempsey was New England's first round selection in the MLS Draft, the eighth player chosen overall, out of Furman University. What drew the interest of New England coach Steve Nicol to Dempsey was his size (6-1, 170 pounds) and passion to play.