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FOXBORO - Do the New England Revolution aim to beat the Chicago Fire in the second leg of their two-match, total goal Eastern Conference semifinal round MLS playoff series Saturday night in the Windy City?

Or do they aim to put a stop to the advances and touches of the ball by Cuauhtemoc Blanco, the magnet of a midfielder for the Fire?

Both are definitely related. Because, if the Revolution can at least limit the amount of time that Blanco has the ball at his 36-year old feet, the better New England's chances are to advance.

A win would be better, a tie is okay too. The Fire need to score two goals to beat New England, which kept Blanco off the score sheet in Sunday's 2-1 victory over Chicago, ending an eight-match winless drought against the Fire.

"You have to be smart with him," said New England defender Jay Heaps of Blanco, a Mexican international who can work magic with his feet. "He finds spots, he does a great job of finding his teammates - you can never close him down too much." Blanco scored five goals this season for Chicago and assisted on eight goals. Against the Revolution, in seven regular season and playoff matches, he has seven points.

Blanco doesn't look the part of an MLS all-star, a 2010 Mexican World Cup team member - he is stocky and deceptively slow-fast. "Whatever he does, he seems to have an impact on the game," added Heaps. "He has that ability to find open guys and he can get by you if you play him too tight."

Chicago and New England are familiar Eastern Conference semifinalists, the Fire having eliminated the Revolution last year, New England ending Chicago's season in 2002, '05, '06 and '07. But most important is that fact that the home team has a 13-0-1 record in the series, the Fire being 6-0 in Chicago.

And in New England's favor is the fact that Chicago is now 0-3-4 in its last seven matches, that the Revolution ended an eight-match (0-5-3) winless streak against the Fire.

"It's our turn to go home and take care of business," said Chicago coach Dennis Hamlett. "We feel good about going home (even though the club is just 5-4-6). They scored two goals off of set pieces, so we'll make sure we fine tune some things there and in the final third of the field in finishing our own chances. If we do that, we'll be fine."

However, the Fire has been shutout five times at home this season and Blanco's various leg, hamstring and knee ailments limited him to 21 matches, coming off the bench in the final four regular season matches.

"We know that it's a difficult place to play," said New England midfielder Pat Phelan of Chicago. "We're going there to win. We would have been happy with a tie at home (in Foxboro), but we did better."

Should Chicago and New England be tied in total goals at the end of regulation time, there would be an overtime period, then a shootout to determine who advances.

"We're ahead," said New England coach Steve Nicol of the Revolution having a one-goal lead. "That means they have to come out and come at us."

In particular Blanco. "We're going to have to match whatever they bring," said New England midfielder Shalrie Joseph, who scored the match-winner Sunday. "It's their last game or our last game."