7 February 2008
Plan Your Trips Now: MLS Schedule Released
Posted by Drew Epperley under: Chicago Fire; Chivas USA; Colorado Rapids; Columbus Crew; DC United; FC Dallas; Houston Dynamo; KC Wizards; LA Galaxy; MLS; New England Revolution; New York Red Bulls; News and Rumors; Real Salt Lake; San Jose Earthquakes; SuperLiga; Toronto FC .
After waiting a few extra weeks, the MLS released their 2008 schedule today. Now I won’t go into game-by-game details and thoughts on each week. I will throw a few notes out there for everyone to take notice of.
Into the 13th season for the MLS, each of the 14 clubs will play 30 games over 31 weeks, for a total of 210 matches from March 29 - Oct. 26. Each team will play each other twice (home and away), for 26 games. The remaining four games will be played against different intra-conference teams (two home and two away), with consideration given to rivalries.
Some broadcast highlights include:
- Every regular season game will be televised, either through national or regional broadcasts and MLSnet.com. (Good to see the league bring back the online games again, that’s a big plus for people like me)
- ESPN2 is scheduled to air 27 MLS Primetime Thursday Regular Season contests, beginning with a doubleheader on April 3. ( New England Revolution at Chicago Fire, 8:00; San Jose at Los Angeles Galaxy, 10:30)
- On June 29, ABC is scheduled to broadcast a unique soccer doubleheader: Los Angeles Galaxy at D.C. United at Noon ET, followed by the UEFA European Football Championship 2008 title match.
- ABC will also broadcast MLS Cup 2008 on Nov. 23 at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Lots of goodies, take a look at the schedule. I will go into it more later on who has a tougher road to the MLS Cup and who doesn’t. That schedule doesn’t include US Open Cup games, SuperLiga games and other international competitions that certain clubs have this season.
I will say it is nice to see a more balanced schedule this season for some clubs. Last year was terrible for many clubs who had long spells on the road or played anywhere between six and eight regular season games in one month. That is too much for any MLS club and it took a toll on them as well. I guess really, only the Galaxy will continue to have a crazy schedule this year. I’m sure there are plenty of friendlies that haven’t been added that we will see them play this year later on in the summer and fall.
One Comment so far...
Whip Says:
10 February 2008 at 5:31 pm.
The doubleheader with the Euro 2008 final is a tremendous idea.
