We’ve known about a couple games that would kick off the 2010 season for a couple days now but the rest of the home openers have now been announced by the league as of today. For the second straight season Qwest Field will be home of the first game of the MLS season in 2010 as the Sounders will host the new expansion side Philadelphia Union on ESPN2.

Yes, the first home game for Union will be at Lincoln Financial Field and not the new Chester Stadium. Union officials said yesterday that they went ahead and booked the Linc for their home opener instead of working out a way to spend the first few weeks of their expansion season on the road. A trade off indeed but it works out.

I love the league going to some rivalry games to kick off the new season next year. Dallas and Houston along with games like New York and Chicago from the new Red Bull Arena should be a good way to start a new season. Plus what seems to be an annual thing now between Columbus and Toronto is also on the First Kick menu.

Below are the rest of the home openers throughout the league.

REGULAR SEASON – WEEK 1
First Kick presented by Dick’s Sporting Goods – Thursday, March 25, 2010
Philadelphia Union at Seattle Sounders FC, 9:30 p.m. (ESPN2/Deportes, ESPN360.com)

Saturday, March 27, 2010
Toronto FC at Columbus Crew, 4 p.m.
Chicago Fire at New York Red Bulls, 7 p.m. (ESPN2/Deportes, ESPN360.com)
D.C. United at Kansas City Wizards, 8:30 p.m.
Houston Dynamo at FC Dallas, 8:30 p.m.
Real Salt Lake at San Jose Earthquakes, 9 p.m.
New England Revolution at LA Galaxy, 11 p.m. (Fox Soccer Channel/Fox Sports en Español)

Sunday, March 28, 2010
Colorado Rapids at Chivas USA, Time TBD (TeleFutura)

REGULAR SEASON – WEEK 2
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Chicago Fire at Colorado Rapids, Time TBD
New England Revolution at D.C. United, 7:30 p.m.
Kansas City Wizards at Houston Dynamo, 8:30 p.m.

REGULAR SEASON – WEEK 3
Saturday, April 10, 2010
D.C. United at Philadelphia Union, 3 p.m. (Fox Soccer Channel/Fox Sports en Español)
Toronto FC at New England Revolution, 7:30 p.m.
San Jose Earthquakes at Chicago Fire, 8:30 p.m.
Seattle Sounders FC at Real Salt Lake, 9 p.m.

This may be a day late but it is still valuable to talk about here.

Major League Soccer revealed its opening 2009 schedule yesterday, with New York visiting expansion side Seattle in the first match of the season, on March 19th.

Here are the schedule for week one, and the subsequent home openers:

WEEK 1

Thursday, March 19

New York Red Bulls at Seattle Sounders (ESPN2)

Saturday, March 21

Columbus Crew at Houston Dynamo (FSC)

Chicago Fire at FC Dallas

Toronto FC at Kansas City Wizards

Colorado Rapids at Chivas USA (FSC)

New England Revolution at San Jose Earthquakes

Sunday, March 22

D.C. United at Los Angeles Galaxy (Telefutura)

Here are the rest of the home openers:

WEEK 2

Saturday, 28

Toronto FC at Columbus Crew

San Jose Earthquakes at D.C. United

New England Revolution at New York Red Bulls

Kansas City Wizards at Colorado Rapids

Week 3

Thursday, April 2

Columbus Crew at Real Salt Lake

Saturday, April 4

Seattle Sounders FC at Toronto FC

FC Dallas at New England Revolution

Sunday, April 5

New York Red Bulls at Chicago Fire

Again FSC is doing their opening week double, which I found to be a big success last year. It’s something I hope they do a bit more next year. Week one may be one of the best opening weeks (at least on paper) that we’ve seen in a couple years. I love putting Seattle on PrimeTime to start the new year too.

What do you think of the schedule?  Are you happy or unhappy with your team’s scheduled home opener?