MLS Schedule Released

The schedule for all MLS teams was released today, along with the ESPN / ESPN 2 / ESPN Deportes TV listings for the season. ESPN will be broadcasting 21 games this season, including the MLS All-Star Game in New York. ESPN 2 is the go to channel for MLS, featuring 17 of the games, ESPN will air 4 games, and ESPN Deportes will air all 21. Follow the cut to check out our schedule and when the Quakes will play live for the nation to watch.

The regular season schedule is as follows:

March
Mar 19 – Sat
Real Salt Lake
RSL have a CONCACAF Champions League match on March 15 so this might benefit the Quakes with some tired legs on RSL.

Mar 26 – Sat
@ FC Dallas
March 26 is an international friendly day so it’s possible some FC Dallas players could be on the National squad for this game. Recently Brek Shea, Eric Alexander, Zach Lloyd, and Heath Pearce have been called up.

April
Apr 2 – Sat
Seattle Sounders FC

Apr 9 – Sat
Toronto FC

Apr 16 – Sat
@ New York Red Bulls

Apr 23 – Sat
Chivas USA

Apr 30 – Sat
@ Philadelphia Union

May
May 11 – Wed
@ Vancouver Whitecaps FC

May 14 – Sat
Columbus Crew

May 21 – Sat
New England Revolution

May 28 – Sat
@ Chicago Fire

June
June 5 – June 25 are the dates for the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup. This competition will see the winner into the 2013 Confederations Cup in Brazil. Thus, Bradley will most likely use his “A” Team for this tournament.

Jun 4 – Sat
Houston Dynamo

Jun 11 – Sat
@ D.C. United
Dax McCarty could be playing with the national team.

Jun 18 – Sat
@ Sporting Kansas City
Teal Bunbury could be playing with the national team.

Jun 25 – Sat
Los Angeles Galaxy
If the National Team makes it to the Gold Cup Final, Donovan will not be playing in this game (unless for some reason he isn’t picked for the squad).

July
Jul 2 – Sat
New York Red Bulls

Jul 6 – Wed
@ Chivas USA

Jul 9 – Sat
Philadelphia Union

Jul 16 – Sat
@ Columbus Crew

Jul 20 – Wed
Vancouver Whitecaps

Jul 23 – Sat
@ Real Salt Lake

Jul 30 – Sat
D.C. United

August
Aug 3 – Wed
@ New England Revolution

Aug 6 – Sat
Portland Timbers

Aug 13 – Sat
Colorado Rapids

Aug 20 – Sat
@ Los Angeles Galaxy

Aug 27 – Sat
@ Toronto FC

September
Sep 10 – Sat
Chicago Fire

Sep 17 – Sat
@ Houston Dynamo

Sep 21 – Wed
@ Portland Timbers

Sep 24 – Sat
@ Colorado Rapids

October
Oct 1 – Sat
Sporting Kansas City

Oct 15 – Sat
@ Seattle Sounders

Oct 22 – Sat
FC Dallas

ESPN is the flagship broadcasting network for MLS. This is the television schedule for MLS this year on ESPN’s channels.

I made a note of looking through the list of games and checking how many times each team is featured. Not surprisingly New York and Los Angeles have the most TV spots. With both of their games being broadcast. Seattle being second surprised me but after thinking about it, Seattle probably has the best fans of any team in the league, consistently selling out for their home games. Plus, they play in that great stadium so it’s just cake for TV broadcasting. I would have liked to have seen every team get a chance at being seen on TV. While Toronto and Vancouver are Canadian teams, and Canadians are just weird, I could see how leaving them out of the TV limelight makes a bit of sense. But FC Dallas? The runners up for the MLS Cup? That’s just cold. And Columbus has had a strong team for the last 3 years, so not seeing them on national TV must hurt a bit.

Anyways, I’ll be back tomorrow or Saturday with a review of the training week down in Ventura and the exhibition matches in LA. But for the record, we lost to Chivas USA 1-0 on an Alan Gordon strike and we tied LA 1-1 with Opara and Magee scoring.

GO QUAKES!

Category: Numbers, Offseason Chat