Full schedule will be released tomorrow. What we know now is that our season opener is on 3/3 at Portland and our home opener is on 3/16 against DC. According to this - http://www.dailyherald.com/assets/pdf/DA12279218.pdf Chiago's schedule has leaked and we play them only twice this season. I guess we will find out for sure tomorrow. Hopefully we don't see any mid-summer afternoon games on the schedule.
Knowing my luck most of our matches will be during the weekdays when I, along with other school kids, have finals and all that and won't be able to tune in to Red Bulls.
Could not at all understand a 7 PM midweek start time, doesn't leaving commuting workers enough time to get to the stadium. Is 730 or 8 really too late for parents to bring their kids? Some Saturday games during the summer would also be nice this year... Unfortunately as a big market team we're still at the mercy of the quirky national broadcast schedules, so expect some more midweek games and strange weekend kick off times.
As for the Western teams, we travel to Portland, Seattle, San Jose, Chivas, and Colorado. We have LA, Vancouver, RSL, and Dallas at home. We play Chicago and KC only twice this year. Rest of the Eastern teams we play 3 times. 2 home games and 1 away against DC, Philly, Montreal, and New England. 1 home game and 2 away against Houston, TFC, and Columbus.
Better schedule than last year for sure, fewer midweek games and fewer early afternoon games on the weekend.
10 Saturdays, 5 Sundays and 2 Wednesdays. They pushed Wed games to 7:30. Overall, I'm very happy with it.
Bright side though: If we can get through that with say... 12-15 points then I would say we are set for a great season.
Schedule includes no home daytime July - August MLS regular season matches but there is a Sunday June 30 2 PM home kickoff time vs. Houston scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN2. In Harrison on June 30, 2012 the high temperature was 97 degrees F.
Well in that case I don't think it can be helped--tv scheduling etc. Last season though it was purely gratuitous. We played in dangerous heat just because Chris Heck thought it was a good idea......
The real concern about that start time last year was that it was a midweek game between two other afternoon summer games. Houston plays in that kind of heat for most of the season, having a one off afternoon game on a grass field isn't all that bad, but 3 of them bunched together can take its toll.
(Perhaps this is in the wrong section) My wife and I waited til the schedules came out to book our summer trip to NY... we said if RSL played you guys in July or Aug that we would book the trip around this road game. Alas, JULY 27! I'm sure we might be the only away fans at that game but I look forward to visiting another stadium (that frankly has been on the list for some time). On a side note, I hope Fabian "caveman" Espindola gels well with your front line (and is able to up his shots:goal ratio)... I was saddened to see him go but it makes sense for both squads.
Yes, however they are still playing considerably less Saturday night games than they did the first year RBA opened. Only 8 of 17. Many fans, including myself, enjoying getting something to eat just before or after the games in the Ironbound area and it was your "Saturday Night out". They are going to continue to draw low numbers with those early Sat and Sun games because of youth soccer games. These are the 7 games on Saturday nights: 6/1 vs Vancouver @ 7:00 pm 7/13 vs Montreal @ 7:00 pm 7/27 vs RSL @ 7:00 pm 8/17 vs Union @ 8:00 pm 8/31 vs DC United @ 8:00 pm 9/14 vs Toronto FC @ 7:00 pm 10/5 vs NE @ 7:00 pm I suppose the positive would be that most of the summer home games are on Saturday nights.
IMO 7pm is the sweet spot for those games. You can go out before, after, or both and it's not too early or late for the kids either.
Uh, how so, because we have to travel out west a few times? That's kind of unavoidable... Our home games are almost entirely weekend games at god kickoff times, we have two home games against each rival (DC and Philly), a home game against LA, and only have to play two of the East's stronger teams twice instead of three time. I think the schedule looks about as ideal as you could possibly hope for.
Get real. Considering the realities of MLS this is just about the absolute best we could have hoped for.
The Supporter's Shield was a true test of best regular season team in 2010 and 2011 when you played everyone twice. Every other year of MLS has had an unbalanced schedule.
Supporter's Shield is still a meaningful trophy--because it is a "pure" achievement. To win it, just win the game in front of you. I understand the point those with objections are trying to make, but ultimately it is pointless to talk about round robin balanced schedule when the league doesn't have one. A team can't help the schedule, but it can prepare to win the game in front of it.