It is official. Single-elimination, fixed bracket MLS Playoffs in 2019. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/12/13/2019-mls-playoff-structure The regular season will run March 4 through October 6. 14 teams will qualify for the playoffs, 7 from each conference. Only the top seed will get a bye in the first round. The Playoffs and MLS Cup will run October 19 through November 10. That is four consecutive weekends in between the FIFA breaks.
The 2019 home openers have been announced: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/12/19/2019-mls-home-openers Home team first, times are CT WEEK 1 Saturday, March 2 Philadelphia v. Toronto 12:00 pm Orlando City v. NY City 1:30 pm Columbus v. NY Red Bulls 3:30 pm Dallas v. New England 3:30 pm Houston v. Salt Lake 5:00 pm Colorado v. Portland 5:00 pm Vancouver v. Minnesota 5:00 pm LA Galaxy v. Chicago 7:00 pm Seattle v. Cincinnati 9:00 pm San Jose v. Montreal 9:00 pm Sunday, March 3 DC united v. Atlanta 5:00 pm Los Angeles v. Kansas City 7:00 pm WEEK 2 Saturday, March 9 Chicago v. Orlando 12:00 pm New England v. Columbus 1:00 pm Salt Lake v. Vancouver 5:00 pm Sunday, March 10 NY City v. DC United 2:00 pm Kansas City v. Philadelphia 2:00 pm Atlanta v. Cincinnati 4:00 pm WEEK 3 Saturday, March 16 NY Red Bulls v. San Jose TBA Sunday, March 17 Toronto v. New England 12:30 pm Cincinnati v. Portland 4:00 pm WEEK 7 Saturday, April 13 Montreal v. Columbus 12:00 pm Minnesota v. NY City 4:00 pm WEEK 14 Saturday, June 1 Portland v. Los Angeles 9:30 pm
The Dynamo will be playing in Arizona again in the 2019 preseason. https://www.fctucson.com/news_article/show/979471 Teams involved: Phoenix Rising (USL) Houston Dynamo Seattle Sounders New York Red Bulls FC Dallas Portland Timbers Sporting KC Real Salt Lake Minnesota United The games will be February 6 to 23 and will be held in Phoenix and Tucson. Exact match-ups and dates will be announced soon.
So Dynamo stay in AZ will be cut short to go to Guatemala. So the Dynamo will spend the week before their CCL match playing practice games against MLS only teams. Have not past succesful CCL teams spent some time abroad and scheduled friendlies against international teams? I'm probably over-reacting.
No, you are not over reacting. I would take this pre-season and travel abroad. Perhaps Brasil or Argentina. Play their reserves ans bring some of our RGV lads to play their U-20's. Get lots of 60 minute games in and work up to full fitness. Ending with playing full 90 minute matches against whomever clubs we can shack up with down their for a few weeks. Then travel directly to Guatemala. Thus, having been going head to head with Argie or Samba Boy players and tackling, dem Guatemalans will come across like JV hitters. Or our players can spend timw in their hotel in Arizona, play Columbus in a slow paced, kick n run affair and look forward to going to the movie theater afterwards. That will get our players mean n fightin' fit for Guatemalpeores away, all before league play!
2019 Mobile Mini Sun Cup schedule announced: https://www.fctucson.com/news_article/show/981999 Here are the Dynamo games: Times are CT. Games in Tucson Wednesday, February 6 Minnesota United v. Houston Dynamo 7:00 pm Saturday, February 9 Houston Dynamo v. Seattle Sounders 7:00 pm Wednesday, February 13 Houston Dynamo v. Sporting Kansas City 5:00 pm
The Dynamo are going to start the preseason a week early. https://www.houstondynamo.com/post/2019/01/07/houston-dynamo-announce-2019-preseason-schedule Monday, January 14 Players report for the start of preseason N/A Tuesday, January 15 First Day of Preseason Training 10:00 AM Saturday, January 26 Preseason Game vs. RGVFC 10:00 AM Tuesday, January 29 Preseason Game vs. RGVFC 7:00 PM Saturday, February 2 Intrasquad scrimmage 10:00 AM Monday, February 4 Team travels to Tucson, Ariz. N/A Wednesday, February 6 Game vs. Minnesota United FC (Tucson, AZ) 7:00 PM Saturday, February 9 Game vs. Seattle Sounders FC (Tucson, AZ) 7:00 PM Wednesday, February 13 Game vs. Sporting Kansas City (Tucson, AZ 5:00 PM Thursday, February 14 Return to Houston N/A Tuesday, February 19 Game at CD Guastatoya (SCCL) 9:00 PM Tuesday, February 26 Game vs. CD Guastatoya (SCCL) 7:00 PM Saturday, March2 MLS Opener vs. Real Salt Lake 5:00 PM
Regular season: Sat. 3/2/19: Salt Lake Sat. 3/9/19: Montreal Sat. 3/16/19: Vancouver Sat. 3/30/19: @Colorado Sat. 4/13/19: San Jose Fri. 4/19/19: @ LA Galaxy Sat. 5/4/19: Dallas Sat. 5/11/19: @ Seattle Wed. 5/15/19: Portland Sat. 5/18/19: DC United Sat. 5/25/19: @ Minnesota Sat. 6/1/19: Kansas City Sun. 6/23/19: @ Portland Wed. 6/26/19: @ San Jose Sat. 6/29/19: @ New England Wed. 7/3/19: NY Red Bulls Sat. 7/6/19: @ Cincinnati Fri. 7/12/19: LAFC Wed. 7/17/19: @ Atlanta Sat. 7/20/19: @ Toronto Sat. 7/27/19: Seattle Sat. 8/3/19: Chicago Thu. 8/8/19: @ NYCFC Sun. 8/11/19: @ Philadelphia Sat. 8/17/19: Colorado Sat. 8/24/19: @ Dallas Sat. 8/31/19: @ Kansas City Wed. 9/11/19: Minnesota Sat. 9/14/19: @ Vancouver Sat. 9/21/19: Orlando Wed. 9/25/19: @ LAFC Sun. 9/29/19: @ Salt Lake Sun. 10/6/19: LA Galaxy There are only 33 games listed. It looks like the Columbus game is missing. It is not on the Columbus website either. I'm guessing it is April 27 here in Houston.
Schedule breakdown: Games by Month: March - 4 April - 3 (if my Columbus guess is correct) May - 5 June - 4 July - 6 August - 6 September - 5 October - 1 Games by day of the week: Wednesday - 6 Thursday - 1 Friday - 2 Saturday - 21 Sunday - 4 Home games by day of the week: Wednesday - 3 Friday - 1 Saturday - 12 Sunday - 1 Opponents: Home - CAPS East home: MTL, CLB, DCU, NYR, CHI, ORL East away: ner, cin, atl, tfc, nyc, phi West: RSL, rsl VAN, van cor, COR SJE, sje lag, LAG FCD, fcd sea, SEA POR, por min, MIN SKC, skc LAX, lax
EDIT: Columbus game added. Regular season: Sat. 3/2/19: Salt Lake Sat. 3/9/19: Montreal Sat. 3/16/19: Vancouver Sat. 3/30/19: @ Colorado Sat. 4/13/19: San Jose Fri. 4/19/19: @ LA Galaxy Sat. 4/27/19: Columbus Sat. 5/4/19: Dallas Sat. 5/11/19: @ Seattle Wed. 5/15/19: Portland Sat. 5/18/19: DC United Sat. 5/25/19: @ Minnesota Sat. 6/1/19: Kansas City Sun. 6/23/19: @ Portland Wed. 6/26/19: @ San Jose Sat. 6/29/19: @ New England Wed. 7/3/19: NY Red Bulls Sat. 7/6/19: @ Cincinnati Fri. 7/12/19: LAFC Wed. 7/17/19: @ Atlanta Sat. 7/20/19: @ Toronto Sat. 7/27/19: Seattle Sat. 8/3/19: Chicago Thu. 8/8/19: @ NYCFC Sun. 8/11/19: @ Philadelphia Sat. 8/17/19: Colorado Sat. 8/24/19: @ Dallas Sat. 8/31/19: @ Kansas City Wed. 9/11/19: Minnesota Sat. 9/14/19: @ Vancouver Sat. 9/21/19: Orlando Wed. 9/25/19: @ LAFC Sun. 9/29/19: @ Salt Lake Sun. 10/6/19: LA Galaxy
I wasn't paying much attention to the times of games. We have a lot of afternoon home games to start the year. Saturday, March 2 Real Salt Lake 5:00 PM KUBE Saturday, March 9 Montreal Impact 4:00 PM KUBE Saturday, March 16 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2:00 PM KUBE Saturday, April 13 San Jose Earthquakes 2:00 PM Univision (Nat'l) Saturday, April 27 Columbus Crew SC 7:30 PM KUBE Saturday, May 4 FC Dallas 3:00 PM Univision (Nat'l) Only 1 Saturday night game out of the first six. Univision is part of that but only two of the games.
Three stages to most MLS season -- same in 2019. But this is insane front loading of home games. Spring Fling at home 9 of the first 13 games are at HOME. June 1 will be game 13, and the 9th of 17 home games. Gold Cup break starts after this. The dynamo will need something like 25 points by that point -- enough to make them appear like shield contenders -- or they won't be in position to just make the playoffs. If the Dynamo are just in a playoff spot (and everyone is all happy) they are actually in big trouble. -------------- Summer of Congestion After the gold cup break there are 9 games over 5 weeks. One period has 5 games over 15 days. So your gold cup stars come back tired and a bunch of your season happens quick. For the Dynamo, 6 of those 9 are on the road. Does this all sound familiar? -------------- The Fall Playoff Run-in A little better balance in the Fall. 12 games, 5 at home. A great trip in early August for fans. Thu. Aug 8 @ NYCFC, Sun. Aug 11 @ PHU.
A calculation of schedule strength based on 2018 home and away PPG. Cincinnati was not included so East teams in particular might get a down-grade relative to the West if Cincinnati is below average this year. Houston is tied for the easiest schedule but it is all pretty close. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/01/07/2019-strength-schedule-rankings-who-has-toughest-schedule
https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/05/02/2019-mls-all-star-game-atletico-madrid-opponent The Dynamo have home league games against Seattle and Chicago on the Saturdays before and after the All-Star game.
fwiw primary transfer window ends May 7, tomorrow. Secondary is July 7 - August 7. So if this is "our move" then it will likely be burned almost right away. If this was really to give Portland the immediate tools then we will scout GC and this will be 2-3 months in the making.
"Timbers acquire Brian Fernandez as Designated Player......The club announced they've acquired Argentinian forward Brian Fernandez from Liga MX side Necaxa. Portland used Targeted Allocation Money to lower the budget charge of Lucas Melano, allowing Fernandez to occupy a DP slot." Which is what I meant by is this our deadline move or theirs. It's a one year slot so you'd kind of want to use it while the getting's good. A slot you don't use til August is a short rental.
I just noticed that the international roster slot the Dynamo got yesterday came from Columbus through Portland in exchange for POT sending Guzman to CLB. POT must have needed the allocation money to make their big forward acquisition from Necaxa — possibly buying down another player.
That's why I am saying it's really "their trade." They turned right around and used the outbound salary tools and signed someone ahead of today as the window deadline. We in exchange get an international slot but if we sign someone today it would be a surprise to us all, it expires this year, and we would likely open such slot(s) this summer by transfer activity anyway. If we don't sign someone today then this was their trade and we were just the store with the tools they wanted. IMO an international slot not used until August that expires this season has limited value. Meanwhile they get a player in. Do they have a wingback we could use?
not really that controversial of a statement when you list out the fwds: Manotas - only one i'm sure of that can be her 2-3 more years (Bruin) Elis - will be sold sooner rather than later (Holden, Cameron) Quioto - a pouter isnt a long term solution (Kai) Pena - injured and hasnt shown much when he plays (Landin)
If you aren't signing someone to replace Elis so you can integrate them before he leaves in the secondary transfer window, then that is pretty poor roster management.
Just a minor point but the secondary MLS transfer window which starts in July is for incoming players. If Elis leaves for Europe or Mexico it would be during their primary transfer window and could be as soon as May 17 but more likely in June.