2010 Schedule

Today the MLS 2010 Schedule was released. An exciting time to be an RSL fan, but as I was looking through the schedule, I became less and less excited. Don’t get me wrong, I cannot wait to see RSL defend its MLS Cup, but the schedule made me think of how much work goes into the schedule, and the biases that are given to some teams. Here is a breakdown of the schedule.

Saturday 3/27 @ San Jose

Again, RSL starts the regular season on the road. I think all of the bad weather we had at our games, mixed in with the poor attendance of those games really pushed MLS to avoid SLC during the first part of the season. After starting our first two games on the road, we open up Rio Tinto Stadium for the year with

Saturday 4/10 vs. Seattle

An exciting match up against this second year team. With the success they had last year, I know there are a lot of casual MLS fans who love the Sounders.
Following that match, we finish April off with 2 more road games, meaning we play only 1 home game in our first 5. RSL better figure out the road woes of the past so we do not find ourselves at the bottom of the table early. If we play like we did during the playoffs, we should be okay.
Now, the thing that I found amusing with the schedule is that there are hardly any months with an equal amount of home and road games. In the month of May, we play 4 out of the 5 games at home, with the expansion club Philadelphia coming to town on

Saturday 5/8 vs Philadelphia.

June only sees RSL playing three games during the world cup, and July finds itself pretty equal with 3 road games and 2 home games. Then, in August, we are back to only 1 home game in the month and 3 road games. During this time, CONCACAF Champions League will be going on so there will be some other games at home, but the MLS schedule could be a little better.
Then, in September we find ourselves playing 3 games at home and 1 on the road, and in October playing 1 game at home and 3 on the road.

With this schedule, there could be a lot of ups and downs unless RSL can find some consistency. I do not enjoy the months that are loaded with home games and months loaded with away games, but hopefully RSL can improve on the road this season.