Major League Soccer unveiled its full 2019 season schedule Monday afternoon.
The 2019 season sees the debut of MLS’ 24th club, FC Cincinnati, and a new single-elimination playoff format that gives higher seeds home field advantage and concludes on Nov. 10 with MLS Cup, making this year’s final the earliest since 2002.
All teams will play 34 regular-season matches this year, with 17 home matches and 17 away matches. Conference opponents will play twice in the regular season. Non-conference opponents will play once.
As was announced in December, opening weekend will take place the first weekend in March, with Toronto FC and the Philadelphia Union kicking off the 2019 regular-season slate at Talen Energy Stadium on Saturday, March 2.
FS1 will televise FC Cincinnati’s first game, which is also March 2, against host Seattle Sounders FC.
The league will pause from June 14-21, the opening week of the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The 2019 MLS All-Star Game, presented by Target, will take place at Orlando City Stadium July 31.
Rivalry Week is Aug. 21-25, and the regular-season culminates with “Decision Day” on Oct. 6. The Audi MLS Cup Playoffs start Oct. 19.
Matches will be televised in 21 primetime windows on FS1 and 13 in primetime on ESPN/ESPN2, the most English-language soccer broadcasts in primetime since 2015.
Meanwhile, MLS returns to the Univisión networks with 14 matches airing on Univision and 13 matches on UniMas, including seven Friday night games. For the second consecutive season, all games on Univision will be streamed on Twitter in English.
See the full schedule here.
The post Major League Soccer releases full 2019 schedule appeared first on Pro Soccer USA.
