Kyle Terada – USA Today Sports
Major League Soccer released their full 2013 schedule on Wednesday with some amazing games for fans and players to look forward to.
A rematch of the 2012 U.S. Open Cup Final will happen on May 8 when the Seattle Sounders travel to play Sporting Kansas City in what was one of the most memorable contests of last season.
A whopping 87 regular season games are slated to be nationally televised as well, many on NBC Sports Network and UniMas. The ESPN family of networks will be showing 21 of those games throughout the season.
Three regular season games will be shown nationally on network television as NBC will broadcast games on March 16 when D.C. United travel to play the New York Red Bulls, on September 29 when the L.A. Galaxy go to play the Portland Timbers and on October 27 when the Houston Dynamo travel to Washington to play D.C. United.
Each of the league’s 19 teams will play a 34 game schedule, with 17 home and 17 away contests. The format of playing teams within and out of the division are the same as 2012.
One of the things taken into the consideration was the heat of this past year. MLS has scheduled no game to start before 4:00pm local time as to avoid possible heat waves.
Every one of the 323 games the MLS has scheduled will appear on at least regional television. Over 90 percent of the games will be played on weekends or holidays, making viewership more accessible. The league has also implemented a new “Rivalry Week” concept in which regional or generally interesting foes all meet on the same week.
Dan Irwin is a sports writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @ danirwin_rant or on Facebook at “facebook.com/danirwin.sports“.
