Sports stats



MLS Major League Soccer

MLS Announces 2014 Regular Season Schedule

November 25, 2013 - Major League Soccer (MLS) News Release


NEW YORK (Monday, November 25, 2013) - Today Major League Soccer and its national broadcast partners announced the 2014 regular season schedule via www.MLSsoccer.com and the club web sites.

The season will kick off on Saturday, March 8 at CenturyLink Field with the March to Soccer Opening Match on NBCSN when Seattle Sounders FC host Sporting Kansas City (3:00 p.m. ET), followed by seven matches that evening and one on Sunday, March 9. The 2014 regular season concludes Sunday, October 26, followed by the MLS Cup Playoffs.

Similar to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, MLS will take a two-week break during the group phase of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The last matches before the break are on June 11, one day before the start of the World Cup.

Two weekends stand out for their rivalry matches. Early in the season, April 5-6 will feature Portland Timbers vs. Seattle (NBCSN), Houston Dynamo vs. FC Dallas, a rematch of the upcoming MLS Cup 2013 between Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake, the SuperClasico, LA Galaxy vs. Chivas USA (UniMás), and Columbus Crew hosting Toronto FC. Following the World Cup, the August 2 slate of matches includes Colorado Rapids vs. Real Salt Lake, Montreal Impact vs. Toronto, as well as LA vs. Portland (NBC) and the first-ever event at the new Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., when the San Jose Earthquakes host the Sounders (NBCSN).

NBCSN will showcase all the action on Aug. 2 on MLS Breakaway, the popular whip-around show, which returns again on Sept. 20 covering five live games.

ESPN, a partner since the League's inaugural season, continues its live coverage of MLS with 20 regular season games. Among the compelling matches are a pair of Cascadia Cup clashes between Seattle and Portland (July 13 and August 24), and I-95 Corridor rivals Philadelphia vs. New York (July 16) and New York vs. D.C. United (Sept. 10). ESPN will also broadcast the one match of the season between LA Galaxy and NY Red Bulls on Sept. 28. The matches on ESPN and ESPN2 will also be available on ESPN Deportes, ESPN3, WatchESPN, and ESPN Deportes Radio.

In the third season of its partnership, NBC Sports Group will open its coverage of the MLS season with six back-to-back Saturday afternoon matches, aligning with NBC Sports Group's Barclays Premier League coverage. The broadcast package will feature MLS matches on Friday night slots on NBCSN from June 27 through October 24. All told, NBC Sports Group will broadcast 38 regular season games, plus three on NBC. Some of the highlights include two Fourth of July matches, LA vs. Portland and Houston vs. New York Red Bulls, and the California Clasico between San Jose and LA on June 28 at Stanford Stadium, all on NBCSN.

Univision Deportes' exclusive, Spanish-language broadcasts of 28 MLS regular season games - all on Sundays on UniMás or Univision Deportes Network - begin on March 9 when Chivas USA host the Chicago Fire. The Univision Deportes broadcast package also includes live steaming of select games on Univision's digital network UVideos.

Nationally in Canada, TSN/TSN2 will air more than 40 matches featuring Canadian clubs in English and RDS/RDS2 will air at least 30 games in French. TSN's first match of the season will be March 8 in Vancouver when Whitecaps FC host New York. RDS will begin its regular season broadcasts on March 22 in Montreal, when the Impact host the Seattle Sounders FC. The complete TSN/TSN2 and RDS/RDS2 schedules will be announced in the coming weeks.

All non-national TV games will be broadcast locally and/or via subscription to MLS Direct Kick and MLS Live, the digital streaming package for MLSsoccer.com, mobile devices and tablets.

Other select highlights:

- Competition - The schedule breakdown follows:

o Each team plays a 34-match schedule, 17 games at home and 17 on the road.

o The 9 Western Conference teams will face each of the other clubs in the conference three times (home teams reversed from 2013) during 2014.

o The 10 Eastern Conference teams will play seven (7) intra-conference opponents three (3) times each (home teams reversed from 2013) and two (2) conference opponents twice each.

o Eastern and Western Conference teams will play each other once in 2014, with the home team reversed from the 2013 schedule.

o Of the two clubs that reach MLS Cup, the one with a better regular season record will again host the championship game.

- October is Intra-Conference month - All October matches except the Oct. 4 LA Galaxy vs. Toronto game - a total of 40 matches in a span of three weeks - will be intra-conference match-ups, which contributed to the thrilling finish to the 2013 season.

- AT&T MLS All-Star Game and MLS Cup 2014

o The ESPN and Univision family of networks have the exclusive coverage of the 2014 AT&T MLS All-Star Game and MLS Cup. Both dates and specific networks will be announced at a later date.

- Numbers

o 323 total regular season matches. All matches will be televised.

o Majority of games on weekends: Nearly 90% of all games will take place on weekends.

Check out the Major League Soccer Statistics



Major League Soccer Stories from November 25, 2013


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central