No Friday or Sunday games, I'll take that thank you very much
No Friday or Sunday games, I'll take that thank you very much
On one hand, I can't think for a minute that they'd not make one of the 20, the hard-to-sell early summer first Leagues Cup match.
On the other, looking closely at the website ... it does clearly say in the 2020 T&C that "Member will receive 1 CCL match, if Toronto FC qualifies for the CCL, and 2 CC matches. In theevent Toronto FC does not qualify for the CCL,the Member will receive 3 CC matches" - which doesn't seem sensible from a marketing point-of-view, given we probably have to get through Montreal.
So I can see where you are coming from here. Though I'm not 100% convinced they won't try doing this anyway - but I can see why there might be objections.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
The Saturday only thing in summer is interesting. They got a lot of negative feedback on that back in the Beirne/Anselmi days. People with cottages and all that. But maybe the SSH base has changed.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
The evening games in the summer are going to mean a lot of long shadows on the pitch and people in the east side shading their eyes.
Noticed Decision day is away at NYRB - we better be locked into a top 3 spot before then.
I love the simplicity of this schedule Saturday games every week. That's going to be great for establishing a routine. Those last 4 games though will be very tough...we need to start the season strong and get our momentum early.
"There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust, and daring." - Johan Cruyff
Updating a few tables for 2020. Same number of June-July-August games (7) as last season.
MLS Regular Season Summer Mar Apr May June July Aug Sep Oct Total Jun-Jul-Aug % of total 2007 0 1 3 3 1 3 2 2 15 7 47% 2008 0 2 4 2 1 2 3 1 15 5 33% 2009 0 4 3 3 1 1 1 2 15 5 33% 2010 0 2 2 2 3 3 2 1 15 8 53% 2011 1 4 3 3 1 2 1 2 17 6 35% 2012 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 17 7 41% 2013 2 3 1 2 3 2 3 1 17 7 41% 2014 1 1 3 1 4 2 3 2 17 7 41% 2015 0 0 3 3 1 4 3 3 17 8 47% 2016 0 0 4 1 4 3 3 2 17 8 47% 2017 1 3 3 2 2 2 3 1 17 6 35% 2018 2 2 4 0 2 2 3 2 17 4 24% 2019 2 3 3 2 3 2 1 1 17 7 41% 2020 2 3 3 3 2 2 2 0 17 7 41%
Definitely more weekend (Saturday/Sunday) games (15) than last season (11):
MLS Regular Season Weekend Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun Total Sat-Sun % of total 2007 2 1 9 3 15 12 80% 2008 1 1 12 1 15 13 87% 2009 2 12 1 15 13 87% 2010 2 12 1 15 13 87% 2011 3 14 17 14 82% 2012 4 13 17 13 76% 2013 2 1 14 17 14 82% 2014 2 14 1 17 15 88% 2015 3 12 2 17 14 82% 2016 3 11 3 17 14 82% 2017 3 5 7 2 17 9 53% 2018 2 4 8 3 17 11 65% 2019 3 3 7 4 17 11 65% 2020 2 15 17 15 88%
In terms of time of day, there is a small shift to games earlier in the day (7 versus 5 last year were before 7pm):
Early Afternoon Afternoon Evening 12-2:30 % of total 3-6:30 % of total 7-8 % of total 2007 2 13% 8 53% 5 33% 2008 1 7% 10 67% 4 27% 2009 1 7% 11 73% 3 20% 2010 4 27% 7 47% 4 27% 2011 5 29% 1 6% 11 65% 2012 5 29% 7 41% 5 29% 2013 6 35% 7 41% 4 24% 2014 4 24% 7 41% 6 35% 2015 3 18% 10 59% 4 24% 2016 0 0% 4 24% 13 76% 2017 1 6% 4 24% 12 71% 2018 1 6% 5 29% 11 65% 2019 0 0% 5 29% 12 71% 2020 1 6% 6 35% 10 59%
It's pretty much a consensus that this is an improvement from 2019!
The thread of tweets following this one is a really good analysis of the MLS schedule for each team (I don't feel comfortable quoting a whole thread of tweets at length & the thread unroll app seems to have shut down)
Check out this tweet at https://twitter.com/OffsideModeling/status/1209181553126989824
I won't repeat what others have said but here are some other noteworthy things.
May 30 - Champions League Final followed by us hosting Miami.
During Euro - All our games are in the evening so no conflict there.
Assuming we make the Voyageurs Final, we have a road trip to Portland smack in the middle of it. I'll assume Greg will throw this game again (Please don't as odds are we'll need the points during the final stretch).
Ok, found a thread reader app that takes a twitter thread and makes it into one long form read
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...126989824.html
Read this thread to compare what each team has to go through this season schedule wise.
We have the most Saturday home games of any team in the league.
Jeez - that's good stuff.
Whoever managed TFC's scheduling this season needs a big thank you! No games during International games...Saturday games like clockwork. As close to maximum recovery time between games as could be. Just great sensible scheduling. If scheduling has any influence on the outcome of a season - I would not bet against TFC being in the run for the Supporters Shield again this season. (It's what they do when they lose an MLS Cup Final) Looking forward to the season already - just need to get that big DP signed up good and early.
2023 though until we get a Nashville soccer stadium specific experience.
Not sure if there will be a separate post for the pre-season games or not but thought I would throw them up here. Does anyone know if they will be streaming anywhere or if we will be able to watch them somehow?
Saturday, February 8 Colorado Rapids UC Irvine (TBD)
Wednesday, February 12 LAFC Banc of California Stadium (12:00 p.m.)
Saturday, February 15 LA Galaxy Dignity Health Sports Park (3:00 p.m.)
Wednesday, February 19 Chicago Fire FC UC Irvine (TBD)
Saturday, February 22 Colorado Rapids Dignity Health Sports Park (12:00 p.m.)
The LAFC & LAG games may be streamed - they are both open to the public.