Bulk of MLS Schedule to Be Played Saturdays
Saturday night fever?
That’s what Major League Soccer has in mind for 2000, but it remains to be seen whether fans will feel the same way.
On Tuesday, MLS released the schedule for its fifth season, and 70% of the 192 league matches will take place on Saturdays.
The regular season begins March 18 and will run through Sept. 10, making the 2000 campaign four weeks shorter than the 1999 season.
Locally, the Galaxy will play 11 of its 16 regular-season home games on Saturday nights at the Rose Bowl.
League figures for the first four seasons show that attendance is 16% higher on Saturday nights. Sergio Del Prado, the Galaxy’s general manager, said the contrast in Los Angeles is even greater.
“There’s a huge, huge difference for us in attendance between midweek games and Saturday night games,” he said. “I think Saturday nights average about 40% more.”
The Galaxy will open at home against the Colorado Rapids on March 18, then travel to Washington for a nationally televised game March 25 against D.C. United in a rematch of the 1999 championship game, which Washington won, 2-0.
It will be the first of four games against D.C. United, but Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid said Tuesday he welcomes the challenge.
“I’m happy about it,” he said. “You measure yourself by playing the best. They’re the best in the league right now, so that gives us four opportunities to measure ourselves. I think you get better when you play against good competition . . . so being able to play United four times is good.
“What they [league officials] did with the schedule is they sort of made it an NFL type of schedule, where they weighted it [depending on the previous season’s finish]. So you’re probably going to see more teams with records that are going to hover around .500.”
That each team’s 32 games will be squeezed into 26 weeks instead of 30 will have an impact.
“What it does is it’s going to put more of a demand on the team’s depth because we’re playing the same amount of games in four weeks less time,” Schmid said.
“We have more midweek games. We have one stretch where I think we play something like six games in 20 days [May 6-27], so it definitely puts a strain on our depth.”
The 2000 MLS All-Star game will be July 29 at Columbus, Ohio, but no date or site has been set for the league championship game.
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The United States men’s national team warmed up for Sunday’s game against Iran at the Rose Bowl by defeating the U.S. Under-23 (Olympic) national team, 1-0, in Claremont on Tuesday.
Iran’s final tuneup is tonight at 9 against Ecuador at the Coliseum. The Iranians lost, 2-1, to Mexico in Oakland on Sunday.
Mexico’s Olympic team will take part in the first game of tonight’s doubleheader when it plays Guatemala at 7.
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Galaxy 2000 Schedule
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Date Game Time/TV Sat., March 18 vs. Colorado 7:30 p.m. Sat., March 25 at Washington 11 a.m./ ABC Sat., April 1 vs. New England 7:30 p.m. Sat., April 8 at Columbus 4:30 p.m. Sat., April 15 vs. Dallas 7:30 p.m. Sat., April 22 vs. Miami 7:30 p.m. Sat., April 29 at New York/New Jersey 4:30 p.m. Sat., May 6 vs. Kansas City 7:30 p.m. Sat., May 13 at Dallas 5:30 p.m. Wed., May 17 at San Jose 7 p.m. Sat., May 20 vs. Washington 6 p.m./ ESPN2 Wed., May 24 at New England 4:30 p.m. Sat., May 27 vs. San Jose 7:30 p.m. Sat., June 3 vs. New York/New Jersey 7 p.m./ ESPN2 Sat., June 10 at Colorado 7 p.m./ ESPN2 Sat., June 17 vs. Tampa Bay 7 p.m./ ESPN2 Wed., June 21 vs. Chicago 7:30 p.m. Sat., June 24 at Kansas City 5:30 p.m. Wed., June 28 at Washington 4:30 p.m. Sat., July 1 at Dallas 5:30 p.m. Tue., July 4 vs. Columbus 7:30 p.m. Sat., July 8 at Miami 11 a.m./ ESPN Sat., July 15 vs. Washington 7:30 p.m. Sat., July 22 at Tampa Bay 5 p.m./ ESPN2 Sat., Aug. 5 at Kansas City 5:30 p.m. Sat., Aug. 12 vs. Kansas City 7 p.m./ ESPN2 Wed., Aug. 16 vs. Colorado 7:30 p.m. Sat., Aug. 19 at Chicago 11:30 a.m./ ABC Sat., Aug. 26 at San Jose 7 p.m. Wed., Aug. 30 vs. San Jose 7:30 p.m. Wed., Sept. 6 vs. Dallas 7:30 p.m. Sun., Sept. 10 at Colorado Noon/ ESPN2
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