2023 Schedule Released!

At noon today MLS dropped the 2023 schedule  The Rapids will start on February 26th in Seattle and finish at home against FSL on October 21st.  In-between will be 32 other games and the Leagues Cup, plus the U.S. Open Cup.  Looking at some of the highlights:

• 14 Saturday night games, 2 Wednesday night games, and 1 Tuesday night game (July 4th).  All home kickoffs are at 7:30pm except the final match with is TBD.
• All away kickoffs except the opener are at 7:30 local time for the match.  The opener in Seattle is at 5pm local/6pm MT due to being on FS1 (ironically I'm flying home from a family gathering two days before where everyone else is flying home to Seattle, should have gone home with them!)
• This scheduling is part of the AppleTV deal where all games will be on Wednesdays and Saturdays with 7:30pm local kickoffs, unless the FOX TV deal needs them in a different time slot.
• Rocky Mountain Cup matches are home on May 20th and October 21st and in Utah on Labor Day weekend.
• Portland will be the opponent for our annual 4th of July match
• Jameson Night September 16th!
• Eastern Conference opponents are at Charlotte, Atlanta, Columbus, and Orlando, and hosting Philly, Cincinnati, and New England.
• You'll notice Miami is not on that list.  That means in the 4 years they've been in the league we will still have not faced them, unless we matchup in the Open Cup or Leagues Cup (or MLS Cup final).
• We play expansion St. Louis on April 22nd at the Dick and July 1st in St. Louis.

Beyond that the big thing to look at with the schedule is the rhythm of the games.  Only once do the Rapids play 3 home games in the a row, on July 4th, 9th, and 15th, leading into the Leagues Cup break.  They never have more than 2 games in a row on the road.

As far as busy 3 game weeks (by which I mean anytime we have a midweek game between two weekend matches or two Wednesday matches with a weekend match in-between) it happens five times.  The first is in mid-May where we have a midweek trip to Atlanta between home games against Philly and FSL.  After a week with no midweek games we then have a trip to Columbus sandwiched between home matches against Cinci and San Jose.  The next time it happens is over the 4th of July match where as mentioned we play in St. Louis on Saturday, Portland at home on the 4th, then stay in Commerce City to host Dallas on Saturday.  The last two times are like the first two, with 3 games, a week without a mid-week game, and 3 games.  In this case it starts with New England at home on September 16th, Seattle at home on the 20th, and then a trip to Portland on the 23rd.  After a midweek off its then a Texas Trio of Austin at home on Sept. 3oth and then trips to Dallas and Houston on October 4th and 7th.

So almost half our games will be played in 3-game weeks.  Squad rotation is going to be important this season.

The next major offseason news is tomorrow, when the Superdraft will be held tomorrow afternoon.  The Rapids hold the 12th pick in each of the 3 rounds, but they also hold the #3 overall pick which they acquired in the trade with Toronto for Mark-Anthony Kaye.  Some talk that forward Ilijah Paul, Pac-12 player of the year out of Washington, might be available at #3.  If so he fills an obvious need for the team and you can't go wrong drafting a Husky.  Go Dawgs!