2010 Schedule Released

MLS announced the 2010 schedule today. For the first time the teams will play each other twice each, once home and once away. The league will shut down from June 11th-24th for the group stage of the World Cup. Of course this year will be our first look at the Philadelphia Union, this year's expansion team. Here are some of the highlights of the Rapids schedule.

• The Rapids first home game is April 3rd, and unlike last year they're only back on the road for one game before returning to the Dick.
  
• Games are fairly evenly split home and away, never more than a 2 game home stand or a 2 game road trip at any point.
  
• We have 2 games in 4 days at the beginning of May. At San Jose and then hosting LA.
  
• There's also a stretch of 3 games in 8 days in the middle of July. Hosting KC on the Weekend, Philly in mid-week, and then traveling to Seattle the next weekend.
• Every other game is a week apart with the only weekend off (not including the World Cup break) being the second weekend in May after our Wednesday game hosting LA.
  
• We start the season at Chivas on a Friday, the only other non-weekend games are the two home Wednesday games mentioned above. We host Toronto and NY on Sundays, and play at Seattle on Sunday. The other 24 games are Saturday games.
  
• The Sunday NY game is 4th of July. The Saturday game in NY is on 9/11. Odd how that worked out.
  
• The game in San Jose on May 1st was originally listed as our only ESPN2 game, but now it just shows up as a Direct Kick game. We're on FSC 4 times and Telefutura 4 times.
  
• Between 4/10 and 5/22 we have 5 of 8 on the road. Between 7/17 and 8/7 we have 4 of 5 at home.
• Our final stretch could be brutal. We at FSL on 9/25, then face DC at home road trips to Dallas and LA, and finish the season with FSL at home on 10/16.
  
• With the balanced schedule this year there's not a real weak area of our schedule. Probably the easiest stretch is in July when we play NY, at Toronto, KC, and Philly. 4 teams that weren't in the playoffs last year.
  
• Most of the home games do not have their times set, while the rest of the games in the league all have kickoff times. They much be making a final decision out at DSG Park. Maybe thinking about going back to 7pm start times instead of 7:30?