Sounders 2020 MLS regular season schedule released

Christmas has come early for Seattle Sounders fans as the release of the 2020 MLS regular season schedule happened this morning. One of Santa’s little helpers at ESPN.com posted the schedule of every team before the official MLS announcement, so let’s dig into what this new season has in store for the 2019 MLS Cup champions.

The Sounders get a relatively easy start to the schedule in March with three of their first four matches taking place on their home turf at CenturyLink Field. That will certainly come in handy with the Concacaf Champions League fixtures making that a busy time of the year. Should the Sounders advance against Olimpia, the quarter-finals take place between March 10 and March 19. The first ten games that the Sounders play only feature three teams that qualified for the 2019 MLS Cup playoffs: Real Salt Lake, FC Dallas, and DC United.

The Sounders will play Portland away in their 11th game of the season on Sunday, May 17th. That’s their second Cascadia Cup match of the season and comes rather early compared to previous seasons, the first match is against Vancouver at home on April 18th. The rest of the Cascadia Cup matches are in Vancouver on June 13 and at home against Portland on Aug. 22.

The Sounders have three road trips where they will play three games away from home. There’s no four game road trips this season. The toughest road trip for the Sounders comes in July when they play Red Bull New York, Atlanta United and Toronto FC away from home in three straight games.

If you were hoping for some gaps between the two matches against LAFC, well, you’re out of luck. Both of those games come back to back on the schedule and both are scheduled to air on ABC. On July 25 the Sounders will host the 2019 Supporter Shield champions at home. The next week they head to LA to play them again on Aug. 2. The Sounders will not play FC Cincinnati, Orlando City SC, or the Philadelphia Union in the regular season.

The full schedule is below.