Welcome back to season six of weekly MLS open gamethreads by yours truly, Chris Tobin. For those new here, we will have three sections just like today. Three Big Storylines where I tally up the three big storylines that have caught my eye this week. From a Sounders Point of View, where I look at how some of this week’s games might affect the Seattle Sounders (this section gets more focused on the standing as the season progresses). And lastly a listing of the National TV games on MLS this weekend. Feel free to jump in the comments with any suggestions if there is something you would like me to add.

Author's note: On a personal note, I made a move last summer to Amsterdam with my wife and one year old baby. The baby is now almost 21 months and he is ready to wake up to MLS in the mornings and his parents have seemingly settled into life in the Netherlands.

Three Big Storylines

1. MLS Returns in 2019 with the same three National TV partners and if you scroll down below, you will see that each has their full complement of games this weekend as five games are on National TV. Fox Sports will return John Strong and Stu Holden as their lead announcing team and Jillian Sakovitz joins them in Week 1. Rob Stone will return to host FS1’s pregame coverage. ESPN has made some changes to their broadcast team, Jon Champion is in as the lead MLS commentator replacing Adrian Healey. Champion will be joined on the broadcast by the returning Taylor Twellman in the analyst chair. You will still see Healey from time to time when ESPN has a double header, such as this week where Healey is joined by Alejandro Moreno in the second game on Sunday. Sebastian Salazar hosts pregame for ESPN. Univision will also have a game of the week on either Univision or Univision Deportes. In addition to the Univision game, twitter has the streaming rights to all Univision games on a dedicated MLS feed.
2. Tune in a half hour early for the LA Galaxy game against the Chicago Fire on Fox Sports 1 and you will see the LA Galaxy unveil a statue of David Beckham. Omri Amrany created the statue to add to his almost 165 sports statues he has created worldwide. Beckham joined the Galaxy in 2007 and ushered the Designated Player concept in MLS.
3. It wouldn’t be the dawn of another MLS season without some stadium construction news. The Portland Timbers will start 2019 on a nine-game road trip as they complete an addition to Providence Park and open their home slate on May 11th. Minnesota United will be unveiling their new stadium, Allianz Field, on April 13th. They will play their first five matches on the road. And today’s opponent for the Seattle Sounders, FC Cincinnati will play their first two matches on the road in their inaugural season before moving into their temporary home of Nippert Stadium for the next two seasons as they build their new permanent soccer specific stadium set to open in 2021.

From a Sounders Point of View

It sure would be nice to get this season off on the right foot with three points and hand FC Cincinnati their first ever loss in MLS.

The Sounders next two opponents after Cinci are the Colorado Rapids and the Chicago Fire. The Rapids open their season by hosting the Portland Timbers on Saturday (3PM, ESPN+ and Root Sports in the Northwest), watch next week’s opponent play our Cascadia rivals and look to see how Benny Feilhaber is integrating with his new squad before next week. The Chicago Fire are down in LA for the Beckham statue game.

National TV Listings

Orlando City SC v New York City FC

Date/Time: Saturday, 11:30 AM

TV: Univision, Univision Deportes

Streaming: MLS Twitter Free Weekly Stream, Univision NOW, Fubo TV (affiliate link)

LA Galaxy v Chicago Fire

Date/Time: Saturday, 5 PM

TV: Fox Sports 1

Streaming: Fox Sports Go, Fubo TV (affiliate link)

Seattle Sounders v FC Cincinnati

Date/Time: Saturday, 7 PM

TV: Fox Sports 1

Streaming: Fox Sports Go, Fubo TV (affiliate link)

D.C. United v Atlanta United

Date/Time: Sunday, 3 PM

TV: ESPN

Streaming: Watch ESPN, Fubo TV (affiliate link)

LAFC v Sporting Kansas City

Date/Time: Sunday, 5:30 PM

TV: ESPN

Streaming: Watch ESPN, Fubo TV (affiliate link)

Join the Discussion

This is your Sounder at Heart MLS Week 1 Gamethread, watch with us.