Sounders #MLSisBack Tournament schedule released

There’s nothing ideal about Major League Soccer’s plan to return to competitive matches during a global pandemic. Things continued to trend in the ‘less than ideal’ direction for Seattle Sounders fans as the full schedule for the MLS is Back Tournament was released, revealing the Sounders will play a match at 6 AM PT. Another match will be broadcast on TUDN, a channel most cable packages in the Seattle area do not carry.

The Sounders start off their group stage against the San Jose Earthquakes on Friday, July 10th at 7:30 PM PT on ESPN. Five days later, though, on Wednesday, July 15th, they will have to face off against FC Dallas at 6:00 AM PT on ESPN. Their last match of the group stage is against a Cascadia rival, the Vancouver Whitecaps, on Monday, July 20th at 7:30 PM on TUDN.

Of the 42 group stage games for the #MLSisBack Tournament, seven kick off at 9 AM EDT. Two of those games feature teams from the Western or Mountain Time Zones. MLS had previously hinted that those time slots would be reserved for teams from the East Coast, but that doesn’t appear to fully be the case.

The one silver lining for the Sounders group stage schedule is that there’s the maximum amount of days between their games, but that early kickoff definitely messes with players’ body clocks. It should be interesting to see how Brian Schmetzer and the team deal with that.