MLS First Kick 2009

By: travis | December 3rd, 2008

While the MLS Cup winners can still be heard celebrating, MLS has wasted no time in trying to keep fans hooked for the 2009 season. Today the fixtures for the first three weeks have been announced, and they’re detailed below. The nickname “First Kick” I find to be rather dull and gimmicky. It’s just the ex-NFL Don Garber trying to conform to American sports.

Week 1
Thursday, March 19, 2009
New York Red Bulls at Seattle Sounders FC – the home opener for the newest MLS team, it’ll be interesting to see if JCO has stayed and if Freddie Ljungberg strikes a modeling pose in the midst of the match.

Saturday, March 21, 2009
Columbus Crew at Houston Dynamo – the defending champs take on the perennial powerhouse Dynamo, who will be out to prove ‘08 was a fluke.

Chicago Fire at FC Dallas – Where in the world is Kenny Cooper? Will Blanco return?

Toronto FC at Kansas City Wizards – KC returns to the minor league stadium they share with the Kansas City T-Bones. No, I’m not kidding. The T-Bones.

New England Revolution at San Jose Earthquakes – oh look! It’s the return of our favorite British player! Daav… Dan Huckerby?

Colorado Rapids at Chivas USA – the team with the best nickname (Goats) takes on a team who will have a whole host of new players.

Sunday, March 22, 2009
DC United at Los Angeles – after a dismal season, United aims to return to the top, while the Galaxy wonder what happened to Beckham and Donovan.

Week 2
Saturday, March 28, 2008
Toronto FC at Columbus Crew – home opener for the defending champs. Should be quite the party.

San Jose Earthquakes at D.C. United – the black and red open their stadium, welcoming back the league’s best fans.

New England Revolution at New York Red Bulls – everybody’s favorite energy drink-sponsored New York team returns to the big apple after their 2008 Cinderella story.

Kansas City Wizards at Colorado Rapids – scratches head. Will Jimmy Conrad say/blog something funny?

Week 3
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Columbus Crew at Real Salt Lake – it’s welcome back to the best-named stadium in the country – Rio Tinto. Either someone forgot to tell Garber that RSL still had a team or Jason Kreis paid someone off. Real appears to have the first two weeks off.

Saturday, April 4, 2009
Seattle Sounders FC at Toronto FC – the new kids on the block get initiated at BMO Field by the other best fans in the league.

FC Dallas at New England Revolution – the Revs head into ‘09 hoping that their squad can stay in one piece for the whole year.

Sunday, April 5, 2009
New York Red Bulls at Chicago Fire – whenever Juan Carlos Osorio returns to Chicago, sparks are gonna fly. That is, if he’s still with the team. Some say he is. Some say he isn’t.

The rest of the schedule is set to be finalized around early February. So RSL probably won’t have the first two weeks of the season off, but I bet they might be excited by that prospect.

I know that everyone is as excited as I am that only 106 days sit between now and Sounders-Bulls. I even put a countdown widget on my Mac. Anyone else out there excited?