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Major League Soccer recently announced the season schedules for all 23 clubs including the 34 game schedule for our Houston Dynamo. Head Coach Wilmer Cabrera will hope to take last season’s success which saw the Dynamo make the playoffs for the first time in three seasons and take the club to a MLS Cup.
The Dynamo will kick off the season against Atlanta United FC at BBVA Compass Stadium on March 3rd in a nationally televised game. Houston plays a total of six nationally televised games this season.
Nationally Televised Games for 2018:
March 3: vs Atlanta on Univision
April 7: at New York Red Bulls on Univision
May 20: at Chicago on UniMas
May 25: vs New York City FC on UniMas
July 28: at Portland on ESPN
August 23: vs FC Dallas on UniMas
The addition of MLS newcomer LAFC to the league unbalances the number of teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences with 12 teams in the West and 11 in the East. This means that the Dynamo will face each Eastern Conference opponent just once this season and all Western Conference teams twice except for FC Dallas who the club will play three times. With an odd number of teams there will be one club on a bye as one club will be without an opponent each week. This year is also a World Cup year which will mean the league will take an eight day break, June 14-22, for the opening round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
As Houston Chronicle writer Corey Roepken pointed out on twitter, there is a big contrast to how the club begins the season and how it ends. Three of the first four games will be at BBVA Compass Stadium and three of the final four games will be on the road against pretty difficult competition.
Dynamo will play three of first four games at home in 2018:
— Corey Roepken (@RipSports) January 4, 2018
March 3: vs. Atlanta United
March 10: vs. Vancouver
March 17: at D.C. United
March 31: vs. New England
Dynamo will play three of final four games on the road, and the schedule is a doozy!
— Corey Roepken (@RipSports) January 4, 2018
Oct. 6: at Seattle
Oct. 18: at LAFC
Oct. 21: vs. Seattle
Oct. 28: at LA Galaxy
The Dynamo have a couple of rough stretches this season with midweek games, though it appears lighter than some seasons. May 25 will start a string of three games played over nine days as the Dynamo will play NYCFC at home before traveling to Real Salt Lake for a midweek game May 30th before going to Montreal June 2nd.
Another difficult set of games will begin Saturday July 21st against FC Dallas at BBVA with the club getting a visit from the Philadelphia Union Wednesday July 25th before flying out to Portland to face the Timbers July 28th.
For the details on the full schedule, visit HoustonDynamo.com. What games are you excited for this season and what do you make of the schedule? Let us know in the comments below!