San Jose Earthquakes to resume MLS regular season on Aug. 26
The San Jose Earthquakes are scheduled to resume the MLS regular season on Aug. 26 in a home game against the Portland Timbers, the team announced Saturday.
According to a release, the Quakes have received clearance from Santa Clara County officials to have full-team training sessions and play home games at Earthquakes Stadium. The Earthquakes have faced stricter guidelines from public health officials than other teams.
The Earthquakes will play six matches between late August and mid-September, according to the release. It starts with a 7:30 p.m. Wednesday kickoff against Portland, which has reached the final of the MLS Is Back tournament. Then San Jose travels to play the Los Angeles Galaxy on Aug. 29 and Los Angeles FC on Sept. 2.
The Quakes (2-1-2, eight points) are scheduled to return home to face the Colorado Rapids at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 5. The team plays at Seattle on Sept. 10 and ends with a Sunday home game at 8 p.m. Sept. 13 against the rival Galaxy.
The Earthquakes completed an impressive run at the MLS Is Back tournament by advancing to the quarterfinals before falling to Minnesota United 4-1 last week.
Broadcast information for San Jose games will be announced at a later date.
Major League Soccer officials announced Saturday the 25th season will begin Aug. 12 with FC Dallas playing Nashville SC, the teams that were forced out of the MLS is Back Tournament after more than 20 players and staffers in total tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival to the Walt Disney Resort near Orlando, Florida.
The teams are scheduled to meet twice in Frisco, Texas, with a second game scheduled for Aug. 16. They are starting almost two weeks early because Dallas and Nashville need to make up three games they didn’t get to play during the tournament. The event’s three group games counted toward the regular-season standings. Dallas and Nashville will play a third time later in the fall, the league announced.
MLS executives rolled out their plans to continue the regular season after it abruptly suspended play March 14 because of the coronavirus global pandemic. The Quakes were able to start training again in Florida for the tournament that ends Tuesday. (Portland will face Orlando City SC for the championship.)
All participating teams lived at the resort and played at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex without spectators. After Dallas and Nashville left, no other teams had any players test positive for the deadly virus.
But now MLS is returning to a scene similar to Major League Baseball with teams traveling around North America to play games. MLS announced Saturday that each team will play 18 more regular-season games in a “phased approach.” The regular season is scheduled to end on Nov. 8.
The MLS Cup playoffs have been expanded to 18 teams with the final scheduled for Dec. 12.
“Since suspending play in March, we have been working on plans to play as much of our season as possible, beginning with the tournament in Florida and resuming in our local markets following the competition,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said in a statement.
The MLS release said the league plans to announce the rest of the regular season schedule by early September.
The first phase of games involves U.S. teams playing each other because of travel restrictions between the United States and Canada. The release said the league plans to announce the schedules of the three Canadian teams — Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver — later.
League officials said their new schedule emphasizes minimizing travel risks. They said teams will take chartered flights or buses to away games. They added teams will arrive and depart on the day of games for the majority of the trips.
MLS also announced that its 26 teams will work with local certified laboratories to ensure all players, technical staff and essential club staff get tested every other day, including the day before each game. The league said it will provide players, coaches and essential staff guidelines to avoid the risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19 during their time away from team facilities.