Major League Soccer will begin its 2010 season Thursday night at Qwest Field in Seattle, Washington, after the MLS Players had threatened to strike if a new contract wasn’t reached prior to the league’s Kick Off game on March 25th.
The MLS contract had expired on January 31, with both sides agreeing to twice extend the deadline before negotiations broke down and players threatened to walk out in late February, as both sides seemed to be at an impasse. But with the help of a Federal Mediator, the two sides were able to hammer out an agreement and announced a new 5-year agreement on Saturday, March 21, just days prior to the imposed strike deadline.
Thus the league will go on and see the first game of 2010 feature the Seattle Sounders FC vs. the Philadelphia Union, who make their league debut this year as the leagues 16th team, while the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps are set to join the MLS in 2011.
The league’s 16 Teams will play a 30 game season and not contest any matches in June during this year’s World Cup tournament in South Africa, avoiding competition during the World cup’s first round, semi-finals and finals, before reaching the MLS Playoffs, where eight teams will vie for the crown in November, while you can catch the Sounders vs. Union on ESPN2 at 6:30PM Pacific…
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
You must log in to post a comment.