Major League Soccer revealed key dates for its 2022 schedule Friday, featuring the earliest start date in league history.
MLS will start next season on Feb. 26 and hold the MLS Cup final Nov. 5 in order to fit in a full season before the World Cup begins Nov. 21.
FIFA moved the World Cup from its usual June and July window to November to avoid the extremely hot summer temperatures of the host nation, Qatar.
MLS also announced that Nashville SC will move from the Eastern Conference to the West to balance the conferences at 14 teams apiece, as expansion club Charlotte FC will begin play and compete in the East.
Teams will play a 34-game regular season, facing each of their conference opponents twice plus eight games against nonconference opponents. The league is also planning to decrease the number of midweek games; while Wednesday has been a common match day for the league in recent seasons, it said the 2022 schedule “will consist of all weekend matches with the exception of five, or fewer, midweek matches” for each team.
Decision Day — the league’s final match day of the regular season — is scheduled for Oct. 9.
–Field Level Media
