File this one under the category: most likely to attract choice commentary from Seattle Sounders supporters.

As the Sounders-less MLS First Kick fast approaches, we here at Stumptown Footy are spooling up the statistical analysis drives in preparation for the 2012 campaign. Lacking much in the way of hard data so far, with just one preseason match under our belt, we've decided to start with the schedule.

New podcast for you, draft review edition. Thad and I reviewed the draft, talked about the MLS schedule, Open Cup changes, national team call ups for Sporting and the Missouri Comets. Available on Posterous and iTunes.

Monday Bullets:

• And then they were even....

Kolarov, for City, with a tackle on Nani here...and a free kick goal there...

Yesterdays 3-2 Manchester United over Manchester City FA Cup win was a sidewinder of drama. City control the run of play, United score.

Sounder at Heart reacted immediately yesterday to the MLS schedule announcement, posting an analysis of strength of schedule. They did a great job collecting the data, and concluded that "Seattle's getting it about as good as you can get it in the West, but of course the league bends over backwards for the Galaxy once again.

Today MLS released the 2012 MLS schedule with the new unbalanced format. The full schedule is at the end of the post, but here are some thoughts and information on the schedule.
KC opens the season on the 10th of March against DC, it's the 7th time in KC's history that they've opened against DC.

In 2011, the MLS schedule was released in February. MLS fans eager for league news got a surprising gift on Thursday when the league released the entire 2012 schedule more than one month earlier than last year. For business junkies, the most interesting part of the release is probably the announcement of nationally telecast games.

STARTERS
LA Galaxy centerback Omar Gonzalez has passed up a chance to impress USA coach Jurgen Klinsman so he can go on loan for 6 weeks to German club Nurnberg.
-Does this make any sense at all to anyone? Besides that the Bundesliga does not even resume play until Jan 20!

Start Marking Your Calendar: The MLS Schedule is Out!Major League Soccer seems to finally be getting the hang of this scheduling thing. The 2012 schedule was released today, more than a month earlier than last year's version. For Red Bulls fans, there are some big changes to keep in mind. First, the schedule is once again unbalanced, with Red Bulls playing each Western Conference team only once, while they will face Eastern Conference foes either two or three times, depending on the opponent.

Major League Soccer released their full 2012 schedule today which will feature 89 nationally televised games on the ESPN family and NBC family of networks. Univision will be the Spanish-language broadcast partner for MLS.
The season and First Kick will be on Saturday, March 10th and feature five matches.

The 2012 MLS schedule has been released and like all fans I looked to see when the big teams would meet each other.

In looking over the schedule, the folks at Major League Soccer identified these as the 10 must-see matches of 2012. Do you agree with them? Unfortunately there are no New England Revolution matches on the list.

Well I told you guys it would be coming today and here it is! The entire 2012 MLS Schedule has been released in full including the television schedule for each game. It's quite extensive actually.

So, first, before we get to the hard dates, it's worth pointing out the the Portland Timbers will be featured in 11 nationally televised games, (9 if you don't include Galavision).

The 2012 MLS schedule is up, boys, so get set for the longest season ever. It will also be the biggest TV season ever, with NBC in for 41 games.- Greg Seltzer

Let's start with the good news about the 2012 MLS schedule: Despite earlier announcements that Seattle Sounders FC would be playing on March 10, the league office has thought better of it and gave them the weekend off. In fact, the Sounders and Toronto FC will get the weekend off in order to focus on their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals matches on March 7 and 14.

So we've already seen the appearance of Toronto FC's schedule which has the Portland Timbers playing them, away, on May 12th. This also means that the full MLS schedule should be released very soon. All my surces and tips are telling me that it will be released tomorrow at 2:00PM EST. Regardless of time, if true, it would be a marked improvement over the schedule's release last year which was delayed well into February, if memory serves me right.

Back in November, Major League Soccer revealed they are shifting back to an unbalanced schedule for the 2012 season after using a balanced one for the past couple of years. Eastern Conference clubs will play seven of their conference opponents three times each (21 total games) and the remaining two conference opponents twice each (4 games).

Sepp Blatter has gotten himself in hot water for recent comments, but the FIFA president steered clear of controversy when talking about Major League Soccer.

In an interview with Fox Soccer, Blatter addressed the MLS schedule, maintaining his position that it would be better if the league aligned itself with the European calendar as opposed to continuing the March-to-November schedule.

The Red Bulls ended any hope Portland or Chicago had of making the playoffs, becoming the 10th team to qualify for the postseason by beating Philadelphia. A Dane Richards header eight minutes in deflected off Philadelphia goalkeeper Fared Mondragon for the game's only goal. New York's Frank Rost picked up the shutout in front of 25,044 fans at Red Bull Arena.

By Tony Edwards - San Jose, CA (Oct 13, 2011) US Soccer Players -- In this set of questions, Tony asks about what really ended FC Dallas's Champs League run, a surprise contender in the East, and a different take on the MLS schedule. Was it the loss to Toronto at home that eliminated FC Dallas from the knock-out rounds of the CONCACAF Champions League?

It's time to bust out the Kenny Loggins, Red Bulls fans. When the MLS schedule was unveiled last winter, you somehow knew that the final fixture against Philadelphia would have extra meaning. As a result of RBNY's nightmare performance last Saturday in Kansas City - when they had the chance to punch their ticket to the playoffs with what was virtually a first choice XI, but ended up losing their captain for the remainder of the regular season - Thursday's showdown at Red Bull Arena will probably determine New York's postseason fate.

Setting: Saturday, October 8 at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Wash.; kickoff scheduled for 10:06:30 PM Eastern

Broadcast Information: Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia (Marc Zumoff, Bob Rigby), with coverage beginning following Flyers Post-Game Live / KONG 6/16 and NewsRadio 97.

Picking names....again....

It's that time again.

The moment to toss out a couple of standards and a couple of surprises for who may make the next USMNT roster.

This is the first set of friendlies that at least that we know were made with Klinsmann involved in the decision making.

By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Aug 23, 2011) US Soccer Players -- In almost classic Major League Soccer fashion, last night's two Champions League games returned to that old idea that it's the MLS schedule above everything else. That's why Seattle and Colorado fielded what amounted to reserve teams in the CCL group stage, saving the A squad for those crucial late August League games.

That's right, folks; to go along with the laundry list of accomplishments the Metro Bulls have attained in their illustrious history, you can add 2011 Emirates Cup Champions to it. Now while it's no La Manga, it ranks right up there with the Mickey Mouse Cup of 2010. Hey, this is about the only Red Bulls news I can get excited about nowadays, so get off my back.

Five games were on the midweek MLS schedule, with a recovering Colorado taking advantage over New York at home and the bottom club in the East winning away. DC 0 – New England 1 The Revolution can chalk up their first road win this season, with Stephen McCarthy scoring in the 73rd minute at RFK Stadium.

Denz, of SB Nation's Real Salt Lake blog RSL Soap Box, and I exchanged three questions a piece ahead of tomorrow's Philadelphia Union-RSL match at PPL Park.

SK: After starting the season off undefeated, Real Salt Lake has fallen off a bit, but still sits near the top of the Western Conference with games in hand.

Rivals Houston and FC Dallas face off in a Texas Derby that headlines a heavy day of action in MLS.

The Dynamo will look to halt Dallas' seven-match unbeaten streak, and will need to break Dallas' record-setting shutout streak to do so. Houston will ne

What is the best match of the day?

The Philadelphia Union will look to keep its unbeaten home record intact tonight when the club plays host to the Los Angeles Galaxy at PPL Park.

The Union will look to erase the memory of a 1-0 loss to Portland last week, while the Galaxy will be trying to build on an impressive effort in a 1-1 draw against New York on Saturday.

It is no longer a battle between championship contenders, but Manchester United's battle against Arsenal this weekend will still make for great theatre.

Arsenal has dropped points in recent weeks and has fallen behind Chelsea in the Premier League standings, meaning this weekend's showdown vs.

We're now only two days away from the Philadelphia Union's first game of the 2011 season in Houston, and excitement is at a fever pitch. Are you headed anywhere in particular to watch the game? Fado's? Dark Horse? Regardless of where you go or who you're with, the game promises to be lots of fun.

Anyway, here are a few Union, MLS, and general soccer links to get your Thursday started:

March FIFA dates lead to MLS roster diaspora [Matthew Doyle - MLSsoccer.

By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Feb 16, 2011) US Soccer Players -- Following up on an earlier Daily, making the media rounds in Vancouver last week Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber talked about the compressed MLS schedule and the need to once again stretch the calendar. Somebody stop this League before they decide the best way to meet FIFA's preferred calendar is to simply play year round.

Rachna is joined by Shana and Kirsten as the girls discuss the Under-20 World Cup Qualifying tournament to take place in Guatemala. In looking through an enormous player pool of prospects, they dissect which players may have a shot at making the team for both the qualifying tournament as well as the actual World Cup.

On this show, Jason gets the episode number wrong. Then Jason and Jared cover the MLS schedule unveiling, the genius of #MLSscheduleIsLateBecause, the LA teams (and Becks) with soccer writer Luis Bueno, Andy Najar being a kid, listener emails, Charlie Davies, second division sanctioning, and more.

Proof-Jason Davis
Somewhat unintentionally, Jared and I turned Episode 61 into a Twitteriffic show. The microblogging service popped up several times throughout the week, leading to a theme we couldn't get away from.
We start, however, by meeting Jared's alter ego, Reginald Merriweather.

Otto Greule Jr - Getty Images

Seattle Sounders fans should feel good about the 2011 MLS schedule. It really doesn't look like the Sounders have that bad of a road ahead.

The day has finally come for all of us who support our clubs in Major League Soccer. The announcement of the 2011 regular season schedule was finally released on Thursday, February 10. Finally all of us can now plan our road trips and use our vacation times to travel and see our teams play against each other.

With all of the anticipation over the 2011 MLS schedule, I was almost expecting to read about white smoke escaping from MLS headquarters on Fifth Avenue. But finally, after much delay, the entities around Major League Soccer - league officials, teams, and television - saw fit to release the regular season schedule.

It took a little longer than I think most people expected, but today the MLS schedule came out. But not before MLS fans in the Twitter world had some fun at the expense of MLS with the hash tag, #MLSScheduleIsLateBecause, started by Ives over at Soccer By Ives. That at least brought plenty of humor to the day before the schedule was released.

Our long national nightmare is over. The MLS schedule is out.

About a month before the beginning of the season, MLS finally released the entire schedule for all 18 MLS teams. Previously, only each team's first home game was known, and some clubs like the LA Galaxy got an early jump on releasing the schedule by leaking the dates and opponents of some key matches.

The MLS Schedule was finally released. Sporting Kansas City has a long road trip as expected to start the season while they finish the stadium. Starting with First Kick on March 19 against Chivas (visiting former KC Captain Jimmy Conrad) Kansas City goes on a 10 game road trip.The home opener for Sporting Kansas City's new stadium is June 9thSporting will have a 9 game home stand starting with 2

If you're like me, the schedule on MLS' website is too broken up to be of any use to me. So if you're like me, please to enjoy this (perhaps) slightly easier to deal with schedule table.

# Day Date Visitors Home ET Local TV 1 Tue 3/15/11 Los Angeles at Seattle 9:30 6:30 ESPN 2 Sat 3/19/11 Toronto at Vancouver 6:30 3:30 3 Sat 3/19/11 Columbus at DC United 7:30 7:30 4 Sat 3/19/11 Seattle at New York 7:30 7:30 5 Sat 3/19/11 Philadelphia at Houston 8:30 7:30 6 Sat 3/19/11 Chicago at Dallas 8:30 7:30 7 Sat 3/19/11 Portland at Colorado 9:00 7:00 8 Sat 3/19/11 Kansas City at Chivas USA 10:30 7:30 9 Sat 3/19/11 Salt Lake at San Jose 10:30 7:30 10 Sun 3/20/11 N.