MLS 2024 Season Schedule: When will Messi play?

The MLS 2024 Season is about to begin and could well be the biggest to date. The popularity of the league has increased in the United States during the last few years and the addition of figures like Lionel Messi has attracted many thousands of more fans to the stadiums.

This year, each team is scheduled to play a total of 34 regular-season games, evenly split between 17 home matches and 17 away matches. The Eastern Conference, consisting of 15 teams, will face each intra-conference opponent twice, totaling 28 games. They will also play one game against six different cross-conference opponents, bringing their total to 34 games. Meanwhile, the Western Conference, comprising 14 teams, will also play two games against each intra-conference opponent, amounting to 26 games. They will also face either one or two additional intra-conference opponents and compete against six or seven different cross-conference opponents, making up their 34-game schedule.

Here are all the important dates of the season including the schedule for the three most popular teams of the league.

Feb. 24-25: MLS is Back weekend

After the season kick off match between Messi’s Inter Miami against Real Salt Lake last wednesday, the league will continue with 14 matches scheduled for the weekend, including the highly anticipated face-off between five time MLS Cup winners LA Galaxy and current Leagues Cup champions Inter Miami.

May 11-18: Rivalry Week

During Rivalry Week, teams with historical or geographical rivalries face-off in highly anticipated matchups. For example, Toronto FC and CF Montreal, both teams of Canada will play in a match that undoubtedly will be watch by a large amount of Canadian fans. Here are the matches for the week:

July 4: El Tráfico at the Rose Bowl

One of the league’s biggest rivalries is between the two Los Angeles teams: LA Galaxy and LAFC, who face each other in El Tráfico, their classic yearly game, which last year set an all-time MLS attendance record during Independence Day with 82,110 fans. The game will be played at the Rose Bowl and it will be available on streaming with the MLS Season Pass.

July 24: MLS All-Star Game

The Columbus Crew will be the host for their first MLS All-Star Game since 2005. Fans can already register to get priority access to tickets. The match will be played at Lower.com Field on Wednesday, July 24. According to the MLS website, the week will have “world-class soccer events, music, interactive fan experiences and community-focused events to Ohio’s capital city”. The opponent will be announced later in the season.

July 26-August 25: Leagues Cup

The competition featuring all MLS teams and LIGA MX teams will return this year with a month-long pause in the MLS season. The tournament will begin on Friday, July 26 and will conclude on Sunday, August 25.

Oct. 19: Decision Day

October 19 will be the final matchday for the regular season with 14 games.

Dec. 7: MLS Cup 2024

The final game of the postseason, which will end with a champion will take place on Saturday December 7. The finalist with the better regular-season record will host the match.

Inter Miami 2024 matches

Lionel Messi has made Inter Miami one of the most popular teams on the league, but he’s not the only star on the roster. His former FC Barcelona teammates Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets are now part of the team and their addition has been credited as the main reason the team got the latest Leagues Cup title, the club’s first trophy in it’s six year history. Here’s all their matches for this year’s season. All times are local.

LA Galaxy matches

Although LA Galaxy didn’t manage to make the playoffs on 2023 for the second year in a row, it still is one of the league most followed clubs. The team has a record five MLS Cups and they could chase a sixth one with a roster that includes Uruguayan Diego Fagundez, Brazillian Gabriel Pec and Mexican Jonathan Perez. Here’s their matches for this year. All times are local.

LAFC matches

LAFC finished in second place in the MLS Cup 2023 after losing to the Columbus Crew, and it also was a runner-up in the CONCACAF Champions League to Club León from the LIGA MX. Denis Bouanga from Gabon is their best player, who last season managed to score the impressive amount of 20 goals, followed by Mexican Carlos Vela who scored nine. Here are their matches for this year. All times are local.

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