Major League Soccer Kicks Off on Direct TV

Soccer fans are anxiously awaiting the beginning of the 2008 MLS season. This year will mark the 13th season in the history of Major League Soccer. Kick-off for the season begins on March 29th, 2008 and will culminate with the MLS Cup 2008 in November.

In the 13th season of the League, 30 regular season games will be played by each of the 14 member clubs over a period of time lasting 31 weeks. This comes to a total of 210 matches that will be played between March 29th and October 26th. As a result, each team will have an opportunity to play one another twice; one home game and one away game. Varying intra-conference games will make-up the remaining four games. The opening MLS weekend, First Kick, will take place over Saturday and Sunday; March 29th and 30th.

The MLS season will conclude on November 23rd with the MLS Cup 2008 in Carson, California.

There will a number of changes that are different from the preceding season. For one, the San Jose Earthquakes are expected to return to the Western Conference as an expansion franchise. In addition, it is rumored that Juan Carlos Osorio has been hired out from the Chicago Fire to act as a replacement. In further Chicago Fire news, assistant coach Denis Hamlett has made the leap to head coach while Frank Yallop has left the ranks of the Los Angeles Galaxy in order to become the head coach for the San Jose Earthquakes. Rudd Gullit has been reported to have been hired as Yallop’s replacement.

Naturally, no soccer fan will want to miss the opportunity to view all of these exciting changes, especially as Rudd Gullit debuts as the coach of such known favorites as David Beckham with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

If you just cannot seem to get enough coverage of your favorite MLS teams, you may want to consider signing up for Direct TV MLS Direct Kick when the new season kicks off. This specialty sports programming package provides you with the opportunity to see the best of all the regular season matches and even some the playoff games when the regular season has ended.

These are, of course, games that you would not ordinary be able to see and are also in addition to any games that might appear on such networks as Fox Soccer Channel, ESPN 2 and ABC. The games broadcast on MLS Direct Kick are out of market games that are produced by regional sports networks and stations located around the country. More than 100 regular season games as well as select playoff games are included in the package. This means that if you are a huge fan of the Chicago Fire but happen to live in Los Angeles, you won’t miss a moment of all the great action.

As the kick off for the season draws closer, you will certainly want to begin making arrangements to sign up for this exclusive sports programming package to be certain you do not miss any exciting moments.