MASL Announces 2019-20 Schedule
The Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) today announced the 2019-20 regular season schedule. The Sockers will open their season on Sunday, November 24 against the California Express. Defending MASL champions Milwaukee, the eight-time indoor champions Baltimore, as well as Western Conference finalists Monterrey and Sonora, highlight a schedule filled with top opponents.
“We are excited to rise to the challenge,” said Sockers general manager Sean Bowers of a schedule which includes each of the last four teams (Monterrey, Baltimore, Sonora, Milwaukee) to appear in the Ron Newman Cup Final, “This is a schedule designed to test and prove the championship worthiness of our club, so that when playoff time comes around, the right questions will be answered.”
Highlighting the 24-game, 12-home game schedule is a showdown with the defending MASL Ron Newman Cup champion Milwaukee Wave, who will visit Pechanga Arena San Diego on Saturday, February 29. This will be the first meeting between the teams since January 5, 2016, when the Wave edged the Sockers 7-6 in San Diego.
Of equal if not surpassing interest for indoor soccer buffs, the schedule features a home-and-home showdown between the two most decorated clubs in the history of indoor soccer. When the Baltimore Blast visit San Diego on Wednesday, February 12 at 7:35 pm, a combined 22 indoor championships will be represented on the floor. The Sockers and Blast last met twice in 2015, with San Diego winning 7-2 at home on February 7, and Baltimore answering at home with an 8-5 win on December 4. The clubs will also square off on January 25 in Charm City.
The 2019-20 season will see San Diego enjoying a flurry of early home games before being tested severely by travel in the schedule’s second half. After a trip to Tacoma on November 30, the Sockers will return home to face the rival Ontario Fury on December 13 for the first of three meetings at Pechanga Arena San Diego, before welcoming in Sonora on Sunday, December 15. San Diego then travels to Turlock to face the Express (December 20) before opening their longest homestand of the season, a four-game set which will see Tacoma (December 22), Sonora (December 29), Ontario (January 5) and the expansion Mesquite Outlaws (January 19).
The schedule turns into a long and winding road in the second half, with San Diego facing a six-game road trip, and nine of ten away from home. San Diego visits Harrisburg on January 24, returning to the site of the final win during the Sockers’ US pro team sports record 48-match winning streak from 2010-13. The East Coast swing will continue through Baltimore (January 25).
San Diego will then be tested with a gauntlet of five games in ten days, played in four states and two different countries. On Monday, February 3, the Sockers battle the Monterrey Flash from Nuevo León, before traveling to Hermosillo to take on the Soles de Sonora on February 5. The next day will see San Diego in the Sunshine State, battling the Orlando SeaWolves on February 6, before wrapping the road trip against the Florida Tropics on February 8. Baltimore at home on Wednesday, February 12 concludes the brutal stretch of travel combined with quality opponents.
After a Texas two-step through Mesquite (February 21) and Dallas (February 23), the Sockers will enjoy four home games in their final five contests of the regular season, hosting the MASL champion Milwaukee Wave on Leap Day (February 29), and Tacoma on March 8. After a final trip to Washington to face the Stars (March 13), San Diego closes the schedule at home against the Express (March 15) and the Fury (March 22).
Single-game and season tickets for the entire 2019-20 MASL schedule are now available for purchase from the Sockers front office. Call (866) 799-4625 or visit SDSockers.com for ticketing and purchase information.