Speculation ended Saturday when Major League Soccer revealed their Phase 1 plans for Nashville SC and FC Dallas to meet in Frisco, Texas, twice, reviving teams’ campaigns for the 2020 regular season.
MLS confirms that Nashville and Dallas will play Wednesday and return on August 16 at Toyota Stadium, either game will start at 7:30 p.m. Both matches are among the 3 that the team missed after MLS withdrew from either club due to the respective coronavirus outbreaks prior to the MLS Is Back tournament in July. Nashville is scheduled to play six more regular-season games until September 12.
Nashville aired a club on Saturday saying the third game between Dallas and Nashville would be scheduled for later in the fall. Nashville coach Gary Smith shared his enthusiasm now that his team can nevertheless return to the field.
“Having suffered the pain of the Orlando tournament, it’s glorious to be ready for our first game in five months,” Smith said in the statement. “The players are already very happy to be part of the festival again and we would all like nothing more than to put ourselves in a pace of matches to announce the progression of the team that we all miss.”
FC Dallas announced through its club that, in particular, it would allow 5110 enthusiasts to attend their home games at Toyota Stadium (25th capacity), although participants will have to comply with the Texas face mask ordinance at all times and practice social estrangement. However, MLS commissioner Don Garber said on a conference call Saturday that the league had not approved Dallas to allow enthusiasts.
But that means this will be the case in the future.
“We’re not saying that what we’re going to do is something that may not be a problem,” Garber told reporters on the conference call. “If we have problems, we’ll solve them. But we think it makes sense for us to try.”
Garber said there is no threshold in position on Saturday if MLS players test positive for COVID-19 on the fall reboot. The Commissioner said a resolution would have to be taken if positive cases arose.
“Obviously, if we have one or two players with a positive test, we think we can isolate the players and manage it,” Garber said. “But when you start getting into the players and you feel that the virus is spreading or spreading, we’ll have to postpone this game and manage it accordingly.”
Phase one consists of six matches to be played by all 26 MLS clubs, which will start on 22 August. Phase two will consist of 12 matches scheduled between 16 September and 8 November. Phase two matches have yet to be announced.
As they would have done in the July organizing stage, the two games opposed to Dallas will count towards the qualifying of the normal season. Both clubs played two games before the pandemic. The other 24 MLS clubs have played five that count towards qualifying. Nashville is a moment from the back of the Eastern Conference (13th), while Dallas is lately 3rd from the rear (10th) in the West.
After a couple of games against Dallas, Nashville’s next home game is scheduled for August 30 against teammate Inter Miami CF at Nissan Stadium at 7 p.m.
August 12: FC Dallas; Frisco, Texas; 7:30 p.m.
August 16: FC Dallas; Frisco, Texas; 7:30 p.m.
August 22 – Atlanta United, Atlanta; 6 p.m.
August 26: in Orlando City SC; Orlando, Orlando, Orlando, 6:30 p.m.
August 30: vs. Inter Miami CF; Nashville, Nashville, Nashville 7:30 p.m.
September 2: vs Orlando City SC; Nashville, Nashville, Nashville 7:30 p.m.
September 6: Inter Miami CF; Miami; 7 p.m.
September 12: vs. Atlanta United; Nashville, Nashville, Nashville 7:30 p.m.
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