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One thing that separates MLS from other major leagues with 34-game seasons is the number of midweek league games.
Wednesday night will feature 12 MLS games — a 13th involving Columbus was postponed due to its participation in Saturday’s Concacaf Champions Cup final — on the second of seven heavy midweek dates during the 2024 MLS regular season.
France’s Ligue 1 and Germany’s Bundesliga both consist of 18 teams playing 34 games over the course of the regular season. Both scheduled only one midweek matchday — right before the Christmas break — meaning there were never three league games regularly scheduled over eight days, a common occurrence in MLS.
These league weekend dates were interspersed, of course, with domestic and European cup dates in the middle of the week, but they manage to finish their seasons with a two-week break at Christmas and respect the four FIFA breaks in the same period as MLS conducts its season (regular season and playoffs). All without the long-distance travel across North America.
As recently as 2022, MLS only scheduled three heavy midweek dates. But adding an exclusive five-week window for Leagues Cup and 11 days to the playoffs with an expanded (best-of-three) first round forced MLS to move more games into midweek.
Teams can quickly pick up points — or drop them — in bunches with three games in a week.
Best: Three-game week (May 11-18):
New York City FC, 9 points
FC Cincinnati, 9 points
Both NYCFC (idle on Wednesday night) and FC Cincinnati followed up on their three-win weeks with victories on Saturday to stay on the heels of Eastern Conference leader Inter Miami.
Worst: Three-game week (May 11-18):
Chicago, 0 points
CF Montreal, 0 points
Sporting KC, 0 points
Chicago, Sporting KC and CF Montreal have yet to recover and enter action on Wednesday night with winless streaks of eight games, eight games and seven games, respectively.
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