New York Red Bulls to play San Jose Earthquakes in MLS 2019 home opener

MLS has announced the full slate of home-openers around the league for the 2019 season, giving a pretty good picture of the first challenges the New York Red Bulls will face next year.

We already know RBNY is playing in the 2019 CONCACAF Champions League. That tournament will start for the Red Bulls on February 20 in Dominican Republic, followed by the second leg of the CCL series against Atletico Pantoja at Red Bull Arena on February 27.

Per the schedule information released by MLS, RBNY will open its MLS season on the road in Columbus on March 2 - three days after its CCL round-of-16 second leg against Atletico Pantoja.

The Red Bulls MLS 2019 home opener is not until March 16, against San Jose Earthquakes. That is a big gap between league games, but likely not such a big gap between competitions. RBNY will be the favorite in its opening-round CCL series; if the team meets expectations and beats Atletico Pantoja, it is looking at a CCL quarterfinal series to be played over two legs on March 5-7 and March 12-14. And it will be traveling to either Honduras or Mexico to play one of those games (depending on whether Marathon or Santos Laguna advances to the CCL quarterfinals).

If all goes as hoped for RBNY in the early part of 2019, the team is looking at six games played across three countries in the opening three weeks of next season - possibly seven games if it has another road match in MLS to play in the week between its trip to Columbus and the home-opener against San Jose.

As was the case last season - when they played seven matches (and a friendly) in the first month of competitive play - the Red Bulls can be expected to lean heavily on squad depth in their opening games of the year, as they seek a strong start in both CCL and MLS.

For ticket information, contact RBNY: www.newyorkredbulls.com/tickets or call 1.877.727.6223.