Sports

Atlanta United to resume regular season schedule in late August

ATLANTA — The long awaited Major League Soccer regular season begins in earnest for Atlanta United on Aug. 22.

The team had a rough go of things in July, losing all three matches during the MLS is Back Tournament held in Orlando, which led to the resignation of former head coach Frank de Boer.

This weekend, MLS announced the first six games for each of its 26 clubs. Atlanta will kick of the season against Nashville SC on Saturday, Aug. 22 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The club also announced the first three home games will be played without fans in attendance.

MLS plotted the schedule with home-and-away matches slated against regional opponents for each of its teams with plans for Atlanta to play six games in 22 days. The United won’t leave the southeastern U.S. for those games.

Here’s the current schedule:

  • Saturday, Aug. 22, vs. Nashville SC, 7 p.m.
  • Wednesday, Aug. 26 at Inter Miami FC, 8 p.m.
  • Saturday, Aug. 29 vs. Orlando City SC, 3:30 p.m.
  • Wednesday, Sept. 3 vs. Inter Miami FC , 7 p.m.
  • Sunday, Sept. 6 at Orlando City SC, 7:30 p.m.
  • Saturday, Sept.12 at Nashville SC, 8:30 p.m.

MLS plans to announce each clubs remaining 18 game regular season schedule in early September with the regular season finale planned for Nov. 8 with the plan being for 24 total games each.

It has scheduled the league playoffs to begin Nov. 20 and the MLS Cup to wrap the 2020 season on Dec. 12.

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The league also announced it will continue most of its COVID-19 testing protocols instituted during July’s tournament in Orlando. All clubs will be partnering with locally certified testing labs and will be required to test players along with technical and essential club staff every other day including the day before each match.

The league will provide guidelines for all involved to avoid any risk of contracting and spreading the virus while away from club facilities.