MLS will begin its 2024 season with an Inter Miami standalone match on Feb. 21 – a game that will kick off a season of more than nine months, the schedule of which the league announced on Wednesday afternoon.

Here are the key dates you need to know:

A busy start for Messi, Inter Miami

Lionel Messi and Inter Miami will have a standalone midweek match to kick off the 2024 MLS season, welcoming Real Salt Lake to South Florida on Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. ET. It’s the earliest start to an MLS season in the league’s 29-year history, and comes just six days after their sixth and final international friendly of the preseason.

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Beginning on January 19th, Inter Miami’s preseason tour will take them to El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Japan. They’ll play their last friendly against Messi and Tata Martino’s boyhood club Newell’s Old Boys, on February 15 in Fort Lauderdale.

For Martino, he’ll have to manage his roster carefully over the winter, paying special attention to Messi, Busquets, Alba, and Suarez. All four former Barcelona players will be the main attraction during Miami’s global tour. But all four players will also be key to Inter Miami’s hopes to win multiple trophies in 2024. It will be interesting to see how Miami’s busy preseason schedule is viewed late in the season.

“Next year will be much better,” Messi said last month, during a Ballon d’Or ceremony at Inter Miami’s DRV Pink Stadium. “We’re going to keep on having fun, keep on winning titles.”

After Miami and RSL kick off the season on Wednesday, the rest of the league joins the action with 14 matches between Saturday and Sunday, capped by Miami traveling to Los Angeles to face the Galaxy.

El Trafico at the Rose Bowl

After an all-time MLS record crowd of 82,110 fans came out to watch LA Galaxy vs. LAFC at the Rose Bowl on July 4th last year, the league is running it back in 2024 with the second iteration: LA Galaxy vs. LAFC on Thursday, July 4 10:30 p.m. ET.

The Galaxy will be a much-changed team, with high-profile players Chicharito and Douglas Costa already departed. For LAFC, star Carlos Vela is among a cadre of key players out of contract.

MLS Cup rematch

LAFC hosts the reigning MLS Cup champions Columbus Crew on July 13 at  at BMO Stadium. The Crew beat LAFC in Columbus to win MLS Cup 2-1 this year, so this will be LAFC’s first chance at revenge.

Leagues Cup to begin shortly after Copa América final

As they did in 2023, MLS and Liga MX will stop their respective regular seasons and participate in the second edition of the Leagues Cup in 2024. The tournament will again feature 47 teams from the U.S., Canada and Mexico, kicking on on July 26, just 12 days after the final of the 2024 Copa América in Miami. The Leagues Cup final will be held on August 25. Inter Miami and Lionel Messi are the defending champions.

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MLS announced on Wednesday that three berths to the CONCACAF Champions Cup will remain up for grabs and that every match will once again be decided in regular time or via penalty kicks. However, changes to the tournament’s format are likely to be announced early next year. The Athletic understands that tournament organizers will look to improve the competition based on feedback from key stakeholders, including from fans and participating clubs.

It’s unlikely, however, that Leagues Cup matches will be played in Mexico. Last summer, several Liga MX sides criticized the tournament’s format, namely the cross-country travel that Mexican clubs endured over the course of the competition, as well as the officiating. CF Monterrey sporting director José Antonio Noriega was among the more vocal critics of the inaugural tournament.

“So much more organization is needed,” said Noriega, after Monterrey had qualified for the Leagues Cup quarterfinals. “Things have to be more fair. There’s so much that needs to be improved and hopefully they do that, because this is not good at all.”

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Decision Day and MLS Cup

MLS will close the regular season with its now-traditional Decision Day, which sees every team in each conference kick off simultaneously. That will take place on Saturday, Oct. 19. After that, it’s on to the playoffs, culminating in MLS Cup on Saturday, Dec. 7. 

(Photo: Logan Riely/Getty Images)