Reds get to open season at home

Toronto FC will kick off the 2018 season on March 3, opening defence of its Major League Soccer championship against Columbus Crew SC in a rematch of this year’s Eastern Conference Championship.

The afternoon game, which marks the first time in club history that Toronto will open at BMO field, is the first of11on the opening weekend of play.

Toronto will have already played a game at home by then, with a CONCACAF Champions League roundof-16 match against the Colorado Rapids set for some time between Feb. 27 and March 1, 2018

The Vancouver Whitecaps will host Montreal Impact at B.C. Place Stadium on March 4. Montreal will play at Columbus on March 10.

TFC will have a Week 2 bye before travelling to Montreal for the Impact home opener March 17 at Olympic Stadium. Also March 4, MLS Cup runner-up Seattle will host expansion team Los Angeles FC. The two teams will meet again April 29 when LAFC plays for the first time at Banc of California Stadium.

During the 2018 regular season, each club will play 34 games, including 17 home games and 17 away games. Teams will face each of their conference opponents (10 in the East, 11 in the West) twice during the season with one game at home and one game away.

Western Conference teams will play one additional intra-conference game and Eastern Conference teams will play two. All teams will face each nonconference opponent once. The complete regular season schedule will be announced in January.