Rio Grande Valley FC announced today the 2019 USL Championship season schedule, the fourth season for the Toros. This year’s schedule features a total of 34 games, including 17 home games at H-E-B Park and 17 games on the road.
The Toros will open the season at Seattle Sounders FC 2 on Saturday, March 9, and will then host their home opener at H-E-B Park on Saturday, March 16 against Fresno FC. The Toros’ final home game of the regular season will be on Friday, October 18 against the Portland Timbers 2 as they wrap up the 2019 USL Championship season. The Toros will play 16 home games on Saturday evening and one on Friday.
For the first time in the club’s history, the Toros will have a returning head coach as Gerson Echeverry remains at the helm of the club as it enters its fourth season. “This season is special to both the league and the club. The new USL Championship brand has brought added visibility to the league as it enters its ninth season and we are excited to be joined by three new teams in just the Western Conference, including two new Texas rivals in Austin Bold FC and El Paso Locomotive FC,” Toros CEO Rene Borrego said. “We look forward to having the support of the community as we get to experience history.”
Rio Grande Valley will play each team in their conference twice, one game at home and the other on the road. The Western Conference is comprised of Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC, LA Galaxy II, OKC Energy FC, Orange County SC, Phoenix Rising FC, Portland Timbers 2, Real Monarchs SLC, Reno 1868 FC, Sacramento Republic FC, San Antonio FC, Seattle Sounders FC 2, and Tulsa Roughnecks.
There are three newcomers to the USL Championship’s Western Conference in 2019, with El Paso Locomotive FC, New Mexico United and Austin Bold FC joining the league for their inaugural seasons. With the addition of El Paso and Austin, the USL Championship now features four teams based in Texas for the first time.
Expanded Format For 2019 USL Cup Playoffs
The 2019 USL Cup Playoffs will expand to include 10 teams from each conference, with the lowest four seeds in each conference opening the postseason in the Play-In Round, provisionally slated for Wednesday, October 23 with the No. 7 seed hosting the No. 10 seed and the No. 8 seed hosting the No. 9 seed for a place in the Conference Quarterfinals.
Following the Play-In Round, the two teams to advance will be placed into the main bracket for the Conference Quarterfinals, with the lower remaining seed facing the conference’s No. 1 seed and the higher remaining seed facing the No. 2 seed.
The single-elimination format will then continue for the following four weekends in a fixed-bracket format with the higher seed in each matchup serving as host through the Eastern and Western Conference Finals. The 2019 USL Cup will be held between November 14-18, 2019 and be hosted by the conference champion with the better regular-season record.
2019 USL Cup Playoffs Schedule
Play-In Round – October 23
Conference Quarterfinals – October 25-27
Conference Semifinals – November 1-3
Conference Finals – November 8-10
USL Cup – November 14-18
Season tickets are now on sale and can be purchased by calling the RGV FC Toros at 956-279-6815 or by emailing sales@https://www.rgvfc.com.
# SOMOS TOROS #
