Fire releases regular season schedule

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Theres a new twist to the Major League Soccer schedule for 2013, released by the league and its member clubs on Wednesday.
Not only will the season start a week earlier than ususual, it will have a Revivals Week on March 16-17. Regional rivals will be paired at that time, with the Fire drawing Eastern Conference regular season champion Sporting Kansas City on March 16 in K.C.
Fans, though, may be more enticed by the Sunday matinee games. The Fire will play nine, five of them at Toyota Park. Only three mid-week games are on the schedule andin an interesting numerical coincidence -- the Fire will play 16 nationally-televised matches in its 16th season of existence.
The Fire has its earliest MLS season opener ever, at Los Angeles on March 3. Thatll be the first of 34 regular season battles, with 25 of them coming against Eastern Conference opponents.
Within the East the Fire will face seven conference rivals three times and two (New York and Toronto) twice. The latter two will be home-and-home series. In the others the Fire will have two home dates against D.C. United, Sporting Kansas City, the Montreal Impact and New England Revolution.
To balance things out the Fire will play two of three matches on the road against the Columbus Crew, Houston Dynamo and Philadelphia Union.
On the national TV front, the Fire will play on NBC Sports Network eight times, ESPN and ESPN2 once apiece, Univsion once and UniMas five times.
The opener will be the first of nine meetings against Western Conference foes, a road battle with the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Galaxy on March 3. The home opener is March 9 vs. New England, a good home opening opponent. The Fire is 2-0-3 in home openers vs. the Revs and is 9-3-3 in its 15 previous home debuts.
In addition to its schedule the Fire announced the winner of last months open tryout.
The lucky survivor from over 150 trialists is forward Samuel Archer, a 23-year-old Rutgers University product who owns dual citizenship in the U.S. and Jamaica. A member of the U.S. under-17 pool, he went through the New York Red Bulls Academy and had a tryout with the Colorado Rapids in 2012.
After failing to crack the Rapids roster he spent time with the United Soccer League members Harrisburg City and Wilmington.
Archers chances of making the Fire roster are slim. Only one of the previous four open tryout winners succeededPari Pantazopoulos in 2011. He got into one match, in the U.S. Open Cup, with the first time and also took the field in a friendly against Manchester United.
Pantazopoulos, however, failed to make last seasons roster, and Archer could be gone after the first week of training in Ave Maria, FL. That 10-day session begins on Jan. 20.

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