Major League Soccer today announced the official schedule for the 2006 MLS Reserve Division. Now in its second year, the Reserve Division is a key component of Major League Soccer's drive to develop the stars of tomorrow in a professional, competitive atmosphere.
Similar to last season, all teams will compete in a single table with a $20,000 team bonus awarded to the team that finishes the season at the top of the table. Each team will play 12 Reserve Division games throughout the course of the season, with half of their games on the road and half at home. No team will play any other team more than twice.
The Reserve Division kicks off on Monday, April 3, with a match-up between last year's two expansion teams, Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake, to be played in Carson, Calif.
Last year marked the inaugural season of the Reserve Division, developed by Major League Soccer in partnership with adidas as a key component of the Generation adidas program. The Reserve Division allows teams to provide meaningful competitive matches to players who are outside of the first 11, giving them important in-game experience. D.C. United won the Reserve Division title last year, finishing with a record of 8-4-0.
MLS RESERVE DIVISION FORMAT:
• Each team will play 12 games (6 home and 6 away).
• A total of 20 eligible players for the home team and 20 players for the visiting team may be placed on a club's game roster for any Reserve Division game with each team permitted to make up to six (6) substitutions.
• Suspensions attributable to yellow and red cards issued in Reserve Division games shall only be imposed for future Reserve Division matches and not for games during the MLS regular season. Conversely, suspensions attributable to yellow and red cards issued during MLS regular season games shall not apply to Reserve Division matches.
• Any player who receives four yellow cards during the Reserve Division season shall be suspended from the next Reserve Division game in which he may appear.
• No Player shall play more than 120 minutes in a Reserve Team match and any preceding match(es) that occur within a 60 hour period. Injury time is not considered a part of a player's maximum number of minutes played (e.g., if a player enters a game at halftime and the referee adds 2 minutes of stoppage time to the end of the second half, the player will be considered to have played 45 minutes since the 2 minutes of stoppage time is essentially added to make up for 'lost' time).
• A Reserve Division call-up or "Guest Player" with an MLS team may be eligible to appear in an MLS Reserve Division Game provided that he is properly registered with U.S. Soccer.
