HERRIMAN, UTAH (Thursday, July 2, 2020) – Real Monarchs, in conjunction with the USL Championship, announced its full slate of matches that will make up the 2020 regular season. The club will feature in 16 total matches, with its opening contest from March 7 against San Antonio FC counting toward the season total.
As previously announced, the Monarchs will re-open the season on Saturday, July 11 at Rio Tinto Stadium at 2:00p MT against San Diego Loyal SC in a match that will be broadcast nationally on ESPN Deportes. Following its match against San Diego, the Monarchs will open its Group C matches when it welcomes Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC to Rio Tinto Stadium on July 18. The club’s first road trip will come on July 29 when it visits New Mexico United. The club will hold a total of nine matches on home soil with the other six remaining matches at opposing venues.
In addition, the Monarchs will see a stretch of four consecutive home matches from September 2 – September 16 before a stretch of three consecutive road matches from September 19 – September 30, paving the way for a strong finish prior to the commencement of the 2020 USL Championship playoffs.
The Monarchs full remaining regular season schedule is as follows:
7/11/20 vs. San Diego Loyal SC Rio Tinto Stadium
7/18/20 vs. Switchbacks FC Rio Tinto Stadium
7/29/20 @ New Mexico United Isotopes Park
8/1/20 @ Switchbacks FC Weidner Field
8/15/20 vs. El Paso Locomotive TBD
8/22/20 vs. New Mexico United TBD
8/29/20 @ El Paso Locomotive Southwest University Park
9/2/20 vs. Tacoma Defiance TBD
9/9/20 vs. Switchbacks FC TBD
9/12/20 vs. New Mexico United TBD
9/16/20 vs. Portland Timbers 2 TBD
9/19/20 @ El Paso Locomotive Southwest University Park
9/26/20 @ Switchbacks FC Weidner Field
9/30/20 @New Mexico United Isotopes Park
10/4/20 vs. El Paso Locomotive TBD
The Monarchs return to play after playing just one match prior to the USL Championship postponing matches due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In its first outing, the defending USL Championship title-winners fell 1-0 to San Antonio FC on March 7. The match will also mark the first meeting between the Monarchs and expansion San Diego, who entered the league prior to the 2020 season.
In order to limit travel, the regular season sees the Championship’s clubs divided into eight regionalized groups, with each team competing in a 16-game regular season. There are five groups made up of four teams, and three groups made up of five teams to cover the 35 member clubs of the Championship. Real Monarchs was placed in Group C alongside El Paso Locomotive FC, Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC and New Mexico United.
The regular season games will be played over 13 weeks, concluding on the weekend of October 2-4. Games completed prior to the season suspension in March will be counted and included in the schedule, with teams that were active on the opening weekend of the season having 15 games remaining in their schedule.
Both San Diego Loyal SC and the Tacoma Defiance – who completed two games prior to the season suspension – will have 14 games remaining in their respective schedules.
Every game of the 2020 USL Championship season will air on the ESPN family of networks, with broadcasts on ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+ bringing all the excitement of the first league in the United States to return to play in home markets directly to homes across the United States.
