D.C. United announce 2013 MLS schedule

A few minutes earlier than expected - because MLS likes to surprise us - the league announced its 2013 slate of games. We already knew who D.C. United would be playing in its first three tilts of the new campaign, and now we can really start salivating over the 2013 MLS season, which starts in earnest less than two months from now.

Trust me, we'll have a lot more on this as we have time to digest it.

In the meantime, here are my own first impressions:

• 2013 is a D.C. United sandwich on Houston Dynamo bread: we'll open and close the season against the two-time defending Eastern Conference (playoff) champs.
• For me, the biggest games are always going to be those against the Metros. United will be playing the New York Red Bulls three times again this year, twice up in New Jersey and once in the friendly confines of RFK Stadium. As we already knew, we'll open up Red Bull Arena for the Cows on March 16. We'll also host them less than a month later, on April 13, and make a return trip to the Jersey City suburbs on August 31.
• United will appear on English-language national television a grand total of nine times, including three of our first four matches and three of our last four. Two of those games - the first trip to New Jersey and the season finale in RFK against Houston - will be broadcast on NBC proper. The Black-and-Red will also make three appearances on nationally-available Spanish-language UniMas (formerly Telefutura).
• Unlike in 2012, United will play at least four games in each calendar month of the season. Hooray for no random 8-week (seeming) layoffs!
• Los Capitalinos will close out 2013 with six straight Eastern Conference opponents, and four of those six games will be at home. If we're in a good spot in the standings come to mid-September, we could be sitting pretty by the end of October.

If you're interested, you can find the full DCU schedule here or below, and the league's national TV schedule over here. Like I said, we'll be breaking down the schedule more in the near future, so stay tuned. In the meantime, what are your first reactions to the slate?