New York City FC and Inter Miami CF will no longer play the first match of the 2025 Major League Soccer season, as kickoff time for the season opener on Saturday, February 22 at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. has been moved from 2:30 PM to 7:30 PM Eastern. The match is still streaming exclusively on AppleTV+ as part of MLS Season Pass.
The switch of kickoff times is made as a side effect of Inter Miami having its first 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup match vs. Sporting Kansas City postponed by one day due to expected severe winter weather in and around Children's Mercy Park.
Miami was supposed to visit Sporting KC on February 18 to open their two-legged Champions Cup Round One series, but that match will now take place on February 19 at 8:00 PM ET. Kansas City, Kansas is under a winter storm warning and expecting up to eight inches of snow to fall by Wednesday, with temperatures hovering in the low single digits and "feels-like" temperatures firmly in the negatives.
🚨 MATCH TIME CHANGE 🚨 This Saturday’s MLS season opener against @intermiamicf.bsky.social will now kick off at 7:30PM ET, instead of the originally scheduled 2:30PM ET. This adjustment follows Concacaf’s announcement regarding the rescheduling of the Sporting Kansas City vs. Inter Miami CF match.
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc.com) February 18, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Moving the Champions Cup match back by a day deprives Inter Miami of an expected day of rest and recovery before New York City FC comes to town to open the MLS season on Saturday. Now the kickoff time for Miami-NYCFC shifts, presumably to try to buy the Miami players at least a few extra hours of rest between their midwinter matches, though New York City gets some immeasurable advantage in having their opponent lose a day of rest.
The conditions won't be much better for that rescheduled Sporting Kansas City-Inter Miami match either, as temperatures are expected to be even colder in Kansas on Wednesday night, dropping all the way to 1F by 9:00 PM local time. The midweek match might not be an easy one to shake off for whichever members of Miami's usual Starting XI – the likes of Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Jordi Alba, and Sergio Busquets – brave the extreme cold and play heavy minutes vs. Sporting KC. A problem for new Miami head coach Javier Mascherano to figure out, and a problem that could theoretically benefit Pascal Jansen's traveling New York City FC team.
The situation brings back some memories of that United States men's national team World Cup qualifier played at night in Minnesota in February against Honduras in 2022, when the temperature at kickoff was 2F, USMNT goalkeeper Matt Turner ended up with frostbite, and two Honduras players were substituted off at halftime due to the extreme cold conditions.
Mercifully for the players and any traveling NYCFC fans, the temperatures won't be anything close to that cold for Saturday's MLS meeting between Miami and New York City in Fort Lauderdale. To round out the weather forecast portion of our soccer blog, conditions at the new 7:30 PM start time on Saturday night are expected to be pleasant, with some cloud cover and a temperature of 69F at kickoff.
