Earlier this week we got our hands on a leaked copy of Toronto FC's complete 2012 schedule thanks to our friends over at Canadian Soccer News. We even took the chance for Duncan to react to the unbalanced schedule which is kind of old news as we have known it was coming for months already. Today the MLS dropped the official schedule, and it was on time, and there are a few differences from a Toronto FC perspective to what I posted earlier. The Reds season will still kick off on the road against Seattle on March 17th meaning they do get the first week off which should allow them ample time to be prepared for both CCL fixtures against the LA Galaxy.

The one thing that having the official schedule adds is that we now know all the kickoff times for Toronto's games. The most notable facts being that there will be a lot of late afternoon kickoffs and many of the games are actually starting at the half hour. It seems that in both regards Toronto has listened to their fans and been kind to those traveling in from the suburbs.

Toronto's home opener is set for 1:00 on Saturday March 24th when they will play host to the San Jose Earthquakes. The early afternoon kickoff time will hopefully mean that this year's home opener is just a bit warmer than last years where many fans were quite cold, and the club had a lot of stadium issues to deal with as BMO was not build to deal with freezing temperatures on game days. The following Saturday will be the first leg of the Trillium Cup as the Columbus Crew make their only visit to BMO, this time for a 2:00 kick off. The next stop for Toronto is a trip to play against the Montreal Impact on Easter weekend, April 7th, which will again be an afternoon kickoff.

The afternoon kickoff is a common theme for Toronto's home games this year as they only play one weekend game that has an evening kickoff at BMO in the league this season. That game is set for June 30th when the New York Red Bulls come to town for a 7 pm start. Add in the fact that Toronto has only 3 weekday games, all midsummer, in the league and I think fans will be fairly happy with the entire schedule.

More about the differences after the jump as well as the Official schedule.

So what are the differences between the two schedules? Well the following dates are the ones that are now changed.

May 12, 2012 vs Portland Timbers is not there and instead the Reds host the Timbers on August 15th in one of those few midweek games.

June 16, 2012 at New York Red Bulls is instead an away day against Sporting Kansas City. This means that we only have to play the Energy Drinks twice and now play SKC three times which in my eyes is probably not a favourable trade off from our perspective.

June 30, 2012 vs New York Red Bulls is actually going to take place at BMO Field and as I already mentioned will be the only evening kickoff on a weekend at home this season!

July 7, 2012 at Philadelphia Union will be played on the 8th instead making that a late Sunday afternoon kickoff rather than a Saturday match.

Aug. 8, 2012 vs Vancouver Whitecaps is set for July 11th as the Caps will now come to town for a Wednesday night game. That could mean a pair of midweek visits from them if both teams reach the Voyageurs Cup final.

Oct. 27, 2012 at Columbus Crew is another game that will instead be played on the Sunday rather than the Saturday with this match moving to October 28th.

So on the whole, the leaked version that CSN put up was fairly close to the actual schedule but now that we have the real thing we can all safely start to make our match-going plans be that booking tickets to go to away games, getting time off work for home games, or in the rare case booking tickets just to come to home games.

So, without further ado I bring you the full, and official, Toronto FC MLS schedule for 2012! Just 80 days until we take over the Dome!

Taken from Toronto FC's website: