Defending its first Major League Soccer championship won't be easy for Real Salt Lake -- especially once it reaches September.

Presuming a labor dispute does not disrupt the season, the team will play seven games that month, according to the schedule the league released Wednesday. That includes both regular-league games as well as games in the CONCACAF Champions League, for which RSL qualified for the first time by winning the MLS Cup. Games in the Champions League will begin in August, after a draw to establish the field May 24.

Meanwhile, RSL will play a schedule that's slightly home-heavy during the season's first half.

Though it opens the season March 27 at San Jose, the team will play nine of its 15 home games -- including the home opener April 10 against Seattle -- before the July 28 MLS All-Star Game at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Part of that stretch includes three straight home games between May 1 and May 13, against Toronto FC, the new Philadelphia Union (and former RSL goalkeeper Chris Seitz) and Houston.

With the league having expanded to 16 teams, each team will play every other team twice -- at home and on the road.

Yet RSL won't play rival Colorado until the final month of the season, when it will meet the Rapids twice in the final five games.

Making a late surge into the playoffs won't be easy, either, if it comes to that. The team will play three of its last four games on the road.

The club never plays more than two league road games in a row, though, and only a few stretches stand out as particularly challenging.

One has the first two games of the season, at San Jose and at Houston, just five days apart. Another has trips to Kansas City and Philadelphia just four days apart in August, though the Champions League games could really test the team in the second half of the season. RSL also plays at New England and New York on back-to-back weekends in October.

mcl@sltrib.com