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MLS Live to be free of charge this weekend

There are quite a few big games worth checking out.

Here's some news that I think will be of interest to you. Major League Soccer hasn't formally announced this yet, so you get to read it here first.

MLS Live, the league's live game streaming package, will be free of charge for everyone this weekend. If you haven't given the service a try, now would be a good time. You can watch every game outside of your market that isn't on national TV. So if you're in Philadelphia, for example, you can't use it to watch Union games, but you can watch any other game that isn't on a ESPN, NBC or Univision network.

If you're in Canada, national games on TSN are blacked out, but because of the NHL playoffs there aren't any this weekend. So you should have the full slate to pick from.

You'll have to register with the site and create an account in order to watch games. Once you do, you'll have access to feeds not only on your computer but on a range of mobile, tablet and other devices. MLS has apps for iOS, Android, Windows 8 and Roku, as well as Panasonic TVs.

The web-based version of MLS Live features the ability to watch three games simultaneously. If your computer is hooked up to your TV, you can scale up the video player to fill the screen and it will look quite good.

(I don't mean to be a pitchman, but I am a subscriber and I have been for a few years. I know that's the case for many of you as well.)

In addition to live broadcasts, every game from the season is archived and available for watching later if you want. Local blackout games are accessible 24 hours after broadcast, and national games are accessible 48 hours after broadcast.

The only thing you don't get is the ability to choose between home and away broadcast feeds. There's only one feed per game, and it's usually the home broadcast.

Having this particular weekend be free of charge is good timing for Union fans, since their game is on NBC Sports Network (1:30 p.m. Saturday). As that would keep it out of MLS Live, you'll have more games to pick from.

The other national TV game this weekend is Portland vs. Chivas USA, which kicks off at 5:00 p.m. Sunday on UniMás.

As for the games that will be available, there are quite a few big ones. Here's the schedule, with all times Eastern:

Saturday, May 11

Montréal Impact vs. Real Salt Lake, 2:00 p.m.
Seattle Sounders vs. San Jose Earthquakes, 4:00 p.m. (also on Univision Deportes if you have it)
Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Los Angeles Galaxy, 7:00 p.m.
Columbus Crew vs. Colorado Rapids, 7:30 p.m.
New England Revolution vs. New York Red Bulls, 7:30 p.m.
FC Dallas vs D.C. United, 8:30 p.m.

Sunday, May 12

Houston Dynamo vs. Sporting Kansas City, 8:00 p.m.

If you decide to subscribe after this weekend, the package costs $60 for the season. You get access to around 230 live games in total.