Good morning! Today is Millard Fillmore’s birthday, as well as the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Raate Road, where outnumbered and outgunned Finnish fighting force defeated the Soviet Union and cemented their place in modern military history as “The Rebels on Hoth, but Useful.” Fillmore, meanwhile, adeptly filled the role of most 19th century US presidents that were on the “useless to actually bad” scale. No one remembers or misses that guy.

TO THE LINKS!

• The biggest LouCity news since December dropped yesterday, as we now know when the Lynn Family Stadium home opener will be played, and against whom it will be played: April 11 vs. Birmingham Legion.
• The full Championship schedule hasn’t been released yet, but it appears that City will be opening up three other teams’ home seasons before finally settling into their own digs – North Carolina on March 7, Pittsburgh on March 21, and Indy Eleven on April 4. There are open dates in there for March 14 and 28, and we can presume those will be road games as well. Starting off the season with five straight away games is bad, but I’m guessing it’s the cushion the club needed to make sure LFS is completely ready for play, crowds, etc. Hopefully the boys survive it.
• St. Louis FC, who lost manager Anthony Pulis to Inter Miami recently, announced last week that they had hired former Colorado Springs Switchbacks manager Steve Trittschuh as a replacement. Best of luck to him and the Chupacabras.

Once the full USL Championship schedule is released I’ll take a deeper dive into it, but I can already tell you that the whole “five road games in a row to start the season” will be tough to beat as the most difficult stretch in the season. Otherwise, soldier on through this, the first real work week of the year, and know that Friday night is just four agonizing days away!