The 10-month schedule is finally here.

The U.S. Soccer Development Academy kicked off its 2012-13 schedule over the weekend, and the long march towards the Playoffs and Finals Week has officially begun.

Two new MLS clubs jumped into action in the Development Academy for the very first time, as the Portland Timbers and Montreal Impact entered with U16 and U18 teams.

For the Timbers, the Academy experience began with a trip to Southern California, which didn’t yield the most ideal results. Facing Chivas USA in its first two games of the season, Portland dropped its U18 match 5-0 and drew 2-2 against the U16s.

Sunday brought a new challenge in Portland’s opening weekend, facing LA Galaxy. The U18s fell to LA 2-0, while the U16s drew 1-1.

Out east, Montreal didn’t enjoy the most successful welcome to the Academy either, as the U18s drew 0-0 against Albertson SC, and the U16s lost 1-0.

West Conference

In another Pacific Northwest vs. Southern California matchup, LA Galaxy U18s drew 3-3 against the visiting Seattle Sounders. Seattle’s Nicholas Nguyen kicked off the scoring in the game’s first minute, and it went back and forth through the game’s 90 minutes. Ike Crook and Isidro Prado-Huerta were Seattle’s other goal scorers, while Justin Dhillon, Bryan Dhillon and Jack McBean all found the back of the net for the Galaxy.

LA’s U16s got the better of Seattle in the other game, a straightforward 2-0 encounter.

During its trip to SoCal, the Sounders didn’t stop with games against LA, also taking on Chivas USA on Sunday. The Goats were rather formidable, with the U18s winning 4-2, while the two U16 sides drew 2-2. 

The Vancouver Whitecaps also jumped on a plane to California for a quartet of games. After a 3-1 win over Pateadores U18s and a 0-0 draw between the U16 teams, the Whitecaps struggled against Strikers FC, losing 3-0 and 4-0 respectively.

A 44th minute goal by Joshua Rosenstrauch secured a 1-0 win for Strikers FC over Crossfire Premier down in California.

Central Conference

Most of the Central Conference doesn’t get truly going until next weekend, but down in Texas the competitive Texas Division got underway with a few teams in action. The Dallas Texans U18s drew 2-2 against Andromeda, before getting the Texans grabbed a big 5-0 win.

Texans SC Houston won both of its opening games, as the U18s defeated Texas Rush 5-2, following that up with a U16 win by a 4-1 score line.

East Conference

Conor Nogueira and David Galdo each scored in the game’s first ten minutes as McLean Youth Soccer’s U18s held on to a 2-1 win against Virginia Rush. Mason Duke scored for the Rush. McLean won the U16 matchup 3-0, with William Metzler scoring two goals.

D.C. United easily saw off NJSA 04 in its first weekend of action, with the U18s winning 5-2 and U16s winning 3-1. Jorge Calix, Patrick Foss, Kennedy O’Shea each tallied a goal and Denis Najar added two for D.C.’s U18s. Alex Ramos had one of the consolation goals for NJSA.

It was a strong start for the PA Classic U16s, grabbing a 4-0 win over Match Fit Chelsea. Christian Pulisic scored in the eighth minute, before a ten-minute three-goal spree that started in the 40th minute put the game out of reach, with Austin Maloney and Austin Kuhn also among the goals. The PA Classics U18s also won their game 3-1.