{"id":138815,"date":"2026-02-19T15:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T15:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/138815\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T15:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T15:38:07","slug":"la-galaxy-vs-new-york-city-fc-everything-to-know-for-sunday-night-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/138815\/","title":{"rendered":"LA Galaxy vs. New York City FC: Everything to know for Sunday Night Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cross-conference clash awaits in the first Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire matchup of the 2026 MLS season when the\u00a0LA Galaxy<\/a> host New York City FC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n What to know<\/p>\n

After an active winter transfer window, the 2024 MLS Cup presented by Audi champions hope to bounce back from last season’s 14th-place finish in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

LA’s star-studded roster is highlighted by Marco Reus<\/a>, Joseph Paintsil<\/a> and Gabriel Pec<\/a>, though they’ll be without star playmaker Riqui Puig<\/a> for a second consecutive season. The Spanish maestro suffered an ACL setback<\/a> before preseason, landing him on the Season-Ending Injury List.<\/p>\n

The silver lining is that LA opened a Designated Player roster spot and used it to acquire striker Jo\u00e3o Klauss<\/a> from St. Louis CITY SC<\/a>. The Galaxy also added further MLS experience in former Defender of the Year Jakob Glesnes<\/a>, versatile defender Justin Haak<\/a> and veteran midfielder Erik Thommy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Will those additions be enough for head coach Greg Vanney’s team to return to the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs?<\/p>\n

Jakob Glesnes: The 2022 MLS Defender of the Year was acquired from the Philadelphia Union<\/a> for up to $2.2 million in General Allocation Money (GAM), with LA hoping to shore up their backline.
\nJo\u00e3o Klauss: Acquired for $2.375 million in a cash-for-player trade<\/a> with St. Louis, the Galaxy’s newest DP hopes to hit the ground running. Klauss scored a club-record 27 goals in 85 games for St. Louis.
\nJoseph Paintsil: Paintsil is entering his third season with LA and is chasing a 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a> roster spot with Ghana. He has 20g\/15a in 54 regular-season matches.\u00a0
\nGabriel Pec: The 2024 MLS Newcomer of the Year causes constant danger in the final third, leaning on his Brazilian flair and dynamic dribbling. Pec has 22g\/23a in 62 regular-season games.\u00a0
\nMarco Reus: The German legend and Borussia Dortmund icon can change the game at any moment. He arrived for LA’s MLS Cup 2024 push, and last year had 14 goal contributions (5g\/9a).<\/p>\n

Edwin Cerrillo<\/a> has a carry-over suspension from last season (red card), potentially opening a spot in midfield. We could see Haak slot in alongside Lucas Sanabria<\/a>, and Emiro Garc\u00e9s<\/a> partner Glesnes at the back.<\/p>\n

Following a trip to the 2025 Eastern Conference Final, NYCFC have their sights set on returning to MLS Cup for the first time since winning the league championship in 2021.<\/p>\n

The challenge? The Pigeons are without last season’s top scorer, Alonso Mart\u00ednez<\/a>, as he recovers from a torn ACL suffered during the 2025 playoffs.<\/p>\n

The good news? Argentine attacker Nicol\u00e1s Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau<\/a>\u00a0has a full preseason under his belt after arriving last July from LaLiga side Elche, and Talles Magno<\/a> is back from his loan to Brazilian side Corinthians.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, USMNT<\/a> goalkeeper Matt Freese<\/a> is fighting for a starting spot at the 2026 World Cup. He is arguably head coach Pascal Jansen’s most dependable player.<\/p>\n

Nicol\u00e1s Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau: An immediate star upon arriving in MLS last season, the Argentine playmaker has already netted 5g\/2a in his first 19 games with NYCFC.
\nMatt Freese: The MLS Goalkeeper of the Year contender and USMNT No. 1 recorded eight clean sheets in 31 games last season.\u00a0
\nMaxi Moralez: The veteran Argentine is still going strong as he returns for a 10th season with NYCFC. Moralez<\/a> started all 34 games in 2025, recording 2g\/11a out of midfield.
\nThiago Martins: As the club captain, Martins serves as NYCFC’s on-field leader and was named an MLS All-Star in 2024.
\nAiden O’Neill: The Australian midfielder could feature at the 2026 World Cup alongside offseason signing Kai Trewin<\/a>. O’Neill, who arrived last April from Belgian Pro League side Standard Li\u00e8ge, has 27 appearances for NYCFC.<\/p>\n

With uncertainty over whether Magno will start, NYCFC could play with a false No. 9 where Agust\u00edn Ojeda<\/a> and Hannes Wolf<\/a> add threats out wide.<\/p>\n

Defensive reinforcements were the theme of LA’s offseason, highlighted by the arrivals of Glesnes and Haak. They’re big upgrades on paper, but they’ll draw a tough assignment for their first match. How the Galaxy’s remade backline performs will go a long way in deciding the contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cross-conference clash awaits in the first Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire matchup of the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[42623,57479,57480,9,24,14242,55,54,56,58753,12687,58752],"class_list":{"0":"post-138815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-la-galaxy","9":"tag-lavsnyc-02-22-2026","10":"tag-mls-is-back","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-city-football-club","14":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-city-news","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-priority-match","18":"tag-sendtonews","19":"tag-sunday-night-soccer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}