Pascal Jansen expressed his want to instil a profitable tradition at New York Metropolis FC, forward of their first sport of the 2026 marketing campaign towards the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Having completed fifth within the Japanese Convention standings final yr, NYCFC beat Charlotte FC over three matches in Spherical One to maintain their postseason rolling on.
NYCFC then defeated the Philadelphia Union 1-0 within the semi-finals earlier than happening to lose 5-1 to Inter Miami within the last, with Tadeo Allende scoring a sensational hat-trick for the Herons, who went on to elevate the MLS Cup.
Although NYCFC earned plaudits for his or her displaying in 2025, Jansen, who’s getting ready for his second full season in cost, needs extra from his crew.
“To maintain it easy, we did a fairly respectable job final season, however we wish extra,” Jansen mentioned. “We wish to achieve success, which suggests we’ve got to do higher than we did final season.
“Step one has been put on the market. We reached the Convention last, which was a great achievement, however on the finish of the day, we didn’t win something.
“So we’re aiming to try to set up a profitable tradition, and that implies that it’s important to be able to profitable extra matches and to try this it’s important to be extra constant.”
Kicking off the season out west pic.twitter.com/opaPZLsmsd
— New York Metropolis FC (@newyorkcityfc) February 19, 2026
The Galaxy, in the meantime, endured a yr to overlook, ending 14th within the Western Convention simply 12 months after lifting their sixth MLS Cup.
Greg Vanney’s facet have already begun their 2026 season, opening their CONCACAF Champions Cup marketing campaign with an underwhelming 1-1 draw with Sporting San Miguelito.
It was a sport they dominated, having registered an anticipated objectives (xG) complete of two.08 from 18 pictures, in comparison with their opponents’ 0.32 from 5 makes an attempt at objective.
And talking after the sport at Estadio Universitario, Vanney conceded that his crew have loads of areas to enhance on earlier than welcoming NYCFC to Los Angeles.
“We didn’t make the most of the conditions we created, and so they began to clearly throw numbers just a little decrease and attempt to clog some extra issues up,” Vanney mentioned.
“After which I felt like we grew to become stagnant and stopped shifting, interchanging and doing any actions that might create collaborative actions, third-man actions, issues like that.
“For us, our sport must be quicker. Our actions have to be higher. So, these are issues we’ve received to enhance upon as we proceed to maneuver ahead into the season.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
LA Galaxy – Joseph Paintsil
Having completed because the membership’s prime scorer within the MLS final season, Paintsil will probably be hoping to hit the bottom working with a objective towards NYCFC.
In opposition to Sporting San Miguelito, he completed the match with team-high totals for pictures on the right track (two), profitable dribbles (4) and complete duels (11).
NYCFC – Alonso Martinez
Martinez scored 9 objectives in highway matches within the 2025 common season, tied for the second-most in a marketing campaign in NYCFC historical past (behind David Villa – 10 in 2016).
Eight of these 9 objectives got here within the second half, giving Martinez probably the most second-half highway objectives in a single season in NYCFC historical past.
MATCH PREDICTION: DRAW
The LA Galaxy have received their final two conferences with NYCFC after the Pigeons had received every of the earlier 4.
The Galaxy stored clear sheets in each wins after failing to take action in any of their first 5 conferences with NYCFC.
And so they begin the brand new season at Dignity Well being Sports activities Park. All seven of the Galaxy’s regular-season wins in 2025 got here at residence, making them the primary crew with seven or extra wins in a single common season, all of which got here at residence, because the Portland Timbers in 2016 (12).
Together with 2026, NYCFC have opened their season on the highway in all 12 of their MLS campaigns. They’ve received solely two of their earlier 11 season-openers (D3 L6), having gone winless within the final seven (D2 L5) courting again to 2019.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
LA Galaxy – 39.6%
Draw – 26.6%
NYCFC – 33.8%
