P/I/P Season 31 CCC Game 1 - Galaxy at Sporting SM 2/19/26, 5 pm - FS1, ConcacafGO, TUDN

If they are rotating between the lineups for the CCC game and the MLS home opener, they aren't leaving many of the top players at home to do so. I see Paintsil, Pec, Reus, Klauss, Yamane, Haak, Glesnes, and Micovic boarding the plane, along with players like Yoshida, Marcincowski, Ramirez, and Nascimento who I might have expected to be on a B team lineup. That suggests we might start a rotated lineup, but have some players ready to come off the bench to change the game if needed.

Wheels up to Panama 🇵🇦 🛫 pic.twitter.com/f2DxmOzGN2

— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) February 17, 2026

 

Lineup I'm expecting :

Marcinkowski
Miller Essengue/Haak Yoshida Nelson
Cerrillo
Sanabria Lepley
Ramos Jr./Cuevas Nascimento Ramirez​

 

I like it as long as we don’t lose. LOL

 

The one person listed in both versions of the lineups in this thread that I'm not sure about is Essengue. He hasn't played in either of the preseason games that were open to the public and I haven't even seen video or pictures of him recently in training. Maybe he has been loaned out and we haven't heard about it yet, but expecting him to start seems a bit much considering a younger player with a VCFC contract - Pepe Magana - started alongside Yoshida v. St. Louis City FC.

If Essengue is unavailable and Magana isn't loaned to the Galaxy short-term for CCC, then it could be Haak or Glesnes, if not Garces, with some planned rotation at halftime..

 

The Galaxy have arrived in Panama and they had a late night training session. Looks like they mostly just had fun and stretched their legs, but I'm more interested in the fact that it's on turf. I wonder if the game will be on a turf field. I was kind of expecting patchy grass that hadn't been mowed in a couple of weeks in an effort to slow down Painstil if he plays.

Late night training session in Panama 🇵🇦 pic.twitter.com/osUhCEf8sK

— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) February 18, 2026

 

Another clip from the late night training in Panama

¡Reus con la magia en Panamá⚽️🪄!

Marco Reus divirtiéndose en el primer entrenamiento del LA Galaxy en Panamá.

🎥 @LAGalaxy #FutbolRPC pic.twitter.com/9sHjxhiqCt

— Deportes RPC (@deportes_rpc) February 18, 2026

 

I hadn't thought about this, but perhaps Paintsil will want to play some in this match because Ghana is scheduled to face Panama in the World Cup and he might be able to gain some insight and show his abilities against a few potential Panamanian national team players.

https://3news.com/sports/football/j...f-clash?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

I am not going to be able to watch the first game on TV due to family plans. I setup Spectrum's virtual DVR to record the game, but it showed it as being on FS1 not FS2. I will recheck it on Thursday before I leave, but wanted to warn other people that the game might have been moved to another channel.

 

Alex Ruiz says it is on FS1

TV Info: The first leg of LA Galaxy vs. Sporting San Miguelito will be broadcast on FS1 and TUDN

John Strong and Stu Holden will be on the call for the Concacaf Champions Cup match #LAGalaxy

— Alex Ruiz (@AlxRuiz15) February 18, 2026

 

The turf may be an improvement on some of the natural grass fields in Central America to be honest.

 

Some IG footage of them training in the stadium today. The field looks in decent shape for sure.

 

Here’s the in-stadium footage

Calentando Motores 🇵🇦 pic.twitter.com/JWZeI3e3fu

— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) February 19, 2026

 

Just a follow up on the TV Coverage. Spectrum still shows the game coverage as starting at 5:00 on FS1. I also checked FoxSports.com. They also show the coverage on FS1.

 

A closer look at LA Galaxy ahead of Epic Match of the Week ✨ pic.twitter.com/aAyGsyl24R

— Concacaf Champions Cup (@TheChampions) February 19, 2026

 

Penedo really dropped the bag when he pulled those shenanigans in the middle of the season, I believe it cost him millions in the long run, and he ended up getting banished to Romania.

I recall him saying later that he regretted how things played out and he should have sought out better advice, I may be revisioning history here, but I believe the Galaxy would have won at least one more Cup with him in the net, such a shame.

 

Semi-rotated lineup, with Glesnes, Pec, and Paintsil still starting

LA Galaxy takes the field for their opening leg against Sporting SM! pic.twitter.com/h9LmWZsaML

— Concacaf Champions Cup (@TheChampions) February 20, 2026

 

The interesting thing is less who is playing than the formation. It looks like the donut hole with no one really playing center midfield

Happy to see Yoshida get out there again. I really thought last year might be it.

I won't even pretend to know anything about Sporting San Miguelito although I'm sure they're up for this as well.

Meaningful LA Galaxy soccer is always a good thing.

Time to right some wrongs pic.twitter.com/RnFTQjzaiL

— Chris Tucker ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (@ZeroCool138) February 20, 2026

 

I don’t understand the logic of playing two defensive midfielders if there isn’t an attacking center midfielder in front of them

 

Seems weird to pair Yoshida and Glasnes together for first time. None of the preseason games the last two weeks did they play together.

seems weird to start both key wingers with home game in three days.

surprised to see Cuevas start when seemingly injured just a week ago.

I guess just weird to see a mixture of the two preseason squads we have been observing. I guess we were all wrong that the idea was to largely play one team in CCL and one team in MLS for the first two weeks.