Moments after Marc Dos Santos was formally introduced as the third head coach in LAFC history, he was led out of a news conference and onto the field at BMO Stadium to meet the most important constituency he’ll have to win over in his new job.
The fans.
Since the club entered MLS in 2018, no team has won more games, scored more goals, earned more points or won more trophies than LAFC. Yet as Dos Santos, a top assistant for five of those eight seasons, was hugging and mugging with some of the people who are soon to become his fiercest critics, another supporter approached general manager John Thorrington with a question.
“How do you separate [him] being a part of that coaching staff and telling the fans ‘look, it’s going to be different with this person?’” he asked.
If Dos Santos had been uncertain about the job description, that question made things clear: being the best is no longer good enough. He will have to be better than that.
And Dos Santos is not just fine with that, he’s embracing it.
“I knew the pressure,” he said. “You live once. You live scared, buy a Doberman or something, right? It’s a great opportunity. But I think it’s a privilege when you coach a team in Los Angeles.
“Every sport here is pressure. Every team here is win, win. It’s a winning city and the culture of the city. So I understand that.”
Oh, did we also mention that just winning isn’t enough? For LAFC’s famously demanding supporters, how you win is almost as important.
“We have to win and we have to entertain,” Thorrington said. “We’ve done a lot of that over the years. But we have to drill down on that.”
That means attacking, staying on the front foot, being aggressive, relentless and tireless. Also no problem for Dos Santos, since that’s exactly the kind of soccer he likes to play.
“My style is the LAFC style,” he said. “What we want to be is consistent in our intensity. That’s not negotiable, our intensity.”
So far Dos Santos is saying all the right words and hugging all the right people, but his first test on the field won’t come until mid-February, when LAFC begins play in the CONCACAF Champions Cup in Honduras, followed by its MLS opener in the Coliseum against Lionel Messi and league champion Inter Miami.
And Dos Santos has some oversized cleats to fill.
In its first four seasons under Bob Bradley, LAFC made three playoffs appearances, won a Supporters’ Shield, played in the CONCACAF Champions League final and broke the MLS record for most points in a season. The team was even better the last four seasons under Steve Cherundolo, winning a second Supporters’ Shield and a U.S. Open Cup, playing in a second Champions League final and reaching two MLS Cup finals, winning one.
Dos Santos, 48, was a big part of all that, helping Bradley set the tone as part of the coaching staff in LAFC’s first season, then assisting Cherundolo the last four years. In between, he spent 2½ seasons managing a Vancouver Whitecaps team that lost more games than it won.
There were extenuating circumstances, however, such as the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the Whitecaps to split one season between sequesters in Canada and Portland, Ore., then start the next season quarantined in Utah. But Dos Santos says the bruises he received there made him a better coach and a better person.
“If I was a GM, I would never try to hire a coach that only wins. Because I want to know when he fell, can he get up?” he said. “That shows personality and character. I never felt, ‘oh, just because it went bad in one club, that I’m gonna stay on the ground.’
“No, you have to get up and punch back. So that’s what I want to do.”
Besides, the Whitecap years are a small sample of the experience on Dos Santos’ resume. He got his start in Montreal, where he was born, and went on to coach with 11 teams in three countries over the last 18 years, winning everywhere he managed but Vancouver.
That made him a strong contender for the LAFC job when Cherundolo announced in April that he would return to his wife’s native Germany at the end of the season. And though that gave Thorrington plenty of time to find a replacement, allowing him to cast a wide net and consider more than 100 inquiries, he eventually settled on the guy who had been right under his nose.
The same process played out four years ago when Thorrington conducted a global search for Bradley’s replacement before promoting Cherundolo, then coach of LAFC’s affiliate in the second-tier USL Championship.
One thing that worked in Dos Santos’ favor, Thorrington said, was the number of players who sidled up to say how much they wanted to play for Dos Santos. He also had the advantage of continuity, an understanding of LAFC’s culture and a loyalty to the organization Not only did he return after being sacked in Vancouver, but he said he turned down another MLS coaching job this fall to stay in L.A.
“I could have chosen another club that maybe [had] more comfort, not as much pressure,” he said. “But when John opened the door for the interview process. I went in with everything I had.”
Now comes the hard part.
Although Dos Santos is planning changes to his staff — assistant Ante Razov, the only member of the technical staff that has been with LAFC all eight seasons, is unlikely to return after being passed over for the top job a second time — the core of the roster that took the team to 36 wins over the last two seasons will be back. For LAFC’s ravenous fan base, that leaves just one way to go: up.
Dos Santos says he’s ready for that challenge.
“It’s a hard job. Coaching is hard,” he said.
“There’s going to be opinions. But it’s a privilege also to be in a position that has so much pressure. This is a club of pressure that wants to win.”
You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
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