LAFC, mired in a slump that has seen it win just two of its last 13 games in all competition, fired first-year coach Marc Dos Santos on Sunday with six matches left in the MLS regular season.
The firing, announced in a three-paragraph statement, comes less than 24 hours after Saturday’s 1-0 loss to FC Dallas dropped the team to sixth in the Western Conference table.
“Marc has given a great deal to this club over the years, and we are grateful for his commitment, care and contributions to LAFC,” John Thorrington, the team’s president of soccer operations, said in the release. “We wish Marc and his family all the best moving forward.”
LAFC (11-9-8) said it will begin the search for a new manager immediately but didn’t say who would coach the team in its next game Oct. 10, after the two-week FIFA international break.
Dos Santos, 49, was an assistant on Bob Bradley’s staff in LAFC’s inaugural season in 2018. He left after the season to take over the Vancouver Whitecaps but struggled to a 22-39-20 record in 2 ½ years that were impacted heavily by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the team to play many of its game on the road.
Dos Santos returned to LAFC as an assistant in 2022, this time for Steve Cherundolo, helping the team to a Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup. When Cherundolo stepped down after last season, Dos Santos was given the head coaching job just two weeks later, becoming the third manager in team history.
His two stints as an assistant at LAFC taught him that the team’s fans are among the most demanding in MLS, something he said he embraced.
“It’s a privilege when you coach a team in Los Angeles,” he said at the time. “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.”
Dos Santos, who is fluent in four languages, was born in Montreal and split his childhood between Quebec and Portugal. With the exception of Vancouver, he has won everywhere he’s managed, from the Ottawa Fury of the NASL, where he was named the league’s coach of the year in 2015, to the San Francisco Delta, who he guided to an NASL title.
LAFC was unbeaten in its first 11 matches in all competition under Dos Santos, outscoring opponents 27-3 and advancing to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, where it lost to Mexico’s Toluca, the eventual winner. But the team has gone 6-9-7 in MLS play since then, including Saturday’s loss when Dos Santos was without six key players — including leading scorer Denis Bouanga and captain Son Heung-min — who were with their national teams.
Afterward he spoke about this plans for the two-week international break.
“It’s a hard moment right now for us. And we have to face it,” said Dos Santos, who was popular with his players. “It’s been hard for us to get wins. A lot of draws, a lot of close games.
“We need to have everybody together and start working on what this team can be. That’s the big objective during the break.”
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