Marc Dos Santos embracing the pressure that comes

Moments after Marc Dos Santos was formally launched as the third head coach in LAFC historical past, he was led out of a news convention and onto the discipline at BMO Stadium to meet the most important constituency he’ll have to win over in his new job.

The followers.

Since the membership entered MLS in 2018, no staff has received more video games, scored more targets, earned more factors or received more trophies than LAFC. Yet as Dos Santos, a top assistant for 5 of those eight seasons, was hugging and mugging with some of the people who are soon to turn into his fiercest critics, another supporter approached basic supervisor John Thorrington with a query.

“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 requested.

If Dos Santos had been unsure about the job description, that query made issues clear: being the best is no longer good enough. He may have to be better than that.

And Dos Santos will not be just fantastic 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 point out that just profitable isn’t enough? For LAFC’s famously demanding supporters, how you win is sort of 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 entrance foot, being aggressive, relentless and tireless. Also no drawback for Dos Santos, since that’s precisely the sort 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 proper phrases and hugging all the proper people, but his first check on the discipline received’t come until mid-February, when LAFC begins play in the CONCACAF Champions Cup in Honduras, adopted by its MLS opener in the Coliseum against Lionel Messi and league champion Inter Miami.

And Dos Santos has some outsized cleats to fill.

In its first 4 seasons under Bob Bradley, LAFC made three playoffs appearances, received a Supporters’ Shield, performed in the CONCACAF Champions League last and broke the MLS document for most factors in a season. The staff was even better the last 4 seasons under Steve Cherundolo, profitable a second Supporters’ Shield and a U.S. Open Cup, taking part in in a second Champions League last and reaching two MLS Cup finals, profitable one.

Dos Santos, 48, was a big half of all that, serving to Bradley set the tone as half of the teaching employees in LAFC’s first season, then aiding Cherundolo the last 4 years. In between, he spent 2½ seasons managing a Vancouver Whitecaps staff that misplaced more video games than it received.

There had been extenuating circumstances, however, such as the COVID-19 pandemic that pressured the Whitecaps to cut up one season between sequesters in Canada and Portland, Ore., then start the next season quarantined in Utah. But Dos Santos says the bruises he acquired there made him a better coach and a better individual.

“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 pattern of the expertise on Dos Santos’ resume. He bought his start in Montreal, where he was born, and went on to coach with 11 groups in three nations over the last 18 years, profitable in every single place 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 spouse’s native Germany at the end of the season. And though that gave Thorrington loads of time to discover a substitute, permitting him to solid a huge web and take into account more than 100 inquiries, he ultimately settled on the man who had been proper under his nostril.

The same course of performed out 4 years in the past when Thorrington carried out a global search for Bradley’s substitute before selling Cherundolo, then coach of LAFC’s affiliate in the second-tier USL Championship.

One factor that labored in Dos Santos’ favor, Thorrington said, was the quantity of gamers who sidled up to say how a lot they wished to play for Dos Santos. He also had the benefit of continuity, an understanding of LAFC’s tradition and a loyalty to the group Not only did he return after being sacked in Vancouver, but he said he turned down another MLS teaching job this fall to keep 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 exhausting half.

Although Dos Santos is planning adjustments to his employees — assistant Ante Razov, the only member of the technical employees that has been with LAFC all eight seasons, is unlikely to return after being handed over for the top job a second time — the core of the roster that took the staff to 36 wins over the last two seasons might be back. For LAFC’s ravenous fan base, that leaves just a method to go: up.

Dos Santos says he’s prepared for that problem.

“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 highlight on distinctive tales. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.