If there are residual feelings after falling to Toluca FC earlier this year in the CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinal, Los Angeles Football Club head coach Marc Dos Santos said he doesn’t have any.
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“For the players, maybe,” Dos Santos said. “For me, the way I am as a coach is the way I am in life. The position of my heart is: One thing was Champions League and this is another game.”
A stoppage-time goal in the first leg by Nkosi Tafari sealed a 2-1 victory over Toluca at BMO Stadium at the end of April. Fiery Argentine head coach Antonio “El Turco” Mohamed took exception with the celebration, finding it excessive.
A week later in the altitude and challenging atmosphere at Nemesio Diez Stadium, LAFC succumbed, 4-0. Turco danced and preened, returning the favor from his box while quarreling with the LAFC bench as Dos Santos stood and watched.
Following LAFC’s lone defeat over eight Champions Cup matches in 2026, Dos Santos, speaking in Portuguese, described the behavior he saw from Mohamed and the Toluca bench as “una payasada,” or clownish, a farce.
“You have to have class, because the world turns very quickly,” Dos Santos continued in Spanish. “And he is older than I am. But if he is listening right now, I believe that having class when you win is a quality of a strong man.
“I have class as a person. I know how to win, and I know how to lose. I want to wish Coach Mohamed and Toluca good luck in the final.”
Over the year and a half that Mohamed has controlled Toluca, the club has won five trophies, including the first CONCACAF Cup title since 2003 by beating Tigres UANL.
Three months later, on Saturday night at BMO Stadium, LAFC can again test itself against the best team on the continent during the second round of Phase One matches for the Leagues Cup, as both sides eye another international prize.
“I’m not a guy that speaks of vengeance and things like that,” Dos Santos said Friday. “I think vengeance is for weak people. I’m a strong guy and I think it’s another game I’m excited about. We’ll try to show up in the best of our ability to win the game. That’s all.”
For the first edition of the current Leagues Cup format in 2025 – the top four teams from MLS and Liga MX advance to the CONCACAF-sanctioned knockout stage – seven points and a plus-six goal differential got that done for the MLS side.
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Moving to the second slate of matchups, LAFC is 11th out of 18 MLS teams.
Toluca, a winner in all three group games last year, stands atop the Liga MX table.
The Red Devils overwhelmed the Seattle Sounders in Mexico on Wednesday, posting a 3-0 result while outshooting last year’s Leagues Cup champions 39-4 and maintaining 68% possession. Seattle goalkeeper Stefen Frei saved 15 of the 18 shots Toluca put on target.
With intensity and fast movement, Toluca is playing how Mohamed wants them to ahead of a “tough away game in Los Angeles,” he said, “and we hope to put on another show.”
LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris will be in the firing line this time.
On Wednesday night, backup Thomas Hasal got the assignment against Chivas de Guadalajara. Hasal delivered a top performance that kept the Black & Gold alive in Leagues Cup with a pair of points thanks to a successful penalty shootout.
Other than Hasal, LAFC trotted out a first-choice lineup against Chivas, which pressures opponents with intensity, too.
Dos Santos said there should be a little rotation to aid with LAFC’s energy on the field and manage the regular starters’ minutes. Some workloads have encroached into dangerous territory, he said.
Despite how Son Heung-min and Denis Bouanga have clicked since the World Cup, “I can’t have them on the field all the time,” Dos Santos said. “I’d love that they’re robots and play every minute all the time. But I want to make sure they get out of this stretch without injuries and that we could have them peak at the right moment together.”
Front-office extensions
Twelve months after bringing Son to L.A., LAFC on Friday announced a multi-year contract extension for Co-President and General Manager John Thorrington, who moves into the role of Director of Soccer Operations.
Executive Larry Freedman was also extended and named President of Business Operations for LAFC and BMO Stadium.
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LEAGUES CUP: TOLUCA FC AT LAFC
When: Saturday, 8:10 p.m.
Where: BMO Stadium
TV/Radio: Apple TV, FS1, Univision, TUDN/710 AM, 980 AM, 1230 AM