Opting not to conduct a video review on Sept. 26, referee Sergii Boiko’s decision to uphold a dubious foul against Armindo Sieb and disallow a late equalizer stands as probably the cruelest moment over a tough 2½ months for the Los Angeles Football Club.
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Losing to FC Dallas, 1-0, before the extended FIFA window dropped LAFC to 1-4-5 in MLS regular-season matches since the start of August.
“It’s a hard moment right now for us and we have to face it,” then-LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos said.
The result in Dallas followed a crushing draw at San Jose and a one-sided setback to Sporting Kansas City, the worst team in MLS.
“We need to have everybody together and to start working on what this team can be,” Dos Santos suggested. “That’s the big objective during the break and making sure we put all the focus on a very important month of October.”
Dos Santos hoped to use the time to get LAFC back on track for the closing six-game stretch of the regular season leading into the MLS Cup playoffs, but the organization determined that the players would be better off without him.
Less than 24 hours after falling to Dallas, LAFC executed its first in-season coaching change and Dos Santos’ comments marked the last time he would speak from that perch since being promoted from assistant coach in December.
“You will not hear a negative word said from me or anybody in this building about Marc and his ability as a coach,” LAFC president of soccer operations John Thorrington said this week. “But for this particular context, this particular moment, we felt like this is what was needed for us to reach the levels that are expected at LAFC.”
Dos Santos’ LAFC teams went 17-10-12 in all competitions. Why not let him finish what he started?
Thorrington explained that while Dos Santos’ short tenure produced excellent moments, the team’s inconsistency, sustained poor showings and underperformance in certain areas did not match the club’s belief in what the roster was capable of in 2026.
“What this group of players needs, and honestly what this organization needs right now, is clarity,” Thorrington said.
“Clarity and that this group of players know that we believe in them was a really important thing for us to reestablish,” he said.
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Enter Xavi Tamarit, a first-year LAFC assistant coach who last week was named interim head coach through the conclusion of the season. For now, the 44-year-old Spaniard is focused on making the most of his opportunity. So far he is emphasizing pressing higher up the field, playing with the ball, and doing the simple things very well – the mark, he said, of a quality team.
“In the first days we have laid the foundations for becoming the team we aspire to be,” Tamarit said. “We need to be very humble, understanding that we need to improve a lot to become the team we want to be.”
A full-time hire will assume the role prior to the start of the 2027 MLS sprint season, Thorrington said.
Though Tamarit has not held the position before, Thorrington expects his clear footballing ideas and concepts to help individual players and the collective group tie it all together moving toward Decision Day.
“Xavi is a world renowned expert at those types of things,” Thorrington said. “I was really impressed with the conversations that took place on where we need to improve, and not just the identification of what we need but how we’ll get there.”
Besides Timothy Tillman (pelvis) and Jeremy Ebobisee (leg), Tamarit has a full complement of outfield players to call on against the Vancouver Whitecaps (15-7-5, 50 points) on Saturday night at BMO Stadium.
That includes several who excelled for their national teams during the window. Son Heung-min, Denis Bouanga, Jacob Shaffelburg and Leo Walta combined for 10 goals the past three weeks, a noticeable outburst from key Black & Gold performers.
After struggling and dropping into sixth-place, LAFC (11-9-8, 41 points) finds itself closer to the playoff relegation line than the Western Conference-leading Whitecaps, who lost in Chicago on Tuesday.
Winning Tamarit’s debut – the first of four remaining home games for LAFC in the regular season – would prevent Vancouver, minus German star Thomas Müller who is out with a hamstring issue, from securing a playoff berth this weekend.
VANCOUVER AT LAFC
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: BMO Stadium, Los Angeles
TV/Radio: Apple TV/710 AM, 980 AM, 1230 AM, SiriusXM FC 157, SiriusXM 95, Sirius Soccer en Español 1999
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