LAFC fire Marc Dos Santos! Plus, which USMNT players do we want to see more of?

Taylor Rockwell (0:21)

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Total Soccer Show. My name is Taylor Rockwell, and it's time to talk some age-ley soccer and some USMNT together again. Speaking of together again, I've got two friends who, last I checked, have not been fired by LAFC, Joe Lowry.

No termination notices as of yet?

Joe Lowry (0:39)

Yeah, yet is the operative word there. I've been waiting. I feel like it's coming, man. I haven't been doing a great job for them, which is to say I haven't been doing anything for them, and I just don't know how they can keep paying me, frankly. I don't get it.

Taylor Rockwell (0:49)

To my understanding, doing nothing for them might be better than the present situation. Jeff Rooter, still in LAFC's Good Books for now.

As far as I know, yeah, as far as I know. As far as you know. All right, you are dressed appropriately. You've got the black and gold on, I think. It's tough. I mean, Dos Santos was always inspired to be a man in black. I had no doubts that if they got to the playoffs, he would have been all black suit, maybe a bolo. You know, that's always like, I love when a manager like forgoes a tie and throws on a bolo, because that's a really intentional thought, and there's no context for it. Like, we don't know if they think they're a desperado or if they just like don't want to fiddle with fabric or anything, but I love a bolo coach. No fiddling with fabric. Joe, that's a thing you're giving at birth, right? In the Arizona desert? Yeah. Like you're born with a birth certificate, you get the blue or the pink hat or the blend, and then you get a bolo tie.

Joe Lowry (1:41)

Turquoise bolo tie in particular. Wow, your lack of desert knowledge is really showing. And then you also get a tumbleweed that grows as you grow, which is exciting. It's like you don't put it in water, obviously, because we don't have that. But those toys that you put in water that I've seen on TV and they grow over time, it's kind of like that, but just much, much slower.

Taylor Rockwell (2:00)

Outstanding work by you. You're right.

I got to up my desert jewelry knowledge. For now, I am excited to talk about Marc Dos Santos and LAFC, mostly intrigued for the sacking and the timing of that sacking. We're going to start the show off with that today. Then we're going to get into some USMNT, their recent results, the upcoming game. We are doing a show this evening, post-match. Their game against Chile is at 8 p.m. So we will be recording sometime after that. And then Saturday on the weekend, Joe, we've got to watch along. We don't do watch alongs very often. How are you feeling about it?

Joe Lowry (2:35)

It's great. I'm not going to be there. I'm going to be hanging out with Jeff at the game, but you guys are going to do a watch along. And I'm sure you're going to have a fantastic time coming out.

I don't know, drop comments. You can hang out with us as we're going through and watching the game.

It's going to be a blast. We did one of those for the pre-World Cup friendlies. And I really, really enjoyed that. I think I get something different out of watching the game with people than I do getting it, get out of it just watching it by myself. There's more discussion. There's more sort of figuring things out as you go, which I really enjoy. And I think a lot of our listeners enjoy that as well. Or you can just drop funny things in the chat. There's a place for that too. So Saturday live during the US game, we'll have a live stream watch along. And then a show coming out, I believe, for that US Mexico game on Sunday morning. And then tonight, we'll do a live show right after the final whistle of USA Chile as well. So lots of live. We're live all the time. Guys, come on, come hang out with us.

Taylor Rockwell (3:21)

Yeah, we're going to be doing some previewing of that game, some reviewing of the USA's glorious start to their friendly campaign. But for now, Jeff, we're going to start with LAFC parting ways with Marc Dos Santos. How did we get here for a man who is less than a year into his tenure, appointed in December of 2025, now out the door in late September? I'm going to say curious timing, but not surprising at the same time. Yeah, I think that there were more obvious points. This could have been done some earlier, some later, but they've chosen the middle instead. Marc Dos Santos is someone who has endeared himself to LAFC over the years. I think that if you look at the comments of his Instagram post, it's a lot of fans thanking him in spite of some frustrations about the club's direction. Keep in mind, he was an assistant under Bob Bradley. It was his first foray into MLS proper after some fine work in the NASL and the USL in the Second Division rung.