PORTLAND, Ore. – The Jonathan dos Santos era did not begin with a victory, but the Mexican midfielder was encouraged was encouraged by his first performance for the LA Galaxy.
Dos Santos went 26 minutes in the Galaxy’s 3-1 defeat to the Portland Timbers on Sunday in his club debut. Despite a brief shift, dos Santos looked composed completing 88 percent of his passes, while making three recoveries, and registering a tackle.
The midfielder’s debut coincidentally occurred on the two-year anniversary of his elder brother Giovani’s first appearance for the club back in 2015.
"Happy for my debut but sad for the team's loss. No one likes to lose in their debut. We're in a tough position, and we need to turn things around as soon as possible. It's hard to get out of this bad run,” dos Santos said after the match. "The team is working hard from what I have seen. The team is very united, and that's what is the most important. With the next home game [against New York City FC], we will try to win in front of our fans and get the three points.
“I'm happy for the debut but what was important was to get a win and unfortunately, in the end, we couldn't, and we'll work for that."
Following the match, Galaxy boss Sigi Schmid was complimentary of dos Santos’ debut but stressed that the midfielder still needs work to get up to full speed, especially ahead of this weekend’s must-win contest against New York City FC.
“It was good. Jonathan is a good player, but he hasn’t played a game since July 2 and hasn’t really trained on a regular basis,” he said. “We don’t want to overplay him at this stage and all of a sudden there’s an injury, and he’s out for a long time. But I thought he did well when he came in.”
