The upcoming 2018 season is a big one for LA Galaxy teammates and brothers Giovani and Jonathan Dos Santos.
Not only will they want to make up for the disappointment of a 2017 season which sees the Galaxy in danger of finishing in last place with the worst record in the league, but they also have a World Cup to prepare for with Mexico.
And those preparations begin now.
LA Galaxy head coach Sigi Schmid confirmed he will soon be talking to Mexico national team head coach Juan Carlos Osorio to settle on a plan that outlines both players' workload for the MLS offseason which begins after this weekend given the LA Galaxy failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
“Pierra [Ivan, Galaxy Director of Sports Medicine and Head Athletic Trainer] will talk with Juan Carlos [Osorio], and I will talk to Juan Carlos as well,” Schmid explained. “Their fitness plan for the offseason is more important for us than it is for the Mexican national team.”
According to Schmid, the players will get a week off after the final match of the season. Once that week is over, some players will come back for training and the Dos Santos brothers could be among them.
“We need them to be ready and fit for the Galaxy and if they are ready and fit for us they will be ready for the [Mexican] national team,” explained Schmid. “There is no special plan that they have that is going to make them fitter than any plan that we have."
“Yes, it is a little complicated that we don't have official games for some time,” Jonathan Dos Santos said, “but if we train well and take care of ourselves the same way we do while playing every weekend, everything will be fine.”
Mexico will play a set of friendlies against Belgium on November 10 and Poland just three days later. That training camp will be part of the plan to keep the brothers in shape, according to Jonathan, the younger of the Dos Santos brothers.
The fact that the Galaxy duo won’t be playing in official competitions for about three months is something that Schmid believes should not affect their chances to be at the World Cup in Russia.
“To say that because they miss competition in November and early December when Liga MX is still playing, and that will affect them in the World Cup, if he takes that, Juan Carlos will be making a bad decision,” Schmid said.
Per CBA guidelines, the LA Galaxy preseason will start on January 22. But the Dos Santos brothers are not thinking about slowing down in the 91 days until then.
“We will work really hard – with a personal trainer when we need it – and focus on next season, a year of great importance for the Galaxy and the national team,” Giovani Dos Santos said.
