LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos branded the behavior of Toluca counterpart Antonio “Turco” Mohamed “clownish” following the MLS club’s elimination in the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal to the Liga MX side.

LAFC, having won the home leg 2-1, lost 4-0 in Mexico on Wednesday night for a final aggregate defeat of 5-2. At the end of the match, Mohamed was dancing and arguing with the LAFC bench.

“There were clowns on the bench,” Dos Santos said in Spanish after the match. “You have to have class, because the world turns very quickly. 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. What he did after the game today was clownish — una payasada, in Portuguese, sorry.

“I have class as a person,” Dos Santos continued. “I know how to win, and I know how to lose. I want to wish coach Mohamed and Toluca good luck in the final.”

Te amo Mohamed, bendito el día en que llegaste al Toluca… pic.twitter.com/ka93JUNbzz

— Rayitazz (@rayitazz) May 7, 2026

Mohamed insisted the antics were not unprovoked. He and his staff took exception to LAFC celebrating their late win in the first leg, when Nkosi Tafari scored in stoppage time.

“The thing is, when we lost over there, they danced, they took a victory lap, and they celebrated quite intensely,” Mohamed said after the match in Spanish. “We felt it was excessive — that’s why I shouted when we scored. I shouted very loudly. I never usually shout when a goal is scored.”

“It was simply a return of the favor,” Mohamed said.

LAFC is the latest MLS club Toluca dispatched with ease. On its run to the final, Toluca beat San Diego FC (6-3 aggregate) and LA Galaxy (7-2). The club scored four goals in each of its home legs against MLS opponents. Toluca will host Tigres in the May 30 final, where the winner will secure a place in the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup.

Before the trip to Mexico, Dos Santos sought advice from San Diego and the Galaxy on what to expect.

“I heard this place was a ‘hell.’ Now, I’m a Christian, so I have a different concept of what ‘hell’ actually is,” Dos Santos said. “This place is more like the ‘Disney’ of football, you know? The atmosphere is incredible. If you love football, this is exactly where you want to be. It’s nothing like hell — not even close. But it’s a great atmosphere, with a great crowd.”

Dos Santos did note the pitch is more like “one we see in Concacaf” rather than World Cup-quality.

It’s not the first recent press conference in which Dos Santos has made headlines. After LAFC’s leg-one win, he ranted about how the scheduling was a “scandal” for the club and questioned why MLS didn’t help them more to give them a break from the congestion during this run.

Toluca, meanwhile, played leg one of the Clausura playoff quarterfinals against Pachuca last weekend. It was also without stars Alexis Vega and Jesus Gallardo, who were summoned by Mexico for a controversial pre-World Cup training camp in which the league agreed to allow domestic-based players to leave earlier than mandated by FIFA. That has caused a number of players — five alone from Chivas de Guadalajara — to miss playoff and Concacaf Champions Cup matches.

Mexico and manager Javier Aguirre had threatened to exclude any players who picked club over country from the World Cup if they did not report, meaning Vega and Gallardo are due to miss the rest of the Liga MX playoffs and the Concacaf final.

Even so, Toluca is currently viewed as the best team on the continent, winning the last two Liga MX titles and seeking a third. It hasn’t won the Concacaf championship since 2003.