Minnesota United head coach Eric Ramsay is not putting together up any underdog motivational video clips this week to jolt his team out of its current three-match losing streak. Nor impassioned us-against-the-world pep talks coming out of the National Sports Center in Blaine.
“Eric is consistent,” veteran defender Zarek Valentin said Tuesday. “As a player, having a coach that is consistent is awesome. I’ve been with coaches where we have high highs and low lows. That is tough because the group feeds off that energy. …
“I’ve been a part of, I guess, both sets of coaches,” Valentin continued. “Ones that if we have won a game, it’s as if we won MLS Cup. And if we lose, the Titanic is sinking. It’s nice to have a consistent voice and a consistent presence.”
That doesn’t mean Ramsay is glossing over the Loons’ predicament. MNUFC is seriously shorthanded, and the first-year leader acknowledges that.
Going into Saturday’s match at Portland Timbers, four players remain away on international duties (Dayne St. Clair, Tani Oluwaseyi, Carlos Harvey and Alejandro Bran); two players have been transferred to European clubs (Kervin Arriaga and Victor Eriksson); key striker Teemu Pukki remains injured; vital defender Michael Boxall is nursing an ailment; and important midfielder Hasssani Dotson will serve a red-card suspension this weekend.
Before Wednesday’s training session, Ramsay gathered the 14 total field players set to participate. He simply reminded them about how “hard” it is to continue with so few players. He then outlined tasks for the day and they went to work.
“I don’t want to pretend the situation is anything different to what it is,” Ramsay told the Pioneer Press after practice. “It is difficult. There is no way that I can wave the magic wand and make the situation better. I can’t. We benefitted early on in the season, having a good squad, being able to change, being able to freshen things up.”
The Loons (8-6-5, 29 points) averaged 1.9 points per game over its opening 13 matches, but have managed only 0.6 over the last six. They went from among league leaders to the pack on its heels.
When the amount of points become less and less, Ramsay said the “temptation is to end up doing more and more. … You hear horror stories of coaches that lengthen the day from half seven (a.m.) until five (p.m.). And I’m almost the opposite in that sense.”
Ramsay wants to avoid being the type of coach Valentin described.
“What I don’t want to do is start blowing that situation up,” Ramsay continued. “And sort of add more fuel to the fire by us being different versions of ourselves compared to the selves we were two or three weeks ago.”
Ramsay also is not one to make excuses. He won’t even go so far as to acknowledge the exodus and then exit of the best player on the roster — Emanuel Reynoso — who was transferred to Club Tijuana in Mexico’s Liga MX at the end of May. The two-time MLS All-Star played all of a half hour for the Loons this season.
Copa America has taken away his top goalkeeper (St. Clair) and his No. 1 striker (Oluwaseyi) and two backup midfielders (Bran and Harvey). Pukki would have gotten a renewed opportunity to step in for Oluwaseyi, but he got hurt playing for Finland in June and isn’t expected back until July 7 at the earliest.
There is believed to be a broader understanding within the club that the current circ*mstances are out of Ramsay’s control and that lulls happen regularly throughout MLS.
“I think if we would have every player available and we were really at full tilt and pushing and pushing and pushing and we weren’t getting results, that would be a far more concerning situation,” Ramsay said Wednesday. “As much as we are disappointed with last week, it’s certainly not the end of the world. As I first said when I came in here, you can see these peaks and troughs naturally occur in the MLS for nearly all teams. Our situation is a real extreme. I always felt that we would have to ride these periods with real calm.”
That doesn’t mean Ramsay is content. Given the harsh circ*mstances, the on-field standards don’t shift. But a baseline expectation for results might alter. One or two points coming from those three games last week could have been deemed a success.
During the 1-0 loss to Austin FC on Saturday, the Apple TV stream did show an unhappy Ramsay on the sideline on a few occasions.
“I am frustrated,” Ramsay said. “That is the biggest thing I’ve got to check myself on.”
