Minnesota’s Christian Ramirez Rediscovers His Scoring Touch

They were the Dynamic Duo for a little more than one season playing for Minnesota United.

Christian Ramirez always took the field wearing a Superman T-shirt under his Loons jersey. His friend from California – Miguel Ibarra – the guy who helped engineer Ramirez’s move to the Upper Midwest would take to the field wearing a Batman T-shirt under his Loons jersey.

The two still speak every day, though now it is across national borders since Ibarra made the move from Minnesota to Club León in Mexico’s Liga MX. They still wear the T-shirts for their games.

“If anything, his move has brought us closer,” Ramirez told NASL.com as he headed for team training on Tuesday. “He told me that Minnesota is mine now – that he’s let it go to me.”

Ramirez, who as the NASL’s Golden Boot winner in 2014 when he scored a league-high 20 goals, has done everything to make the Loons his very own since the start of the Fall Season. In fact, the imposing striker scored the most goals among Americans in the last calendar year, regardless of continent, league, or team. And after starting only three games and scoring a single goal during the Spring Season, Ramirez has now scored in three consecutive games as United has gone three games without a loss in league play.

“Coach went with a different system and different person he wanted up top,” Ramirez said, referring to Manny Lagos and his choice of Pablo Campos. “I accepted it as a player, but at the same time it made me hungrier to work harder than before, to prove I should be the guy out there. I’m such a team player, I’m willing to do whatever the coach asks for each game, and during the Spring Season it was a little frustrating not to be performing, but at the same time I want to do what’s best for the team. If that’s what our coach thought would work, I’m willing to buy in.”

The return to fitness of Campos, 32, whose knee injury last season gave Ramirez, 24, an opening he fully exploited, gave Lagos the veteran presence he usually prefers as the lone striker. And coming into the 2015 season, Ibarra emerged as the team’s undisputed star and focal point.

“With the success last year of Miguel Ibarra with Minnesota and getting USA call ups, the coach made the decision to put the focus of the team around him and not the forwards,” said Bruce McGuire, the founder of du Nord Futbol in the Twin Cities. “Late last season the team also moved Ibarra out of a floating midfield role where he could attack from every angle and made him exclusively a left-sided player. This made the team a lot more predictable. You saw it down the stretch last season and in the beginning of this season.”

Now, with Ibarra gone to Mexico, the Loons have had to depend on a wider array of players, which now includes Ibson and Kalif Alhassan. Alhassan had a goal and two assists in last weekend’s stirring 4-3 victory at San Antonio.

“I hate to see one of my best friends leave but I’m really happy for him,” Ramirez said. “It’s the move he’s always dreamed of. Now we can’t rely on Miguel pulling something out of his hat.

“Our team is coming together and that makes it a lot easier for me. At the same time, it’s barely my third season as a pro. In my short time, I had never really experienced a rough patch of not scoring goals and not playing. It’s been a little wakeup call for me.”

At 6-foot-2, Ramirez is an imposing figure anywhere on the soccer field, but has become particularly adept at playing the target man. He is, however, comfortable playing either with his back to the goal or facing the opposition’s goalkeeper. He has scored some impressive (chesting a ball down and then hitting the volley), even mind-boggling (bicycle kick) goals during his short tenure at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minn., and in the NASL. But he said neither of those goals are his favorite. It was a left-footed blast from 25 yards out last year against Fort Lauderdale.

“Anyone who knows me will tell you I only use my left foot to run on, so I can’t explain it,” Ramirez said after that match, on May 17, 2014, a 3-1 Minnesota victory. “I surprised myself.”

For all his goalscoring prowess and potential, Ramirez is committed to becoming a complete player – providing assists and opening space for his teammates – a mind-set that belies his young age.

“I’ve learned to adjust to some of the physical contact I’ve seen more of this season,” he said. “I’ve learned how to adjust my movement so it opens up spaces for me and my teammates. A big part of my game is making runs that are unselfish.”

After their trip to San Antonio last week, the Loons (2W-1D-1D, 7 points) returned home, but are headed back to the road for Friday’s match against struggling Jacksonville (1-0-3, 3) and a midweek game at sputtering New York (0-2-1, 2) on August 5 before returning home for their third game (vs. FC Edmonton on Aug. 8) in eight days. After winning the Spring Season title in 2014, but losing to the Strikers in The Championship Semifinal (on penalty kicks), the Loons struggled early in the Spring Season, but had an eight-game unbeaten streak before losing the last match of the spring.

“My overall goal is to win a Soccer Bowl trophy,” Ramirez said. “Soccer players are known for the trophies they win. It’s what drives me whether I’m scoring goals or giving assists. For me, it’s more important to produce wins for the club.”

Though Ibarra has flown south, Ramirez believes he has left an important legacy tied to Ibarra being the first NASL Modern Era player to be selected to play and start for the US men’s national team. That said though, U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann has mentioned Ramirez in the same sentence as Ibarra, but there’s apparently nothing now in the works. That could change.

“I haven’t heard anything, but with Miguel’s move it’s always in the back of your mind that people are watching,” Ramirez said. “I think Miguel’s move is a game changer in the NASL and you never know the possibilities in soccer because they are endless. All you can control is what you can control. I think what he and scouts want is to see your team win, that’s the biggest aspect he wants – winners.”