Honduran defender Joseph Rosales has blossomed under Ramsay as a left wingback who can get forward. And Rosales has been lethal on set pieces. Fellow Honduran Kevin Arriaga also raised his game under Ramsay but was transferred when he made it clear he was going to run down his contract.

While the Loons kept summoning players from MNUFC2 to fill out rosters, Ramsay kept things from falling apart. This is encouraging stuff from the 33-year old coach.

“I don’t think we played with the same backline once in that tough period we had,” El-Ahmad said. “But look, you learn about yourself. You learn about your staff. You learn about what players can and can not do. What stood out to me was the patience, the openness to try things and do the best with what you have instead of having the attitude that this is bad.”

On Tuesday, Ramsay stood on a practice field in Blaine with a grin as he just presided over a training session that was missing only two players. One of them was Argentine playmaking midfielder Joaquín Pereyra. Striker Kelvin Yeboah, a transfer from Genoa who was on loan at Standard Liege, practiced with the team Tuesday and will add scoring punch.

Ramsay nearly has his full team back. He can’t wait to begin cooking with his new ingredients. I can’t wait to see what he does with a pinch of health and a dash of new transfers.

“We have pretty much worked with three different groups over the course of the year,” Ramsay said. “We had the group that started well. We had the group that was very small as a consequence of all the players we missed for various reasons. And now we’ve got a new group with six additions. And we have a competitive game just around the corner.”