Choking On Our Words: Ramirez responds through goal, “sitting duck” celebration

We knew that something was coming.

After ranking Christian Ramirez the fourth best fit out of Minnesota United’s four strikers and calling his role that of a “sitting duck,” we could only assume that we would be choking on our own words Wednesday night.

And choke on them we did.

Ramirez pounced on a misplayed header from a New England Revolution defender and chipped goalkeeper Matt Turner in just the fifth minute, then took a seat on the pitch.

Ramirez is known for responding to critics through his goal celebrations, and this one was no different as Superman emulated a “sitting duck.”

“I was called a sitting duck somewhere,” said Ramirez of the celebration. “So I thought I’d let them know that I saw. One of my teammates passed that along to me as well as some rankings.”

Teammate Miguel Ibarra said that the criticism was discussed over breakfast Wednesday morning.

Manager Adrian Heath praised Ramirez for working harder than normal on Wednesday and that the striker was “gassed” by the time he left the game in the 75th minute. “The one thing I told him, is all he can control, is his enthusiasm, his desire and his work rate. But I thought he put an incredible shift in today.”

“It doesn’t take much for him to get hot,” explained defender Brent Kallman. “So maybe this is the start of something for him.”

Ramirez declined to directly respond to the criticism. “I think there will be a picture or a gif around there. I understand it, but it’s all good. It’s nothing different. It’s been going on my whole life, so it’s fine.”

He posted a picture of his celebration, partially captioned “sitting duck,” on Twitter shortly after the game. The Tweet received over 350 likes by 10:30am on Thursday.