Former Minnesota United head coach Eric Ramsay never gained any traction at West Bromwich Albion and was fired by the English club on Tuesday.

The Welshman took over the second-tier team on Jan. 16, but failed to win a single game while in charge. He managed four draws and suffered five defeats with a minus-13 goal differential. He was let go after a 1-1 tie with Charlton on Tuesday.

Ramsay took over West Brom after previous coach Ryan Mason struggled, and Ramsay couldn’t reverse the downward trend. WBA now sit only one point out of the relegation zone to the English third tier, and the side was bounced out of the FA Cup on his watch.

In 2024, Ramsay, then 32, became the youngest head coach in MLS and he led United to two straight Western Conference semifinal appearances. Under his stead, MNUFC set a record 58 points in 2025.

Ramsay’s teams in Minnesota were known for its low-block defensive formation, league-low possession percentage and set-piece success for a lot of its goal-scoring. Last season, MNUFC scored 56 goals in 34 games (1.6 per game), but at West Brom, his team scored five in nine (0.5 per game).

Ramsay had another year on his contract with MNUFC for 2026, and WBA paid an undisclosed amount of compensation to MNUFC to bring him back home to England.

Cameron Knowles, who was a Ramsay assistant the last two seasons, became the Loons’ new permanent head coach in January, and in the season opener, his team made two, one-goal comebacks to earn a 2-2 road draw with Austin FC on Saturday.

The Loons’ home opener is Saturday afternoon against FC Cincinnati at Allianz Field.

By AAMER MADHANI and EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. State Department has expressed its displeasure about Ukraine’s recent attacks on the ⁠ Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea that have impacted U.S. oil interests in ⁠Kazakhstan, Kyiv’s chief envoy to Washington said on Tuesday.

Ambassador Olga Stefanishyna noted the U.S. concern on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.

“This reach-out was not related to encouraging Ukraine from refraining to attack Russian military and energy infrastructure. It was related to the very fact that American economic interest was affected there,” Stefanishyna told reporters in Washington. “It did happen, and we have taken the note.”

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The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium operates a pipeline from the Caspian coast in northwest Kazakhstan to the Novorossiysk port. The pipeline handles much of the crude exports from three major Kazakh fields in which major U.S. energy companies, Chevron and ExxonMobil, have stakes.

The G7 group of leading industrialized nations issued a leaders’ statement on Tuesday to mark the fourth anniversary of the war reaffirming their “unwavering support for Ukraine in defending its territorial integrity and right to exist, and its freedom, sovereignty and independence.” The statement also praised President Donald Trump’s efforts to negotiate a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.

The U.N. General Assembly also passed a resolution on Tuesday voicing support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and calling for an immediate ceasefire and comprehensive peace, but the U.S. was one of 51 countries that abstained. The U.S. had tried unsuccessfully to eliminate the references to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. U.S. deputy ambassador Tammy Bruce said the Trump administration supports an immediate ceasefire but language on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would “distract” from peace negotiations with Russia.

During the U.S.-brokered talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin has maintained maximalist demands, insisting Kyiv pull its forces from four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed but never fully captured. Trump has argued it’s inevitable that Russia will win control of the Ukrainian territory and has pressured President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal to save lives.

Zelenskyy said his country has withstood the onslaught by Russia’s bigger and better equipped army, which over the past year of fighting captured just 0.79% of Ukraine’s territory, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank. Russia now holds nearly 20% of Ukraine.

Trump later on Tuesday will deliver the annual State of the Union address. Stefanishyna said she expects that Trump, who has made ending the war a priority, will touch on the conflict in the address, even though she did not expect major changes in his message.

“But at the same time, we want President Trump to hear us ahead of the speech that, you know, despite all the complexity and tragedy of what is happening in Ukraine, still Ukrainian people very much rely on his leadership,” she said.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — John Klein was speaking to a group of children at the MASH baseball facility in Savage, Minn., where he trains in the offseason, when director of player development Drew MacPhail started calling. By the time he got back to his phone, he estimated he had seven missed calls.

“I was like ‘OK, this could either be really good or really bad,’ ” Klein said.

It was the former.

MacPhail was phoning to let Klein know that the Twins were adding him to their 40-man roster ahead of the deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 Draft. That decision came in response to a strong showing from the Minnesota native last season in a year split between Double-A Wichita and Triple-A St. Paul. Now he’s in major league camp, getting his chance to make an impression.

An offseason ago, the Brooklyn Park native and Osseo High School graduate had spent his winter revamping his training program and focusing on his nutrition. The result of his hard work was an added 20 to 25 pounds.

“The velocity came right with that,” he said.

A couple of years earlier, he said, he would be lucky to touch 90-92 miles per hour. But once he got into minor league spring training games last year, he was all of a sudden hitting 96, and the results followed.

“I kind of had a feeling last year could be something special,” he said.

Klein began last year at Double-A, where he generally pitched in shorter stints. In 24 games at Double-A Wichita, he posted a 3.12 earned-run average, striking out 95 batters in 80 2/3 innings.

In August, he was promoted to Triple-A, where he finished his season in St. Paul, just one step from the majors.

“Mentally, it’s a little easier knowing they see something in me that maybe I don’t see in myself,” Klein said. “(I’m taking it) day by day just trying to get better.”

Klein threw one scoreless inning in the Twins’ first spring training game against the University of Minnesota last Friday. For now, the Twins are building him up as a starter, manager Derek Shelton said, though they could dial him back later on and he could make a push for a bullpen spot.

While in camp, Klein is soaking up time in the clubhouse where he has gotten to chat with some of the players he idolized growing up, like Twins Hall of Famer Justin Morneau.

“The first day, it was pretty cool to walk in, see my name on a jersey in a locker full of Twins stuff,” Klein said. “Obviously my entire life I’ve wanted to be here, and now that I am, it’s pretty cool.”

Briefly

Joe Ryan (back) played catch Tuesday at 90 feet, a development Shelton described as “encouraging.” … Luke Keaschall was taking pregame reps in the outfield, and Shelton said they expect to get him in a game next week. … Reliever Julian Merryweather left the Twins’ game against the Tampa Bay Rays early with a left hamstring strain.  Merryweather, 34, is a non-roster invite in camp competing for a spot in the bullpen. … The Twins lost that game 12-1 to the Rays and lost a home game to the Baltimore Orioles 10-5 after falling behind by six runs in the first inning.

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By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Washington, D.C., federal court on Tuesday rejected a request from an immigrant rights group to temporarily block the IRS from sharing certain taxpayer data that could make it easier to identify and deport people who are in the U.S. illegally.

A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declined to issue a preliminary injunction for the immigrants’ rights group, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, and other nonprofits that are suing the federal government over the data-sharing agreement signed last April by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The agreement allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records.

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In declining the preliminary injunction request, Judge Harry T. Edwards wrote that the nonprofit groups “are unlikely to succeed on the merits of their claim,” since the information the agencies are sharing isn’t covered by the IRS privacy statute.

A representative from Centro de Trabajadores Unidos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media that the court decision was a “crucial victory” for the administration. “Deporting illegal aliens makes the American people safer,” Bondi said in her post.

The Trump administration has argued that the agreement helps carry out President Donald Trump’s agenda to secure U.S. borders and is part of his larger nationwide immigration crackdown, which has resulted in deportations and workplace raids.

The creation of the data sharing agreement was so controversial that the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service resigned last year over the deal.

Earlier this month it was revealed in court filings that the IRS had erroneously shared the taxpayer information of thousands of people with the Department of Homeland Security as part of the agreement.

A declaration filed by IRS Chief Risk and Control Officer Dottie Romo stated that the IRS was only able to verify roughly 47,000 of the 1.28 million names ICE requested. For less than 5% of those individuals, the IRS gave ICE additional address information, potentially violating privacy rules created to protect taxpayer data.

Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.