Kenny's bad luck started back at the Dallas Cup when Rongen went to lunch and missed his hat trick. It's been all downhill ever since.
I already busted your chops in the Klinsman coaching thread and u don't even know it. C'mon man, I'm so 24 hours ago.
That was is a tournament in California and yes, Rongen did leave at half-time. Cooper had a second half hat-trick and signed with Manchester United shortly after.
The Case for Kenny Cooper: There isn't one. He isn't very good. Tons of heart and passion, but he just isn't very good.
Does england66 ever come around anymore? He was always Cooper's #1 fan -- he made Cooper out to be the second coming of Pele.
No he didn't....Cooper deserved a chance with the national team and eventually got one. Scored some goals (his goals scored to minutes played is pretty good) and then wasn't picked anymore. He's not French so Henry doesn't like him much, even though he's light years better than le toux (Henry loves his french ass) Seems like he scored a few (again) in MLS this year but, as Wondo found out, that doesn't mean much with Jurgen...Cooper will continue to score goals wherever he ends up.
Kenny scores everywhere but Portland, League One in England and Portugal...and just a little bit in II Bundesliga. He is Adu light...it's everyone else's fault when it doesn't work out.
Oh, it's worked out pretty well in New York for him this season. He was a mile behind Wondo like everyone else, but he scored a lot of goals and further did some of the dirty work up top. If Wondo hadn't been lighting up the league I do believe Cooper would've gotten more of the discussion.
Most or second most skilled pure forward in the pool. He's also already demonstrated he can score at Concacaf level. Wondolowski, Gordon, Buddle, and Eddie Johnson among the mid-career, high-scoring MLS vets have gotten caps under JK. Only Lenhart and Cooper remain to be given a chance. JK, however, seems to be molding his striker corps with a certain level of work rate and mobility and the ability to 'play big' in mind. Even Altidore had to get with the program. I wonder if Cooper just isn't seen as fitting in that mold. His role at New York is somewhat constrained as a center channel, center forward. At Dallas he had more freedom and was a smooth big man on ball. He could hold the ball up easily and his technique and power was such that a goal could be scored from anywhere on the field.
Wow! Your memory is wildly inaccurate. My memory is that dear ol' dad is Kenny's #1 fan.....to a fault...., and that england66 was generally pretty even-handed where KC was concerned. He defended him, but he was also critical.
I would agree 100%. Wondo, Gordon, Johnson (not so much Buddle but he hasn't been called in for a while) all move around the field all the time. They can play on the wings and drop deeper into the midfield to help out. I think at this point Cooper might not fit that mold (because of how he's played in NY) which is why he hasn't been called in.
When has KC stated or even implied that his failings were someone else's fault? Maybe with Academica or Oldham? I've followed him fairly closely for sometime now for some odd reason and don't ever recall him throwing his club, physios, or anyone under the bus for any failure he might have had. Heck I don't even recall him having too much, if anything, negative to say about Tyrone Marshall. Curious where you come up with that criticism.
Maybe not Cooper himself, but the Cooper fanboys (for "fanboys," read "england66"). When Cooper stunk it up at Plymouth Argyle, england66 went so far as to blame the poor pitch, which he called one of the worst in the championship. Then when things continued to go south and Cooper wasn't getting off the bench at Plymouth Argyle, it was all Paul Sturrock's fault. According to england66, the reason Cooper didn't play at Academica De Coimbra was because of a power struggle between Tony Simoes, who had just been named to the Academica board, and the Academica manager. When Cooper didn't look at all dangerous against Haiti, england66 was quick to point out that it was because he got zero service. Maybe it's all true -- Cooper's lack of success at Plymouth Argyle, 1860 Munich, and Academica de Coimbra had nothing to do with any actual limitations to his game. If so, he's one snake-bitten motherfucker -- talk about bad luck! And in this very thread, you've got this:
Well, unfortunately the BS search engine isn't giving me any pre-2009 seach returns when I search for england66 posts about Kenny. But even with this restriction, I found this: And then there's this: Admittedly, england66 isn't calling him the next Pele, and I was exaggerating for effect when I intimated that. But anyone who has read england66's Kenny Cooper posts from back in the day would surely agree that england66 is prone to a bit of hyperbole when it comes to Cooper. I remember him relating that when Cooper was at Manchester United, he asked van Nistelroy what areas of his game he needed to work on, and van Nistelroy told him "nothing, you're the complete package, man!" (I wish the BS search engine would turn up that post).
To be honest, I'm not fond of drawing sweeping conclusions from half season stints at foreign clubs, even a series of them. There are often a lot of factors behind the scenes in those situations (especially with loan deals), and players sometimes need a bit of time to settle at a club if the conditions aren't ideal. (Although in some of those cases, Cooper might bear some responsibility for not sticking it out longer.) I also recall that Cooper had some bad luck with injuries that limited his effectiveness at some of those clubs.
Cooper should have been part of this January camp. It was a missed opportunity to bring someone back into the fold who was coming off a strong MLS season and has proven he can score against CONCACAF teams.