One of the most intriguing High school seniors is Kenny Cooper , out of Dallas Jesuit High School and the Solar youth program. Cooper is the son of Kenny Cooper , a star goalie for the Dallas Tornado in the early days of the NASL and later one of the top coaches in the indoor MISL. Ulike his father , Kenny Cooper fils is a foward. "I never wanted to be a GK , " Cooper told the Dallas Morning News."It is much more fun scoring goals than trying to stop them." The 6-foot-2 Cooper had offers from three clubs , Blackburn , West Bromwich , and Blackpool , to move to his father's native England during his junior year , but he chose to remain at Jesuit. Cooper has signed a letter of intent to play for SMU next fall,but he has attracted the interest of Portuquese power benfica. After Solar faced Benfica at the Dallas Cup , the Lisbon club asked him to join it for a post-tournament friendly , and Copper scored two goals. He must be good.. If a club like Benfica wants you.
I saw this guy play for Solar against that very Benfica team, and he looked decent. However, Solar sucked so bad in comparison to Benfica that this probably hid his true ability. To give someone an idea he kind of reminds me of that Swedish guy named Flo(X-Andre-Flo, I can't remember the first name). Athletically he reminds me of McBride, although he didn't show the same aerial prowess against Benfica...
Cooper is not as tall or skinny as Flo. He is built more like McBride, not Flo. He's 6-2, 190. I think he's more athletic than McBride. When I've seen him, on three occassions, he didn't strike me as being good in the air. But, frankly I can't remember all the specifics. What I do remember is that he's real good at checking back and with the ball at his feet. Against the competition (college players) I saw him against, he was able to turn them. He's also better than average tactically, for U.S. players. He's a good player, probably one of the top 100 coming out of the ranks of U18/U19 Club soccer. He's an U18 by the USYS playing calendar, but an U19 by the FIFA calendar. He was born in October, 1984. His playing style reminds me of Conor Casey. He is not as good as Casey at the same age. Benfica should be looking at him.
He's got an incredible touch. i have played against him in club and High School for several years. good finisher with nice size. not the most aggressive by nature but is aggressive enough around the goal. good player all the way around. SMU landed a good one.