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Sounders acquire rights to Cooper in trade with FC Dallas

KennyCooperFCDallas4 (USATodaySports)

By DAN KARELL

Kenny Cooper is headed back to the Pacific Northwest. Only this time, he’ll be wearing the Rave Green.

The Seattle Sounders added to their already stacked group of forwards with the acquisition of Cooper’s signing rights and allocation money from FC Dallas in exchange for Adam Moffatt on Friday. If Cooper does sign with the Sounders, it will be his fourth new team in four years since returning to Major League Soccer in 2011 with the Sounders arch-rivals, the Portland Timbers.

Cooper was made available after failing to come to terms with FC Dallas on a new contract and then opting out of the 2013 Re-Entry Draft prior to Wednesday’s deadline. The 29-year-old struggled in his return to Dallas, scoring just six goals and adding one assist in 31 games. Moffatt meanwhile returns to Texas just three months after the Sounders acquired the veteran midfielder from the Houston Dynamo.

Assuming they can sign him, Cooper would join the likes of Obafemi Martins, Clint Dempsey, Lamar Neagle, and, for the moment at least, Eddie Johnson as options in the Sounders front line, instantly giving them one of the most lethal and experienced groups in MLS.

Last season, Cooper earned a base salary of $325,000, which is one of the reasons that he was dealt away from the New York Red Bulls in the prior offseason. The Sounders will hope that Cooper can rediscover his goal-scoring form. He scored 18 goals in 2012 with the Red Bulls.

Moffat is a solid acquisition for FC Dallas, bringing 116 MLS regular season appearances and a hard-nosed attitude in central midfield that helped lead the Dynamo to two consecutive MLS Cup final appearances.

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What do you think of this move? Impressed with the Sounders’ potential forwards for next season? Expect Cooper to sign with the club? What does this move mean for Eddie Johnson?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Huh, interesting. Getting rid of EJ made a lot of sense, to help relieve their forward logjam. Now they’re still going to have a logjam after they trade the GAM. What’s the thinking here?

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  2. HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA The flounders have Kenny Floppin Cooper. Yeah he scored some goals for NY, (benefit of playing with Henri), but more often than not it was wiffsville. The flounder fans will see Kenny consistantly lose air balls to opponents 8 inches shorter than him. They will see him crash flopping to the ground for the 100th time after running into a 155 lb mid fielder. WhoooYa it’s going to be fantastic.

    I’m going to get my popcorn and butter, put my feet up, and watch the implosion! 🙂

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  3. Crazy question, with new teams using money on news stadiums and sounders have plenty of it, why dont they take over that new arena land and make a top soccer stadium. They have the money, seattle wont be getting an nhl or nba team, so why not ask that arena guy to work with the sounders and make a soccer stadium. If new york and miami can do it, why can’t sounders do it.

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  4. should have just given EJ the $325,000/year that Copper will make..

    i seriously don’t understand how some teams fit their squad into the league wide salary cap.. and how they make their salary cap decisions…

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    • Its been reported by Goff of the Washington Post that there are 3 teams looking for Johnson and 1 team outside the league. They will leverage that into max allocation and potentially Fredy could be sold and they would get a chunk off that if he gets more than the loan he is on gives (right at the threshold of getting nothin). If reports of Lazio, Roma, and others come to fruition they could net allocation as well.

      Look at what Seattle has done when they get done because they could conceivably get another million in allocation (max for Eddie and some for Fredy).

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      • MLS already takes a big chunk out of Seattle’s revenues, shirt sales, and so on. And since it’s the biggest chunk in the league, why should Seattle give anyone any money back?

  5. Poor cooper. He should leave mls. This guy hit 19 goals. Anywhere else this makes u the face of the league. He did not get any accolades and was traded to a team that benched him for not being a midfielder. The league has stunted this player

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    • They will get midfielders. It looks like they will be going with a diamond with Dempsey as CAM and Alonso as CDM. Then you put Evans on the right as a b2b mid with Yedlin coming forward on the wing. So they one starting midfielder unless they feel good enough about Neagle (please no but could work as a b2b guy if absolutely necessary). They also have some wingers they could sign as HGP’s like Kovar, Jones, or Okoli. Though Okoli is more of a goal scorer

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  6. Um, what? Really? Kenny Cooper? I mean, huh? Because having Martins and Dempsey doesn’t give them enough guys who don’t want to share the ball? This has to be part of deal where they are going to trade him on to someplace else. Maybe they’re going to convert him to a center back. This is beyond baffling.

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    • Not really when you realize that Dempsey will be on international duty over the summer and Martins could be as well. Not really that mindblowing. Especially if both are on WC duty then a Neagle-Cooper partnership sounds a lot better than a Neagle-Estrada one

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  7. I really don’t understand why this guy can’t catch a break. Why do teams keep dumping him? Is it an inconsistency thing or a locker room thing or something else?

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    • Well, how about because he sucks? Okay, maybe that’s harsh. How about because there is so much less than meets the eye with him?

      Consider his shots/goals/assists totals:
      476/72/16
      That translates into scoring on only 15% of his shots, and a ratio of shots to assits of 30 to 1!!!!

      Why is that important? Because it shows something about his judgment. Compare him to Keane and Donovan:

      Keane
      164/34/21
      Scores on 20% of his shots and has an 8 to 1 rations of shots to asissts.

      Donovan
      639/134/117
      Scores on 15% of his shots and has a mindblowing assits to shots ratio of 5.5 to 1. (Incredible for somone who scores as much as he does.

      These numbers verify what I have always seen when he plays: a selfish guy with his head down, no vision and no ability to connect with his team mates. He was actually more reasonable with Red Bulls when he had 18 goals on 84 shots. If he converts like that, maybe you can live with the shortcomings. But in his other top year he had 18 goals on 119 shots. By comparison, that same year Donovan had 20 goals on 65 shots (!) and tossed in 9 assists.

      Cooper is one of my least favorite players. He’s got linebacker size but wants to be a dancer. He shoots no matter what and he is not particularly good about it.

      I have no clue whay Seattle would be interested in him

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      • While I don’t think your statistical analysis is as supportive as you think it is, I don’t disagree with you about Cooper. I love the line “he’s got linebacker size but wants to be a dancer.”

      • 6th most goals in MLS the last three years so yeah Ill take that and allocation money essentially for Mr. Alex Morgan (Servando)

      • Tony your analysis wasn’t bad, and sure he’s not the greatest forward, but besides wondo, i don’t think anyone in the ‘quakes have put the numbers up, that cooper has in the the last 2-3 yrs….. i’d take him over lenhart, gordon, fucito, or whomever is still around besides wondo. yea he’s been hyped but for the right price , i think he’s worth a roster spot.

  8. Sounders did fairly well in this deal, getting him and allocation money for Moffat is alright. Cooper can be frustrating but I doubt they are counting on him to be the guy or anything like that

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    • Also I don’t think this move has any affect on EJ, he was always going to be leaving once it became clear he thinks he deserves DP money.

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      • Which means what, exactly?

        A DP contract is simply any contract greater than the league maximum salary + allocation dollars (to buy down anything over to <= the league's maximum salary).

        The Sounders could certainly pay Eddie Johnson several times his salary from last season (which was more than $100k too) without him being a DP. Conversely, some team in the MLS could make him a DP at $10k over the league maximum salary.

        He's deserving of a pay raise, sure. But he may not be get a DP contract (or even need one) to get that pay raise.

    • He also has the 6th nost goals in MLS over the past four years so there is that. 2012 he had 18 goals plus they got allocation money.. Essentially they traded Carrasco&late 2nd rd pick for Kenny Cooper and allocation money. Um yeah that is a great flip

      Reply

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