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Sounders announce signing of Cooper

KennyCooperFCDallas4 (USATodaySports)

By DAN KARELL

The Seattle Sounders have signed a ready-made replacement for Eddie Johnson.

After trading for Kenny Cooper’s rights last week, the Sounders announced Thursday that they have signed Cooper to a new contract.  The Sounders acquired Cooper from FC Dallas along with allocation money in exchange for veteran defensive midfielder Adam Moffat. Per league and team policy, terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Cooper, coming off his worst scoring season in Major League Soccer since his second year with FC Dallas in 2007, will bolster a Sounders attack that already includes Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey. The Sounders announced on Tuesday that they had traded the embattled Johnson to D.C. United in exchange for allocation money.

The 29-year-old forward was made available by FC Dallas (and the New York Red Bulls during the last offseason) due to his large salary figures, which paid him a base salary of $275,000 in 2012 and $325,000 in 2013. Cooper scored just six goals in 31 matches for FC Dallas last season.

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What do you think of this news? Think that Cooper can work well alongside Dempsey and Martins? Expect Cooper to score more goals in Seattle next season?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

    • Neagle – Martins is Seattle’s best forward combo by far. Just don’t tell their coach. Neagle was drafted out of UNLV as one of the top NCAA goal scorers. Schmid tried to make him a fullback. Then got demoted to Charleston I think. Led the league in goals during his sting there. Goes back to Sounders. Plays wing. Does well, even scores in the playoffs. Traded away quickly to Montreal. Comes back to Seattle, is put on the bench behind Sammy “the train” Ochoa. Starts at forward out of desperation and injuries. Leads the league in goals while he starts at forward this year. Quickly put back on the wing by Schmid. Seattle instantly starts losing. And now Seattle has added like 5 forwards this offseason, so go figure. They are doing anything they can to mess the whole Neagle – Martins thing up.

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  1. Kenny Cooper has never been a locker room or team cancer and never will be. Talk to any reporter that has been around him and everyone has nothing but praise. Even if things are bad, you’ll never hear it from him. He was played out of position all season with FC Dallas. He’s a target forward in a 2 forward formation. If you want to catch him at practice, be prepared to be there for a while, because he’s always the first one out and the last one in. He treats every person he meets with sincerity like he’s known them his whole life. You couldn’t ask for a better person or professional.

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    • Nice try, Kenny Cooper’s mom/dad/publicist!

      All kidding aside, I’m pretty sure most analysts and fans who’ve watched him play agree he’s NOT a target forward (in mindset or skillset) even though he looks like he should be.

      That’s not a knock on him as a person, just something close to common knowledge.

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      • Chelsea was taliking about his integrity… Not his style of play, which is suspect for all the reasons above.

        He is a target forward, distributer, and takes out the trash. Not good in the air, not an opportunity, but can dish with top class

  2. Cooper isn’t as bad a locker room cancer as EJ, but his entire career has been marked by his over-valuing his quality. At FCD he sulked when pulled or benched. Watching his last season it’s clear that he has lost a step or two, and given that he thinks he’s a winger, that’s not good.

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    • Actually, here in Portland we never got a sense the Cooper was any kind of locker room cancer. But- he did think he was a winger; he’s not going to out-sprint most defenders, and any time he brushes against an opponent he will fall down.

      The mind set of a drift-about 150 lb winger stuck in the body of a hulking target-man center forward.

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    • I’m not sure where the locker room cancer stuff came from. Cooper is a stand up guy, not offensive by any means. Any proof of this cancer that I’m missing? He has been shipped around quite a bit, on the surface that could seem like he wasn’t accepted with teams…. But from watching him in Portland, that seems to be due to his playing style not personality.

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    • The prima donna emerged in Portland when Spencer replaced him on the triple PK with Jewsbury. Everything was rosy when he is the guy but he is not one too compete. It will not take long for Dempsey to see what a meow Cooper is! Say what you will about EJ being a cancer, which is more of maturity issue than “a cancer.” EJ shows up and competes and is no China Doll Cooper.

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  3. When the transfer window opens they should make more moves or they will have a tough time making the playoffs. I really thought this was going to be Sigi Schmid’s last year in charge.

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    • Top to bottom they still have one of the best rosters in the league, and arguably the best player in the league in Dempsey. Playoffs shouldn’t be a tough task for them (although no guarantees they won’t make it tough on themselves)

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  4. LOL, Seattle dumps EJ, replaces with Cooper. Sigi must be smoking some good sh*t out there in Cascadia. Cooper is only as good as his strike partner. He’s a legit blackhole up top, so NOT what Seattle needs right now.

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      • Cooper will need his strike partner to give him service. Kenny doesn’t create or hold up play the way you think he should. I don’t think Martins will be a good fit up top with him… Cooper was successful with Henry because Thierry is a facilitator and playmaker at this point in his career, and Kenny was benefiting from the service that he provided.

        You better be more worried about how many assists Obafemi was racking up in La Liga, cause Cooper won’t be the one creating anything up top.

  5. Maybe I missed it, but does anyone know how much he’ll be making? Without knowing, hard to say about the signing, but signing a 29 year old forward of unknown quality at the moment seems a little desperate to me.

    While the Timbers are building an young talented roster for the future, Seattle continually signs older players without much thought for the following year. It always feels a bit desperate.

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    • I am not saying I am jazzed about the lineup as it stands, but signing Clint 4 months ago didn’t seem desperate…at all. Just because they are losing, that is desperate now ?

      Maybe you are refering to Chad Marshall and this. I think Cooper is a back up, and not a bad backup. Some think Chad still has something.

      I don’t think Seattle is done….at least I hope not.

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      • Wasn’t thinking of Demspey, that was a great move.

        Mainly I was thinking Marshall, Nkufo, Lundberg, Tiffert, Jospeh, even Martins to an extent. Sounders have an older roster, and instead of trying to infuse it with solid youth prospects (Yedlin aside), they add older players who will contribute for maybe 1-2 years before retiring, and then the process repeats itself. Some of these older signings has been more successful than others (Rosales, for example) but there seems to be a mentality of win now at any cost just because they have the money, instead of building for the future.

  6. Meh. Cooper had to have gone somewhere. Honestly, I don’t see the Seattle attack making much of an impact unless Dempsey has a proper pre-season with Seattle, and not go on loan to Fulham. Who knows if Obafemi will stay healthy; who knows if Cooper will have chemistry with Dempsey like he did with Thierry Henry in New York. Lots of what ifs in this attack line.

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    • Not sure if “chemistry” is the way to describe Cooper’s relationship with Henry. He surely benefited fom Henry’s presence, but I think it was, shall we say, a one-sided relationship.

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    • Seattle need to sort out there midfield. If they plan on playing Dempsey at the top of a diamond midfield again then they’ve wasted there money. You’re just setting up to get him hacked at and injured again. Play Dempsey under Martins and put Cooper on the bench. He should only see time when the others go to the World Cup.

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  7. I’ll be interested to see what his salary is when MLS releases the numbers, if it is under like 200k I think the Sounders have done ok. I don’t think Cooper will have to work alongside Martins and Dempsey, I think he will be more like the first off the bench striker.

    Reply

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