Photo by ISIphotos.com
Kenny Cooper is having no trouble adjusting to life in Germany.
The U.S. national team striker scored his second goal in three games for 1860 Munich, netting a beautiful goal in 1860's 3-1 loss to Karlsruhe on Monday. Cooper scored the opening goal of the match.
Here is Cooper's goal:
It was a quality finish and a play made by a player who is clearly confident. Cooper will be tough to keep off the U.S. national team going forward, and while the goal did come in Bundesliga 2, it did come against Karlsruher, which was just relegated from the Bundesliga last season.
What did you think of Cooper's goal? Glad to see him score such a quality goal? Think he should be a lock to be called in for the U.S. national team's World Cup qualifier vs. El Salvador?
Share your thoughts below.
r. benjamin-
I don’t know if MLS is better or worse than BDL2 but I do know Casey’s main problem there seemed to be that he was never healthy. Wolff, who went their after he was a succesful MLS player and a great 2002 World Cup, also had health issues and was probably already on the down side of his career. So those two guys may not be the best barometer on which to make a comparison. However, they might be good guys to ask directly if you know them.
People comparing MLS to Bundesliga2 show either their bias or lack of knowledge. Bundesliga2 is much better.
Remember Casey and Wolfe washed out there to become good MLS players.
Cooper is way more deserving of a chance than Ching or Conor Casey. Ching and Casey are horrible. Actually, why does everybody think Altidore is that good? He hasn’t proven himself on the National team at all. HE is lazy, doesn’t pressure the defense and doesn’t have that natural knack for finding the back of the net. He should have had two easy ass goals in the Hull city debut. I hate it that Altidore is such a woos when he is playing. HE never wins a 50-50 ball.
Isaac,
Apparently you have seen a lot more of him than I have but from your description and what I have been able to research, Cooper is an all out goal scorer. Think Inzaghi, Owen, Gerd Muller, for NASL fans, Giorgio Chinaglia. They usually score at a rate of about a goal every other game. The eternal debate about them is that if they aren’t scoring goals, they usually don’t do anything else. However, the whole point of a forward is to score goals. So coaches tend to distrust them because they don’t like the feast or famine aspect.
So in their place they often turn to guys who may not score as much but can be counted on to help the team by doing other things. Hence the target man. Often you see the two paired such as Shearer/Owen, Heskey/Owen, Heskey/Rooney. Other times you’ll see combined target men/scorers leading the line mostly alone (Ruud Van Nistelrooy, McBride). My own view is he does take advantage of his size; he uses it to shield the ball and make it difficult to take off of him. Rather than tall I see him as long. Defenders hate guys like that. I notice most of his shots are on target. I also notice he has no shame about shooting from wherever, and whenever. Americans are used to the mantra of being unselfish and hitting the open man (see Landon Donovan) but in world football it’s a good thing for a striker to have the cojones to take shots. Many forwards do not. I expect a goal scorer to be selfish. It’s his job.
I get the impression that those of you who condemm Cooper for being limited expect players to be all around versatile types, like Johann Cruyff, Pele or George Best who could play every outfield position better than than any of their teammates.
This is an unrealistic expectation. I wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard or read that so and so seems to drift out of the game for 89 minutes and then scores a goal.
Cooper has time yet to develop into Ruud or McBride type of player. But even if he does not he is still a very productive goal scorer and that is rare.
Jeff in Houston,
What I like about the Dempsey, Donovan as forwards scenario is the flexibility it gies you with the rest of the roster. The midfield could be something like:
Bradley, Jones, Clark, Benny;
This leaves you 4 open spots to be contested by Edu (injury), Holden,Torres, and whoever. This allows you to think about guys who could shift between defense and midfield such as:
Hedjuk,Bornstein,Castillo,Bocanegra, etc.
Anyway a lot could change between now and when the squads must be finalized.
Good goal, not beautiful. When I think of beautiful, I don’t think of something that doesn’t involve beating a number of players with deft skill and/or curling a rising or dipping (not flat low shot) ball into the net. This looks like an MLS goal. Yay, but not so much. The play is better than MLS, no doubt, but nonetheless there are too many average goals by American players.
A goal is a goal? Yeah, fine. True. But, if you believe that and that becomes the norm, well, we’ll witness the death of soccer in the world because it’s taking away the ‘beauty’ of soccer. And, once you take away what makes soccer ‘beautiful’, you just have a low-scoring game that’s trying to compete against flashy, impact sports like Rugby, American Football, etc. And, it will soon be dwarfed by them.
Anyway, good for Cooper, but ‘beautiful’ goal? Come on…
JimmyGreaves – YUP….Being honest about Clint D (who has lined up as Forward for 2 of Fulham 3 games) and even Landon by thinking of them as forwards gives us room to bring more guys (remember 23 is the number not a fixed 4, 8, 8, 3) from the place where we actually have a (comparative) abundance…the MIDDLE. This way you can bring a marginal guy like Joseph Francis Towers or Stu Holden to SA…and still have the 4 parts of steel that Bob likes with his boy, MoEdu, Jones, Clark, etc. It all comes down to flexibility in your squad.
Understood – well, you kinda miss the pt of what I said. Look at the MLS stats yourself and report back….Games, Goals, Shots, Assists…Cooper doesn’t rate on the three measures v. Ching. On his own numbers, squandering the ball (ie shoot 1st and last, never pass) in a vain-glorious attempt to score does not make you good..IMHO 😉 Just b/c I am a Dynamo fan does not make me a “homer” when it comes to talent eval…bring some facts and insite to share. I am more worried about Ching’s legs than you ever could be…that’s why we keep bringing in Forwards to HOU to ensure MLS Cups last 4 years. At the same time, Cooper has a chance to grow and I pray, get better. I’d be thrilled if he is the ONE.
Any other links?
It’s a great goal and even though I’m not a huge Cooper fan, he’s doing pretty well for 1860. The one thing that somewhat throws me off Cooper is that having him on the team forces you to play players who are specialized to play off a striker like him, and the players we have like that either aren’t good enough, or sacrifice too much defensively. The deal about Cooper is that you have to build a team around him which is not what our national team has ever been about. As soon as he left Dallas, we started to see a better team effort from them and better results. I’m not totally convinced that Jeff Cunningham’s scoring raid only came about because he had a good breakfast either, if you know what I mean. He’s definitely a unique striker but he needs to learn a bit better to play for the team rather than have the team do it for him.
Any links to a working video? Looks like the youtube copyright cops got too it.
Unless people watch Bundesliga 2 on regular basis, I don’t see how we can be making comparisons between MLS and Bundesliga 2. You can’t do it by watching highlights of 1-2 games.
Cooper’s goal was a good solid goal. He got the ball outside the penalty area, made the good controlled move to get it on the right foot and put it right in the corner. Yes, it is a roller, but a very good placement nonetheless.
(SBI-Jimmy, I was in the camp that thought his debut header was nothing special, but this goal was a good goal, and when you can see a video of an American scoring a good goal in Europe it’s something U.S. fans will appreciate and enjoy and get excited about. I’m not sure what the problem is with that.)
Ives,
When you put it like that then I guess I’d have to agree.
Alas, the YouTube link no longer works. Does anyone have another location to see this? Thanks.
Ives,
Okay, I get your point. Perhaps not everyone will agree with me but I’d like to think we are past the point where it is a big deal that an American scores a goal.
(SBI-Jimmy, I was in the camp that thought his debut header was nothing special, but this goal was a good goal, and when you can see a video of an American scoring a good goal in Europe it’s something U.S. fans will appreciate and enjoy and get excited about. I’m not sure what the problem is with that.)
Jeff in Houston- I don’t see Cooper in competition with Ching. His competition is Jozy or Davies. In fact, if you go by the standard formula of 4 strikers in the WC final 23 you can make a case for these 4 forwards:
Jozy, Davies, Donovan and Dempsey. This gives you more versatility with your midfield choices. The WC is a short tournament so versatility is very important. The US showed in the Confed cup that it could win big games without Ching. I happen to like Ching but unless he and Cooper are on fire when the roster is finalized I can make a case for leaving both out.
@jeff in houston, re:stats oriented
-and what exactly has ching done against good competition…score goals? no!…”hold the ball up and distribute to his streaking mid-fielders?” no! ching more so than anybody is guilty of not being good enough to impact games against higher quality opponents
-and as to your first point…OMG a striker that takes a lot of shots on goal…perish the thought
Cooper is the 3rd striker we need. Bradley prefers Ching-a guy who can’t score against anyone above MLS level.
@Jeff in HOUSTON
Of course you’re not going to rate him above Ching… Your name states that fact pretty clearly
Really, the only comparison is whether to take Cooper or Casey. Altidore, Davies, and Ching are set in stone. Casey has done nothing for me to consider him invaluable as a 4th forward, so give Cooper a shot. He’d only get mop up duty anyway.
I think most neutral observers would say Bundesliga2 is at least as good or better than MLS. I can’t believe all the negativity; very few strikers do everything well. How fast is Ruud van Nistelrooy? How many goals does 6’+ Thierry Henry score with his head?
If he keeps scoring goals, who gives a F*#^$ how he scores them. I’m glad to see him doing well overseas. If he keeps scoring goals there, he deserves more looks by the Nats…
And, for the stats-oriented, I’ll check to see who and what type of game Coop’s goals come from…let’s not forget that Eddie J scored a bundle off the bat v. 3 tier Concacaf team and has more or less fizzled since.
I should have saved the stats I posted in the middle of Gold Cup re: our 3 Cs. The numbers bore out that Cooper does not provide assists and takes a significant number of shots to get what was, more or less, the same numbers of goals. So…that said, b/c this AIN’T personal ;), Cooper has a ways to go before I rate him next to Ching. Doesn’t mean he can’t do it, doesn’t mean I don’t want him to do it..just my opinion that he is not (yet) good enuff to supplant Ching.
Point taken, Ives. It’s beautiful to see Americans score in Europe, period. Hope Cooper bags a dozen this season.
Why should there be a Bundesliga2 asterisk? Bundesliga2 is just as good of a league, if not tougher (b/c of greater pressue, bigger microscope)to score goals in than MLS. If guys like Ching and Casey can get a callup for scoring/working in MLS then Cooper certainly deserves one for getting regular PT and making the most of his opps in B2.
“Nice goal, but typical Cooper. He still plays like he’s 5’9 instead of 6’4.
Posted by: PetedeLA”
What does this even mean with regards to this goal in the run of play? What’d you want him to do, flip it up to himself and head it in? 6’4″ guys aren’t supposed to do step-over moves? I really don’t understand all the negativity. It was a fine goal.
positively clint-esque (mathis, obviously).
Ives,
That was a good goal but it was fairly routine. To describe it as a beautiful goal and give it excessive hype does Cooper a disservice. It also makes you look like a cheerleader which may or may not be appropriate, depending on whether or not this site is a professional journalistic excercise for you or a fan site for your personal views.
Adam M.
Cooper scores regularly everywhere he plays. Don’t take my word for it; do the research and look it up. I believe he is on 4 goals in 9 games for the US. That ratio is hard to ignore.
Whether the ball dribbles over the line or breaks the keeper’s fingers on the way in is irrelevant. The last time I checked,once it goes over the line, it’s a goal.
(SBI- It was a good goal, perhaps calling it beautiful was overstating it, but I’m pretty sure the Kenny Cooper fans will acknowledge that I’m not a Cooper “cheerleader”. I was impressed by his play on the goal. People want to criticize the defending, but he did put the pressure on the defense and finished off the chance.
And Jimmy, you come on this site enough to know what the site is about. If you still haven’t figured it out then maybe you should pay more attention.)
A worm burner from the edge of the box is hardly a beautiful goal. From the headline I was expecting some sort of left-footed volley into the upper corner….
(Good to see Cooper score though…)
(SBI-Okay, so maybe it wasn’t Messi-esque, and calling it beautiful is a bit of a stretch, but it was a good goal.)
I’m hoping Cooper scores 15goals this season. 1860 need to work on their defense. Maybe they will get promoted, that would be great.
Altidore/Davies up front. Cooper is gonna beat out Ching for 3rd striker role. Ching and EJ will be fighting it out for 4th striker.
Good goal, but no real power on the shot, which is what you’d want to see to expect him to score that regularly. Cooper has much to prove before he challenges the top choice Nats strikers, especially if we keep seeing Bradley bump Dempsey up front later in the game instead of bringing on a new striker.
COME BACK TO DALLAS COOP!!
“He’s one-dimensional. Kebzach”
What is wrong with that? Cooper is supposed to focus on scoring goals. Tell me what other dimensions, Davies, for example, brings to the table? Isn’t the whole point of what Davies does is to make it easier for someone either Davies or one of his teamates to score? Did I mistake this for Olympic figure skating? Kezbach, do they now award points for style?
“Great goal, but a big, slow, non-heading player who tries to dribble at defenders and shoot from long range just isn’t what the Nats need right now. Ching or Casey will be ahead of him because of their A) work rate and B) ability to hold the ball and create for others.- Joel”
Cooper’s first goal for 1860 was a header. What makes you think he is slower than say, Ching or Casey? You don’t score as many goals as he does by being slow. And if you say penalties don’t count (tell Chelsea, Italy, England or Manchester United that) then I don’t know what to tell you.
He scores more goals than they do. Shooting from long range keeps the goalkeeper and the defense honest. As a former goalkeeper, I can tell you we hated long range shots because they gave you too much time to think.
The whole point of what Ching and Casey do is to allow the team to score goals. Cooper short circuits that process by scoring himself. The USMNT needs to have all these guys available. Bradley needs all the options he can get. It’s just too bad the US doesn’t have all their talents in one guy right now.
I still think he’s a better choice than Connor Casey.