The Montreal Impact have acquired American striker Kenny Cooper, front. (John Lok/CP)
The Montreal Impact have added some experience and size up front after acquiring veteran striker Kenny Cooper off MLS waivers on Sunday.
Copper, 30, is expected to arrive in Montreal and start training with the Impact within the next two days.
The signing of Copper gives Montreal, who never found a replacement for Marco Di Vaio following the Italian’s retirement in the off-season, some much-needed attacking depth. Rookie forward Cameron is out for the rest of the year with a knee injury, and winger Justin Mapp is several months away from returning after injuring his elbow.
Montreal is through to the finals of the CONCACAF Champions League, but is winless through its first four games (with two losses) of the current MLS campaign–the Impact have only scored two goals in those four matches.
“We are very pleased to add Kenny to our roster,” Impact technical director Adam Braz said via a news release.
“We have spoken about wanting to add quality depth to our attack and we have done so with this signing. Kenny has scored 75 goals in our league and that says a lot about his abilities. He is an excellent person who will fit in well with our group. We have improved our team and we are looking forward to having him join our group.”
Cooper, who stands six-foot-three-inches and weighs 210 pounds, will give Montreal more of a physical presence up front than Jack McInerney, who’s been starting for the Impact in recent weeks, including Saturday’s 3-0 road loss to the Houston Dynamo.
“McInerney doesn’t offer the physical strength that the Impact need in the attack,” wrote Sportsnet.ca columnist Nick Sabetti. “There were several times where the Impact’s players found themselves in good crossing positions on the edge of the Houston area but opted to try and dribble past one or two defenders instead of simply crossing the ball in the box.
“Without having any kind of aerial presence, the odds of a cross being successful are certainly diminished.”
A veteran of eight MLS seasons, Cooper has 75 regular season goals in 210 appearances (172 starts). He most recently spent the 2014 campaign with the Seattle Sounders, registering three goals and four assists in 22 league matches. The Sounders waived Cooper on April 2.
“I’m very excited to have the opportunity to join the Montreal Impact,” Kenny Cooper said in a news release. “With the recent achievement of reaching the Champions League final, it’s obviously a great time for the club. I am eager and determined to contribute to more success this year. It will be a privilege to represent a club, so rich in history and fan support.”
Montreal will be Cooper’s fifth MLS club after enjoying two stints with FC Dallas (2006-09 and 2013), the Portland Timbers (2011), the New York Red Bulls (2012) and the Sounders (2014). He twice scored 18 goals in a single MLS campaign (for Dallas in 2008 and New York in 2012) and was named to the MLS Best XI in 2008.
Cooper was once a member of the Manchester United youth system, and eventually played for 1860 Munich in Germany (2009-2011) and Plymouth Argyle in England (2010).
A familiar pattern to Impact’s MLS season
As remarkable as the Montreal Impact’s CONCACAF Champions League run has been, it has come at the cost of a slow start to the Major League Soccer season.
On Saturday in Texas, the Impact fell 3-0 to the Houston Dynamo, leaving them winless after four games with a record of 0-2-2.
What’s most regrettable about the results so far is that the Impact’s first four matches against D.C United, New England, Orlando and Houston were all winnable, or at least relatively easier games compared to those that that they will face as the season progresses.
Soccer Central podcast: SPORTSNET.CA’s Soccer Central podcast, hosted by John Molinaro and James Sharman, takes an in-depth look at the beautiful game and offers timely and thoughtful analysis on the sport’s biggest issues. To listen and subscribe to the podcast,
Looking back, D.C. was missing Chris Rolfe, Luis Silva and Fabián Espíndola; New England was without Jermaine Jones and was out of form; Orlando City, an expansion team, had eight players on international duty; and Houston is simply not a very formidable side (before Saturday, Owen Coyle’s men had only managed to score two goals in five games).
It is not the case that because the Impact are in the Champions League they have decided to disregard their MLS appointments. Against the Dynamo, Impact coach Frank Klopas fielded a strong starting 11 and they certainly entered the game with the mindset of winning it.
In the first half, the Impact were even quite surprising in the quality of their play. They pressed high up the field, recovered the ball on numerous occasions in the opposing half and enjoyed most of the possession—all things which they have struggled to do for more than a year.
But the attacking end-product was missing.
“We had a lot of the ball and had some good chances, but the final pass in the final third just was not there,” Klopas said after the game. “There were moments when our decision-making was not there even though we had a lot of possession.”
Not being able to find a suitable replacement for Marco Di Vaio in the off-season has cost the Impact in the league—they’ve only managed to score two goals in four games.
Jack McInerney doesn’t offer the physical strength that the Impact need in the attack. There were several times where the Impact’s players found themselves in good crossing positions on the edge of the Houston area but opted to try and dribble past one or two defenders instead of simply crossing the ball in the box. Without having any kind of aerial presence, the odds of a cross being successful are certainly diminished.
Ultimately, the mid-week game in Costa Rica against Alajuelense took its toll on the Impact as they slowly began to subside in the second half and Houston began to take advantage of Montreal’s sloppy and disjointed attacks.
Though the intense offensive display of the first half was admirable, given the evident fatigue from the Champions League Klopas should have adopted a more conservative approach and had his players pace themselves better. By the final 30 minutes, the Impact had exhausted all their energy and had little chance of getting back into the game.
With April’s league games against Chicago and San Jose rescheduled for September, the Impact’s focus will now be entirely devoted to the Champions League final home-and-home series with Mexican side Club America later this month.
But in the back of their minds, the Impact will undoubtedly carry some concern that the MLS season is beginning to resemble that of 2014.
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário