Perhaps one should take FC Dallas striker Kenny Cooper’s decision to turn down an offer to join the U.S. national team for its World Cup qualifying game in Trinidad & Tobago Wednesday at face value. He’s been nursing an ankle injury and a bout of “flu-like symptoms,” and so it was best to concentrate on getting healthy for his side’s important game at Real Salt Lake on Saturday.
“I felt it was the right thing to do to stay in Dallas and make sure I get well and hopefully there will be other opportunities [to play for the national team] down the line,” said the twice-capped Cooper, who did not play in his club side’s exhibition game Tuesday against Mexican team Tigres. On the other hand, there are a lot of professional players who would not let a cold and a sore ankle prevent them from turning out for their country.
Indeed, some headlines have referred to Cooper’s no-show as a “snub.” After all, he’s the second top scorer in Major League Soccer this season with 18 goals and has been in consistently terrific form. It could be reasoned that his failure to receive a summons until after the national team was already safely through to the next qualifying round has been taken as an insult, especially when you consider Cooper’s been repeatedly ignored in favor of out-of-form players like Ed Johnson. It’s almost as though Cooper’s saying he’s beyond the stage where he wants to be part of coach Bob Bradley’s ‘experimental’ lineups for the final two preliminary qualifying round games.
“It’s fantastic that he is still on the bubble with Bob Bradley and the national team,” said Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman said. “We were all extremely excited for him to get a call.” Albeit a couple of weeks too late. Hyndman’s words have the desperate tone of damage control about them. It will be interesting to see how long it is before Bradley sends another call-up Cooper’s way.