For the last few weeks of preseason and scrimmages the primary complaint has been there is no one that can score goals on Sporting Kansas City not named Dom Dwyer. On top of that, Dwyer has sat out both games in the Desert Diamond Cup so far.

Well it appears someone has heard our cries. The Program on 810 Sports Radio is reporting that MLS veteran Kenny Cooper is on trial with Sporting KC in Tucson, Arizona.

Veteran Forward Kenny Cooper brought in by @SportingKC for a trial today. Peter Vermes on the show now with @nate_bukaty — The Program (@theprogramkc) February 22, 2016

This no doubt is a direct result of Daniel Salloi and Jacob Peterson being very ineffective at creating scoring opportunities. Salloi seems more promising but he is very thin at only 19-years-old and was easily getting muscled off the ball.

The paranoid pessimist in me thinks this could be because the injury to Dom Dwyer is worse than initially reported. While Vermes didn’t say it directly, he indicated after the first game against the Columbus Crew that they were simply not taking any chances with Dom’s health. I assumed that meant he could play, but they weren’t pushing it.

Dwyer was once again in street clothes after the second game of the DDC versus the New England Revolution.

Kenny Cooper is an MLS veteran. He has been in MLS since 2006 (excluding part of 2009 and 2010 in Germany), playing for FC Dallas, the Portland Timbers, the New York Red Bulls, the Seattle Sounders and the Montreal Impact. For the last six consecutive seasons he has switched teams every year (playing for FC Dallas twice).

Cooper has been successful in the past, as he has scored 75 goals over his career (adding another 20 assists). Last season for Montreal he played only four minutes. He missed the remainder of the year with injury. In 2014 he did appear 24 times tallying three goals for Seattle. His last truly successful stop was with the Red Bulls in 2012 when he made 33 appearances and scored 18 goals.

Cooper is just 31-years-old, so if he is healthy he could be a good depth player that has the ability to score. That comes with a caveat. He would need to be willing to take a big pay cut. His base salary last year was $220,000 with his guaranteed compensation at $285,625. Even at the lower figure, that’s $55,000 per minute in 2015 for Montreal. Ouch! That is a bit of an exaggeration as that only includes minutes of league play, but he did appear otherwise for the Impact.

If Cooper is reducing his salary and can show he is physically still able to play, then I’m all for this potential signing. It would give good veteran depth off the bench and a player actually capable of coming in and scoring late in the game. That’s something Sporting hasn’t had in quite some time.

However, if he is going to be expected to start because the Dwyer situation is worse than we’ve been told, then Cooper is simply unacceptable. Fans are surely hoping for the former instead of the latter.

Let us know what you think of the potential Kenny Cooper signing.