Cummings Seizing Rapids Chance
2008-05-09 00:05:42


By Brian Jennings - Look over the starting 11 for the Colorado Rapids so far this season and the name of Omar Cummings has been in the striker slot regularly. However, not many outside of the diehard Rapids fans know much about the 25 year old Jamaican. Cummings recently spoke with Soccer 365 and offers some background on growing up in Jamaica, coming to the United States, and how he has progressed into MLS.
It turns out a series of contacts brought Cummings from Old Harbour in the parish of St. Catherine near Kingston to Denver and MLS. “I think right after High School in Jamaica I was either going to go to college full time there, or see where soccer could take me,” says the soft-spoken forward. “Luckily, It took me to college here so I go to do both.”

“My club coach back in Jamaica he does camps here in the States so he meets a lot of coaches. A coach was looking for a forward so he pretty much recommended me to Cincinnati State. Then it was on to U of Cincinnati”.

Colorado Assistant Coach John Murphy had an eye on Cummings his junior year and explains how Colorado was able to latch onto Omar. “I was lucky I some good contacts in the Big East and they put me on to him when he was a junior and we started tracking him.”

“His senior year he was having issues with (his) meniscus. He eventually had surgery so he wasn’t at the combine. People stayed away from him for a couple of reasons: the injury, two-because of his status as a foreign player, and three his age. But like my colleague at UConn told me he was a man amongst boys in college. We drafted him and we got some criticism for it because a lot of people didn’t know who he was.”

Murphy and Rapids Head Coach Fernando Clavijo soon saw the raw talent Cummings possessed as he helped the Rapids win the reserve team championship in 2007. “What he brings you can’t put a price tag on it-pace and explosiveness. You can’t teach that. You either have it or you don’t,” says Murphy, who led the reserve team to their title. “You saw it last year in limited (MLS first team) time, he scored against New England, he scored against Chivas USA, and he was fantastic for us with the reserves when we won the championship”.

One thing Rapids fans wondered about in 2007 was who is this youth international and was he worth a foreign slot under the new rules of MLS in 2008. The staff held to their belief in Cummings and he is now showing his game to MLS fans on a weekly basis. “He certainly, last year, counted as one of our 4 foreign players so you have to give (Rapids Head Coach) Fernando (Clavijo) credit. That was a big chance back then,” Murphy admitted.

“The funny part was, the rules helped him a little bit as a junior international,” Clavijo tells soccer365.com. “Now, everybody is the same. I look around and say can we get a player with that potential for that kind of money and I say no. (His age) now becomes a positive. At the beginning it was a negative and a big chance to take. I don’t want to go and look for somebody who hasn’t made it yet. For us, we’re not taking much of a chance. He has a tremendous way to go and we need to keep working with him, but he has all the tools.”

Those tools start with a great work ethic and have grown from day one in Colorado.

“He really came in and showed very well. He has a fantastic attitude,” says Murphy. “You really saw it this year when he came in and established himself as the number one striker on the team. Everybody loves him. Omar’s a positive kid, he’s always got a smile. That’s part of it. He works, he doesn’t get too down on himself and I think that’s a great mentality to have as a striker-you miss one and you have to get ready for the next one.”

Omar admits he is willing to help wherever he is needed and just enjoys the game. “I’m all about positive play. I’ll bring speed and energy to the game. Help defensively, challenge for balls. (I have) an eye for goal.”

Clavijo agrees but also sees Cummings growing on the field day in and day out. “One of things you can see physically he’s capable to match up with anybody in the league. He’s one of those players where you put him in a competitive environment and work with him you’re going to be able to see things.”

In these days where some young players want to rush into the first team and prove they have “made it” Clavijo likes being able to develop younger players at their own pace. “Some people don’t take the time to work with players. The players think they’re better than they are and they want to start to play right away or they want to give up. I think Omar is sticking with it. He’s working, still not there yet, but physically he can change a game.”

Cummings hails from a small island, but one with enough talent to regularly challenge for soccer’s biggest stage, the World Cup. He admits around his neighborhood it was play well or his relatives would let him hear about it. “My family helped in where I’m at. I grew up in a soccer environment. My brothers play, my uncles, my cousins play in the National Team, everybody. I was expected to do well because my brothers were sort of the best in the community. There was a little bit of pressure to fill those shoes but it was good.”

Now when Omar returns home in the off-season old friends and teammates see him as someone who is on his way to making his own mark. “It’s a rush. I see guys getting encouraged by what I do-going to college, being in MLS-I give encouragement to kids. When I go back, I have cleats and guys know I come back they’re saying ‘what do you have for me?’ Even the older guys and managers say ‘yeah, this is one of mine’, but whatever help I got from them I appreciate it so anything I can do is nothing.”

He first noticed his countrymen playing on the world stage in the early 90’s and decided he could someday do that as well. “It was a rush to see Jamaica in the World Cup. Growing up you see the World Cup being played and you think why is my country out there? Guys felt like we can do this, we could play with the big teams.”

That is one opportunity that Cummings would like to take advantage of in the future by showing well in MLS and catching the eyes of the Jamaican Federation. “It’s tremendous skill level in Jamaica, but the structure is letting players down. Players like my brothers didn’t get the chance due to the structure. It was good to see the change Jamaica made from 94 to 98 when Rene Simoes took over.”

Cummings freely admits there are things about his game he needs to work on, and you can tell he has been listening to the Rapids coaching staff echoing some of their observations. “(I need to work on) position, get into better spaces, score goals. Working with my teammates, letting them know where I want the ball, but also working with players within my team-working off them and they can work off me.”
Clavijo agrees and would like to see more of what fans noticed this past Sunday against DC United when Cummings frequently got behind the defense but also made some nice moves to free up space and provide to his teammates. “I want him to run, make runs, create space for him or somebody else. His potential to run, to chase people, to force defenders to make mistakes makes him a threat right now”.
“I’d like to see him integrate more into a team play. I think what he needs to do better is to understand that when he’s finished participating with the rest of the team going forward he needs to get back to the box. He’s a target-he’s a striker. Sometimes he plays the ball wide and looks instead of playing the ball wide run into the box.”

The other obvious need from a striker is goal scoring. Cummings has found net once in 2008, but as Assistant Coach Murphy explains, strikers are measured by scores. “To go to the next level, he needs to cut down on the number of chances it takes to score a goal. All that work rate is fantastic but he needs to be more economical with his efforts. The best goalscorers are scoring 1 out of 2, 1 out of 3 chances. He needs to get a little bit closer to that and reward himself for the work he puts in.”
“Ultimately, strikers are judged by the number of goals they score. He brings other people into the game, he occupies defenses, his movement is very good, he defends well from the front, but at the end of the day it has to be balanced with scoring goals and creating chances. I’m confident he’s going to be able to do that.”

Very good story on Cummings..wishing him all the best. The coach dey a look for a super striker. 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 chances? Not 1 of the top 10 scorers in the prem or championship score 1 in 3 shots. The average score rate for the top 10 goal scorers is 1 in 5 for the prem and 1 in 4.3 attempts for the championship. The great Ronaldo scores 1 in every 5.9 attempts! A startling fact is that Fuller has a better strike rate than King. Fuller scores 1 in every 5.5 attempts, while King 1 in 6.9. Who would have thought!

Cummings just scored his 3rd goal of the season in the 65th minute.