NATIONAL TEAM FOCUS | San Antonio Scorpions Forward Omar Cummings

National Team Focus will be a regular feature on NASL.com and will look at a player’s time with their respective national team, either a particular moment, tournament experience, or overall international career.

The Jamaican National Team secured its fifth Caribbean Cup trophy in 2010, but it almost never happened.

After the first match, a 3-1 win over Antigua and Barbuda, there was internal strife between the players and the federation – and the players almost walked away from the tournament.

“Preparing for the tournament was great,” San Antonio Scorpions forward Omar Cummings said. “We met two weeks before the tournament in Jamaica. After the first game there were disagreements between the players and the federation. The players, as a group, were talking about not playing the next game.”

The issues, however, were resolved, and Jamaica completed the rest of the competition. While there certainly could have been negative repercussions, a lot of positives were also forthcoming.

“Absolutely,” Cummings said on if that process brought the team closer together. “It was definitely a bonding experience and as players it was each player fighting for each player.”

The willingness for the players to fight for each other trickled down and showcased itself on the pitch to great effect. The Reggae Boyz went on to breeze through the rest of the group stage with a 2-0 win over Guadeloupe and a 4-0 victory over Guyana to reach the knockout phase. It was in that next stage of the competition where Cummings and his teammates needed to show their resolve.

In the semifinals, the Reggae Boyz needed a 96^th minute winner against Grenada to reach the final and then penalty kicks to win the Caribbean Cup against Guadeloupe, who they had beaten earlier. 

“It’s always tough playing in the Caribbean, believe me,” Cummings said. “With Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, usually within the top two teams, the other teams are always coming after Jamaica and Trinidad. It’s always a fight. There are no easy games.”

The 32-year-old forward scored just one goal in his three appearances at the tournament, but it came at a crucial time. Rodolph Austin won the ball in midfield for Jamaica and then bombed down the flank. The midfielder's cross was then headed towards Cummings by his strike partner Luton Shelton. And the finish for the match’s opening goal, in the 32nd minute, came in acrobatic fashion, not too dissimilar from the one that the forward scored a weekend ago for the Scorpions.

He said of the goal, “To score in the Cup and to score in the final was amazing. As a striker, you can’t ask for anything more.” 

For the Reggae Boyz, it was a storybook finish and one that so nearly was never written.