Scorpions Forward Omar Cummings Continues To Push Towards NASL's Golden Boot Award
“And Omar Cummings scores …”
That is becoming a familiar refrain during the 2015 NASL season. The veteran Jamaican forward has found the back of the net 10 times in 15 appearances for the San Antonio Scorpions. With 14 matches remaining in the Fall Season, Cummings can reach and surpass his career mark of 14 goals, which was set back in 2010 when he played for Colorado of MLS and won an MLS Cup with current Atlanta Silverbacks coach Gary Smith.
The success of the forward who has dealt with injuries and limited playing time over the last few seasons can be traced to his arrival this year in San Antonio and how he was received by his new teammates.
“I always got smiles from everyone saying ‘Omar, you’re here!’ or ‘Welcome, you’re a good talent and I think you’ll fit well with the team,’” Cummings told NASL.com. “The guys have been tremendous since I’ve been here.”
In particular, Cummings has formed a strong partnership with Billy Forbes. While Forbes uses his speed and trickery on the wing, Cummings has given the midfielder a target to aim at in the middle. Of Forbes’s five assists on the year, three have been on goals scored by Cummings. The veteran Rafael Castillo has also helped set up Cummings.
“You try to build relationships, especially with guys that are going to feed you the ball,” Cummings said. “As a striker, you want to have that relationship and that click – where you don’t have to say anything, you just do what you’re doing and sometimes you don’t have to even look.
“It’s like instinct; we do this in practice day in and day out, and they know that if they make that play, I’m going to be there.”
And Cummings is also benefitting from a steady run of games as the spearhead of the Scorpions’ attack.
“Once you’re playing you get back into that form and into that mindset, which keeps you in tune and keeps you sharp,” he said. “So I think playing and playing consecutively helps to keep that mindset sharp and in tune.”
After tallying his ninth and 10th goals in a wild 3-3 draw with the Silverbacks, Cummings became the first forward to reach double-digits in goals this year. The NASL’s leading goalscorer currently has a three-goal cushion in the Golden Boot race over the Carolina RailHawks’ Nacho Novo and Minnesota United’s Christian Ramirez, the reigning Golden Boot winner.
It’s an award Cummings would absolutely like to place in his trophy case at the end of the year.
“[It would mean] everything,” he said. “That’s everything for a striker, to be the leading goalscorer, to win the Golden Boot – that’s always something that you want in your trophy case. To be able to say that you’re the Golden Boot winner for any competition, that’s always great.”
For all of Cummings’s goals, though, the Scorpions sit in 10th place in the Combined Standings. The gap, however, to move closer to a berth into The Championship, the NASL’s four-team postseason tournament, is just six points.
With the veteran firing on all cylinders, there’s no reason not to think that a few more goals from Cummings could shoot San Antonio, the defending champions, right back toward the top of the standings.
