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Cummings nets player of the month
No. 14, Omar Cummings, is lifted by his teammates, including Kosuke Kimura, right, after scoring the team's first goal in a 4-1 rout of Philadelphia on Wednesday. Cummings, who scored six goals in four games in September, was named MLS Player of the Month for September on Thursday. (Photograph by Jessica Taves/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)
Major League Soccer and the North American Soccer Reporters on Thursday announced that Colorado Rapids Omar Cummings was voted Major League Soccer’s Player of the Month for September. Cummings played in four of five games for Colorado in September, scoring six goals and adding one assists in that span. This is Cummings first career MLS Player of the Month honor.
The month for Cummings began on a positive when he was named the MLS Player of the Week after he scored twice in the Rapids 3-0 home win over Chivas USA on Sept. 4.
Following that game, he joined his national team, Jamaica, for a mid-week friendly against Peru in Florida, in which he also tallied a goal.
Four days later, he scored one of the best goals of the year on the road against the New York Red Bulls, ripping a 35-yard left-footed blast that hit the underside of the crossbar on its way in. It was his 9th goal of the season, which gave him a new single-season career high, and the goal was later voted the MLS Goal of the Week.
Cummings continued his torrid pace the next week, scoring once and adding his first assist of the year in a 3-0 home win over the New England Revolution on Sept. 18. He left that game early after spraining his left ankle, and the coaching staff decided to give him a few extra days of rest therefore did not use him for the Rapids next game at Real Salt Lake, which ended in a 1-1 tie.
The rest appeared to help, as Cummings finished the month with two goals in the first 15 minutes of a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Union last night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
Cummings has scored in five consecutive games that he’s appeared in, tallying seven goals during this stretch. His streak of goals in five straight games equals the MLS season-high set by Toronto’s Dwayne De Rosario in April, and is one short of the club record of goals in six consecutive games set by John Spencer in 2003.
He is tied for third on the MLS goal-scoring board with 12 goals, one ahead of teammate Conor Casey, and two behind League-leader Edson Buddle of Los Angeles.
Cummings is the fourth-ever Rapids player to win the Player of the Month honor. Casey was recognized in May 2009, Mark Chung won the honor in July 2003, and Ross Paule won it in June 1998.
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