Reggae Boyz loom large in MLS play-offs

Gordon Williams, Gleaner Writer

Jamaica will boast across-the-board presence in this year's Major League Soccer (MLS) play-offs, which kick off tonight in the United States.

Each of the top eight clubs in North America's premier football competition will carry at least one player with strong connections to the island on its roster, ranging from a rookie getting his first taste of post-season action, to veterans with more than a decade of MLS experience and multiple titles.

Tonight's first-leg matchup between home team Colorado Rapids and Columbus Crew will feature two of Jamaica's emerging players - striker Omar Cummings of the Rapids and Crew defender Shaun Francis.

St Catherine native Cummings, 28, a fixture among the senior Reggae Boyz, had an impressive regular season, scoring 14 goals - tops for the Rapids and tied for fourth in the 16-team MLS. He led the Rapids to a fifth-place finish in MLS's Western Conference and the league's seventh best record overall.

Debut

The Rapids' roster also includes defender-midfielder Anthony Wallace, a former United States (US) Under-20 World Cup captain, whose parents are from Kingston.

Francis, 24, a former national youth player from Mandeville, who made his senior Jamaica team debut recently against Trinidad and Tobago, entered MLS in 2010 out of Lindsey Wilson College. His confidence and playing time grew as the rookie's season progressed and he helped the Crew to second place in the Eastern Conference, fourth best in MLS.

When MLS first leg play-off games continue on Saturday, October 30, more Jamaicans will join the action.

Heading the list will be former national player, Andy Williams, who won the 2009 MLS Cup with Real Salt Lake. The crafty 33-year-old midfielder, a 1998 World Cup veteran with a goal and seven assists this season, will take the defending champions - who finished second in the Western Conference - to Texas, where they will face FC Dallas and striker Jeff Cunningham.

Cunningham is from Montego Bay. He played one friendly international for Jamaica in 1999 before becoming an American citizen, making 14 appearances for the US

Cunningham scored 11 goals this year to move his career tally to 132, second most in league history and one behind all-time leader Jaime Moreno. The 34-year-old is also third on the all-time list of MLS games played with 344.

Speedy winger Dane Richards and his New York Red Bulls will travel to the San José Earthquakes on October 30. The in-form 26-year-old from Montego Bay, who like Cummings scored in his final MLS regular season game of 2010, has emerged a star with the Red Bulls, even after the club acquired big name players Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez in mid-season. Richards bounced back from an early season injury to score five goals in 2010.

He will face national teammates Ryan Johnson, a 25-year-old forward, and midfielder Khari Stephenson, who joined the Earthquakes in mid-season after several years in Europe.

The surging Red Bulls won the MLS Eastern Conference title, but San José, sixth in the west and eighth overall, improved with the addition of the 29-year-old Stephenson, who had one goal and an assist.

Johnson has been in solid form for the Reggae Boyz this year, scoring against Argentina and Costa Rica. He scored one MLS goal in more than 1,700 minutes of playing time in 2010, but notched eight assists.

Play-off matchup

The final play-off matchup in the first round, which features home-and-away fixtures with the team scoring the most goals advancing, will be on Sunday, October 31.

National goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts of the Los Angeles Galaxy visits defender Tyrone Marshall and the Seattle Sounders.

Ricketts, 33, followed last year's impressive MLS debut when he was chosen Galaxy Defender of the Year, with a solid 2010. He recorded 11 shutouts this season while conceding an average of less than a goal per game. Ricketts helped his club to 59 points from 30 games, the best record in MLS.

Teenager Tristan Bowen, a US youth international whose parents are from Jamaica, is also on the Galaxy's roster.

Former MLS All-Star Marshall has spent over a decade in the league and is a two-time MLS Cup winner with the Galaxy. Recently, he appeared as a substitute in the Sounders' successful retention of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, North America's answer to the English FA Cup.

It was the third time that Marshall was winning the knockout trophy. And while the retired international is no longer an automatic starter, his experience has bolstered the second-year club on and off the field.