Houston gets stronger with trade for Omar Cummings

Houston looks stronger today with the acquisition of Rapids striker Omar Cummings, who had lost his way over the past two seasons at Colorado, unable to repeat his fabulous form of 2010. Cummings hit a career-high 14 goals that year, but he has just nine goals in 54 appearances since.

Still, Houston is a place where strikers can and have gone to prosper. At 30, Cummings still has plenty of that signature speed, and now he’s in a system that looks more like the one Colorado employed previously under Gary Smith, the one that made Cummings a premier MLS forward two years back.

Kinnear always likes to pair one big striker (Will Bruin is the guy now) with one speedy type. Calen Carr and Mac Kandji have the speed element, but Cummings is a better finisher than either.

Plus, the Dynamo didn’t part with much to get the Jamaican international; the Rapids picked up backup defender/midfielder Nathan Sturgis and allocation money from Houston in exchange.

It’s hard to see what Colorado gets out of this other than a completion of its striker core makeover (although league policy of not disclosing allocation amounts involved in trades always makes that difficult to assess). Cummings and Sturgis are about equal in salary, both at just under $100,000 guaranteed.

Cummings was the other half of a once-lethal pairing at DSG Park, alongside Conor Casey, who was picked up last week by Philadelphia in the league’s re-entry draft process. So, clearly Rapids manager Oscar Pareja has designs on a name striker, most likely out of South America.

Sturgis has always been a talent, and a versatile one at that. And his technical style suits the way Pareja wants to play. But a history of injuries has beaten down what looked to be a promising career, and he simply has not been able to nail down a consistent starting role at any previous stop.