By Petar Petrov (@PPetrov_FR)
Jason Cummings became a cult hero in Australia even before his Socceroos debut.
Newly hatched Socceroo Jason Cummings has been trending on Twitter over the last couple of days, but the reason why he’s been popping up on every other Australian’s social media feed wasn’t his goal in the second of the two games against New Zealand.
Cummings’ nickname – ‘Cumdog’ – actually started trending on the platform after the lineup for the first game against the All Whites was released. The attacker’s absence from the matchday squad caused a stir amongst A-League and Socceroos fans, who wanted to know where their favourite cult hero was.
But there is much more to Jason Cummings than only a catchy nickname, Scottish accent, and a joker’s character.
The ex-Rangers player made his debut for the Australian national team on Sunday at Eden Park, almost five years after his first call-up for Scotland, his home country and the country in which his father was born (his mother is Australian).
Cummings’ first game for the Socceroos went a lot better than his inaugural appearance for Scotland though. Similar to that game against the Netherlands in 2017, the Edinburgh-born striker came on in the second half, but this time his team won and he even scored the sealer.
The goal came from the highest xG event in the game, via a penalty kick, which Cummings himself won, following a brilliant individual raid from Central Coast teammate and fellow debutant Garang Kuol.
So how did it come to this? How did a 27-year-old former Scotland international, who was described as a “dressing room clown” by the media, not so long ago, end up representing Australia?
CUMMINGS THE PLAYER
Jason joined Central Coast Mariners on the 23rd of January 2022, from Scottish top-tier side Dundee FC, where he had spent just 360 days, scoring 14 goals and providing two assists in 36 appearances.
Sixteen goal contributions in less than 40 games are usually considered a pretty decent output but over the years Cummings’ reputation in the UK had been hindered and the Hearts youth product needed a change, after he lost his spot in the Dundee starting XI.
What better place for that than sunny Australia and Central Coast Stadium?
Upon his arrival in Gosford, Cummings instantly became one of the first names on the team sheet, taking no time to settle in and scoring just 57 minutes into his first ALM match. He never looked back afterward. The understanding and in-game awareness shared by himself and Marco Ureña was telepathic and played a key role in Central Coast’s qualification for finals.
The 27-year-old started every single game in which he was available, finishing the season as Central Coast’s top scorer, with 10 goals, and the second best provider, with five assists.
In that time, he also managed to top his team’s charts for Chances Created (25), Shots on target (32), and xG accumulated (11), despite playing in only 21 out of the 27 fixtures (including one appearance in the Finals) throughout the league season.
But performances weren’t impressive just in the context of the Mariners’ squad, Cummings had taken the A-League Men by storm and by the end of the season boasted incredible numbers compared to most strikers in the competition.
As seen from the graphic above, in 21/22 the Mariners’ number nine ranked in the 80th percentile for Non-Pen Goals and 84th for Touches in the Box, numbers that show just how big of a threat he was.
For example, Jamie Maclaren, the A-League’s top scorer, was the only striker to rank higher in both metrics, according to Wyscout.
But unlike Maclaren, Cummings also did extremely well when it comes to creating for his teammates. He ranked in the top one percentile for Assists made by center-forwards and in the 84th for Second Assists.
All these numbers highlight exactly how good Cummings has been since setting foot in Australia and althought they alone are probably not enough to guarantee him a spot on the plane to Qatar, they definitely should help him establish a reputation of not only being a cool guy off the pitch but also a top player on it.
