He's been practicing with the first team since he signed in May. Same with Vazquez. When they earn their opportunities they will be given them. Cavan will at the least be sub in the beginning part of the 2025 MLS season. It'll be tough for him to earn a starting spot given that Gazdag is ahead of him, and for those who don't/aren't paying attention to MLS..... Gazdag is literally one of the best AM's in the league.
That's actually a good thing. A 15 year old starter getting big minutes would lead to lots of injuries down the road. I hope they are monitoring that and not over working him as he grows. I thought everyone knew about this years ago with Michael Owens but it has come back and I think a lot of our young stars - Pulisic, Adams, Reyna have suffered because of this.
That's my biggest worry about Lamine Yamal. We have seen many good youth players who have had bad injuries or are injury-prone. Ansu Fati, Gavi, Pedri, Eden Hazard, Christian Pulisic and now Reyna. Good news about Cavan is that Philly doesn't have to push him to sell him the same for many players.
I mean, we're in the era of absurd haterade. Caitlyn Clark is going to make the WNBA like 3x more popular and get EVERYONE in that league paid substantially more, and it seems like anyone who every other player and half the fans decided to full on hate her before she played a game.
I also don't think there is a lot of "haterade" on Cavan. I think 95% of folks get it, and there are just a couple of vocal contrarians. There's a reason Man City paid as much as they did for him. But they're paying for the prospect. We'll see how he develops. His floor seems high, though. And in Philly he's in as good of a developmental environment as he can be in until he's old enough to move to Europe.
Update: I had the opportunity to ask Union II Head Coach Marlon LeBlanc about this specific interaction between Cavan Sullivan and David Vasquez, as it seems to have spread like wildfire, leading to quite a bit of speculation."Let me be clear: I told Cavan to take it. David typically… pic.twitter.com/gc8VYeU12o— José Roberto Nuñez (@JoserNunez91) September 27, 2024
I think the biggest problem with the Clark story is that it is simply too complicated for soundbites. *You have the race piece: the "people will only watch when there's a great white hope" argument. *You have the. "We've had a billion similarly talented, and even more talented, above the rim players and nobody ever paid any attention to them, or to our superstar PG's like Sue Bird. Is it because she's straight and white"? *You have the: "It's jealousy pure and simple argument." *Its got the mean girls angle of social ostracism and abuse. *I'll add that Bill Burr's take from his comedy special more or less mimics my take I've posted on why the arguments for equal pay in sports are absurd, but that's a separate issue. To me, its understandable why players would be jealous and pissed off that literally nothing anyone has ever done in the NBA, and there have been a ton of elite athletes as exciting and more, ever mattered, and then suddenly, this white girl from a conservative state, whose straight, suddenly is the new hotness, while they're all Ford Pinto's nobody gives a rats --- about. I totally get why they're incensed by that in a collective sense. It's not all that disimilar from the bull---- Tiger had to put up with in racial reverse in golf, and the williams sisters to a lesser degree in tennis. Norm Breakers/Icon-Breakers, that make sports orders of magnitude more popular, can really piss people off if there is something about them that's different, Tiger being black, in a white, notoriously mega racist sport, the Williams Sisters being literally kids from roughest neighborhoods of LA, playing in lilly white, historically racist tennis world (although to be fair, i think tennis evolved much faster than golf). I think in this case, you have someone breaking open ticket sales #'s, and tv coverage, and because she's different from the majority of elite players historically other than some point guards like Sue Bird, you've got people jealous of what she's done and what it may mean. The thing they don't get is that it isn't really "all about the racial" as the line went in the 90s. It's more just a different kind of player that simply captured the zeitgeist. It is, a zeitgist thing rather than a race thing because lets be straight, if we had an African American Jordan, or a Euro White Chocolate playing etc, the eyes would be there too. It's about entertainment, and when Caitlin Clark went nuclear, and backed it up with production, eyes followed, simple as that. What made the story much bigger both for ticket sales and attention, is how egregiously bad and how awfully mean girls stereotypical the response was of so many women in the league. It was stupid and self-defeating, like some of what Tiger in particular dealt with 27 years ago in Golf. Let me add, the decision by the Womens Olympic Team not to add her to the roster was so absurdly stupid and wrongheaded, that it basically ensured NOBODY WATCHED OR GAVE A ----. That was probably the cherry on top along with the violence directed at her on a seemingly weekly basis made it seem much more racial than it really was (just freaking jealously and stupidity+other nonsense tied in previously mentioned). But it's layered in so much complexity, that there's no way to reasonably explain why it happened. Some of its about race, some of its about jealousy, some of its about women and how they relate compared to men in sports, its just so utterly nuanced, there's no way to cover it properly because its a little bit of literally everything thats been said, and some things that havent been said, out loud. It's all of it.
Philly mins is better than u17/u20 WC imo. Build that week to week momentum of learning to be a pro. That will help more when he moves.
If Cavan starts to get calls from Germany then I will start to worry. If not I'm good with Cavan staying with Philly
It's good both to be the rookie trying to break into a team with men and one of the best player's being counted on with kids closer to your age. Instead of deferring you are counted on to lead.
And he just turned 15 today Happy 15th birthday, Cavan! 🎈 #DOOP pic.twitter.com/AAV31f35sH— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) September 28, 2024
Sullivan equalizes for @PhilaUnionII! 😤 pic.twitter.com/Y5NaLasymu— MLS NEXT Pro (@MLSNEXTPRO) September 29, 2024
The way Cavan Sullivan hopped over the defender 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/sFdDkXuYJh— 🇺🇸USMNTvsHaters (@USMNTvsHaters) September 29, 2024 Cavan Sullivan bags again… ABSOLUTELY ON FIRE pic.twitter.com/I51XdhG5qb— Youth Soccer Central (@yscentral) September 29, 2024
Cavan Sullivan ('09) in Philly II's comeback win at home over Atlanta United 2:8.4 FotMob rating ✅Man of the Match 💫89 minutes played1 goal (8th goal contribution this season)28/36 (78%) accurate passes2 chances created1 big chance created2/3 shot accuracy54 touches7… pic.twitter.com/u0uBsGOCvo— USMNT Report 🇺🇸🇹🇷 (@USMNTReport) September 29, 2024
I'm going to assume these are all pro athletes who are ultra competitive and his teammates don't treat him with kid gloves in training... also he has three older brothers who probably regularly keep him in check, at least Quinn... I CAN’T be the only one worried about him doing this to the wrong defender who is a lot older and bigger than him, and getting cleaned out in a challenge… Confidence is one thing but he’s definitely not built to withstand a retaliation tackle https://t.co/AtHwG3GZBr— USMNTrev (@Eyesandvibes) September 30, 2024 Cavan Sullivan demonstrating psychopathic behavior after hurdling an opposing player shortly after scoring a goal. Looked him straight in the eyes too. Diabolical. pic.twitter.com/UaGKA64Wlg— Its Always Halftime (@AlwaysHalftime) September 30, 2024
Because people must be worried about something........................ Sometimes young players need to learn lessons the hard way. If the ref thought that was taunting, he could have been carded. And yes, an opponent might retaliate with a hard tackle. The game polices itself. In film session today, hopefully a coach is saying "what the hell did you do that for?"
Obviously don't want him to get hurt but short of that, if the cocky kid is pissing off veteran defenders to the extent that they start taking stupid cards that's a good thing.
Do people really think looking at an opponent you beat "psychopath behavior" or "diabolical"? I'm not much of a competitor and I used to do that, even in pickup sports. It's always so weird to me a fanbase can be simultaneously worried about someone being ultra competitve but also super annoyed that players getting too comfortable.
Looks like he'll be our Mutombo. Dikembe Mutombo, shot-blocking NBA center and humanitarian, dies at 58 (msn.com)