Scores a deflected goal from distance. 42' | OMG A GOLZO FROM CAVAN SULLIVAN!!!WHAT.A.HIT.FROM.DISTANCE.Union II 2-0 Crew 2#Doop #MLSNextPro #MLS #USMNT pic.twitter.com/9cTJ4HvRca— The Free Kick (@FreeKickPod) November 2, 2024
Cavan is starting Our @MLSNEXTPRO Cup Starting XI⚡️#DOOP pic.twitter.com/j3M4RVucez— Philadelphia Union II (@PhilaUnionII) November 10, 2024
I was only there the first half and he was sharp but didn't get the ball much. A few times was wide open and his teammates didn't see him. Could be he looks better with the first team because of that.
https://www.givemesport.com/inside-the-fallout-between-jim-curtin-and-philadelphia-union/ Another was the delicate handling to develop 15-year-old academy product Cavan Sullivan, who will join Manchester City when he turns 18. While Tanner was in Europe this summer, Curtin elevated Sullivan to be always be in first team training. It was something Tanner wasn’t aware of as it happened. He wasn’t against Sullivan’s elevation to the first team, but it highlights the fact the two weren’t speaking to each other or collaborative. Curtin cited Sullivan’s handling of the jump up to MLS Next Pro with the Union’s second team. That messaging irked the front office, as Curtin dismissed other performances from Union II players by saying the jump from MLS Next Pro to MLS is steep.
He's right. As MLS keeps improving it is harder to make that jump. I think that's why FCD went older with N TX. The best setup I've seen is Germany where they have U19 and U23 teams. The real promising prospects never go to U23 but most do and they compete in their pyramid against grown men in the 2nd or 3rd divisions. Meaning MLS should also have both but I understand it's a lot of money to do both. The need for the U23 to actually draw a lot of fans to mostly pay for itself isn't likely here yet.
FCD seems to be following Columbus' lead more -- they won a title or two with a somewhat older team, and then a number of those guys became real contributors for an MLS winning team. Some of them were younger, like Morris and Schulte, but Zawadski and Max Arfsten were a bit older. NTX has some guys that are too far for that, but I do think there's probably real value to having a team with some level of older players. Having teammates who are trying to do this as a job and frankly, are on the edge of their career. Winning more and experiencing the pressure of big games -- one of the issues with MLS2 teams in USLC is that the ones that went real young just got their asses kicked over and over. I don't know that you want to instill everything that comes with that. There's lessons in losing but also in winning, and it's hard to hate losing when you don't feel you have a shot to win. There's also real competition for PT for some of these top prospects. No one their age can compete, but that 23 year old might be pushing them. Of course, the Philly team is best of both worlds. But they also have a ton of young talent. The probable ideal set up is not to let an older player block a real prospect who is close in ability, but also surround the best prospects with better players and establish a baseline minimum of performance. Playing a lesser prospect or a young player not ready doesn't help them OR their teammates. In this case, two teams could have that same philosophy but one be older and one be young based entirely on how strong their prospect pipeline is.
Spot on. MLSNP desperately needs to find a way to improve the level. That said, MLS franchises that are operating teams in this league should have the right to run them as they see fit. Don’t be fooled by the D3 designation by US Soccer. The current level is below USL 1 and closer to Top 25 NCAA football. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of talent in this league, because there is. It’s just that many of those really talented kids are young. MLS has to find a way to get their talent to compete against fully professional men at more than a U21/22 level.
They will improve it. It's a very young league. So I don't think there's any real desperation to it. And it seems to me that the independent side is going to grow more, just given long term economics. That said, I think the level is pretty variable right now, and I don't think it is below USL1. The top D3 team in US Open Cup was NYCFC2, which was a young MLSNP team that finished sixth in the East in MLSNP. Overall, MLSNP didn't do great in US Open Cup, but given the it was their first run against truly adult teams ... I would suggest we give it a couple years. From everything I've seen and also heard, the overall level is clearly below USLC, but that's almost entirely age-related. There's a number of talent evaluators that think the athleticism levels in MLSNP are on average higher and so can value some of the data from there more than from USLC.
I don't think Dallas/NTX was doing anything unusual. Philly was the outlier. Which is great................... The point of an MLS reserve team isn't to develop players for USYNTs/USMNT. It's to develop players of any persuasion to impact the first team. It could be that Pedrinho, the Brazilian/winger forward that North Texas signed from Flamengo.........................has more impact on the FCD first team next year than CJ Olney and David Vazquez do for the Union. You know? If FCD had their version of Cavan Sullivan right now, they'd use him. They don't. So what do you do? Roll over and play dead? Or do you sign guys like Bernard Kamungo and Tomas Pondeca. Go out and sign a guy like Diego Garcia from El Paso. Go down and sign a 22 year old out of the Brimingham City academy on a roll of the dice. That kind of thing.
BTW, I just found out after the game that he is the son of Beto. Wow, how did I not know that. I mean I watched Beto play Holland at WC 94. Weird watching his son play now (and being old).
I hate to be a stickler but the U23s/second teams for Bundesliga clubs cannot play higher than the 3.Liga. It's Spain where the second teams can get as high as the second division
Based on other comments it sounds like there might be a push for the next coach to integrate more of the Union2 players next season. It’ll be interesting to see if Sullivan gets special first team treatment even if players like Olney and Vazquez might be ready as well.
This part surprised me about the firing - I had assumed Curtin was instrumental in the signing of Cavan and that it made the Union a lot of money. I figured he was sort of untouchable while Cavan was still there.
Nothing worth less than a favor that's already been done. He was indispensable until he signed Cavan, not after.
Nah. i doubt any of that with Cavan had anything to do with letting Curtin go. I take Tanner and Sugerman for their word about that firing. The results weren't good enough. That was first and foremost. Yes, there were clearly some philosophical priorities regarding player development (and not just youth development) that they talked about in their press conference. But the bottom line was that the results didn't meet their expectations this year. Why Philadelphia Union parted with Jim Curtin & what's next | MLSSoccer.com “I mean, we had a losing streak of over almost three months, which is without an example in the club’s history. And that would have justified it already,” Ernst later added. “There were some glimpses of hope in Leagues Cup, but at the end of the year it didn’t turn out and it’s better to take the decision now, as if we would hope for an improvement during the next season and then we had to do it, then we would be without a coach for a period of time.”