I’m being a little facetious, he will obviously get time, unless he truly doesn’t perform I don’t think Carnell can get away with not playing him this year.
I would guess Carnell might get some pressure form the Union owner's if he doesn't play him (unless his play is obviously poor) because I think this will be his last season in MLS and the owners probably want to make sure he's remembered for playing with them.
Listen, I know it is preseason against a Czech team, but... I think this Cavan Sullivan means business.#doop #MLS pic.twitter.com/8KlGtpMMTz— José Roberto Nuñez (@JoserNunez91) January 20, 2026
Carnell refers to his attacking midfielders in front of the two 6s as 10s. Their instructions while in possession are to be wide when on the ball side of the field and move centrally when on the weak side. I think he said that in 2025, 60% of their goals came from attacking transitions, 30% came from set pieces, and 10% came from sustained possession. These factors probably favor Cavan?
From a little earlier, this Cavan Sullivan throughball is delightful.My goodness.#doop #usymnt #usmnt #mcfc pic.twitter.com/u7rL7JUG8M— José Roberto Nuñez (@JoserNunez91) January 23, 2026
Watched the game and it was a drag. Everyone was subpar, but I put it mostly to the style of play which was hopefully ball after hopefully ball. But the trailist #38 was a black hole on that side of the field.
8 Which would be a great number for a guy that's 16 years old (virtually the entire season) and still on 0 career first team goal contributions. As an aside, when is his brother expected back from injury? Mid-summer??
I would be pretty happy with that number. As far as Quinn I noticed the Union’s Twitter posted him playing American football at the beach, but he wasn’t running any routes. F̶u̶t̶b̶o̶l̶ football on the beach 🏈#DOOP | @VisitSPC pic.twitter.com/HNsrMgsnXO— Philadelphia Union (@PhilaUnion) February 15, 2026
You never know how long these things take, but a few weeks ago I heard right after the World Cup is a safe bet.
By the way, I mean 8 goal contributions in the league. . He could get 5 in this two-legged series against Defence Force in the CCC. Hopefully he gets the start tonight and his season is off to a roaring start. I think the goal should be to not get anyone hurt. Defence Force literally has members of the T&T Army and Coast Guard on its squad. That's who the club is run by. In T&T there's also Police Force FC, Prison Service FC, etc. Police FC, which finished 3rd last season in the Premier League, plays its games at the Police Barracks grounds. [By the way, Defence Force has technically WON the Concacaf Champions Cup. Twice. Last one was in 1985. In that iteration there was a North/Central American Zone and a Caribbean Zone. Olimpia of Honduras came out of the North/Central American zone after knocking out the Mexican representative America. Defense Force came out of the Caribbean Zone and beat Olimpia. Olimpia also knocked out the US representative, Chicago Croatian.] Older posters like me will remember when MLS clubs used to go down to play T&T teams, and it wouldn't be a cakewalk. Particularly Joe Public, Jack Warner's team, which I don't think even exists any longer. Do people remember when Joe Public dismantled the Revolution 4-0 at New England? At one point their other big team, San Juan Jabloteh, withdrew from the Premier League to focus on Netball. Some variation of them might be back. Its hard finding info on T&T soccer. There's not even a wikipedia page about their 2025/2026 season. My point is that we're running our prized youth asset out tonight against a real semi-pro outfit on a poor field. The best field in T&T, but still a poor field. Get the easy win, get the star players off the field free from injury, and move on.
I remember some sort of game at UTD with the Burn playing an Island team. Something W? BTW, can Cavan change his number? #6 is jarring for him.
W Connection of T&T? Its possible. All I know is I expect the Union to wipe the floor tonight. Put the series to bed and don't risk guys in the second leg.
Played extremely well for a sub appearance. He shouldn’t see a union 2 game this year and should get a good amount of starts.
On one hand, Defense Force would easily be the worst MLS team if they were in the league. And Cavan did come on at the 65' mark after Defense Force was already down 3-0. On the other hand ... everything else. Looked the best offensive player on the field. Fantastic touch on the ball - maybe one real bad touch all game? Great soccer IQ -- he attacked via dribble at the right time, made the quick pass otherwise. Electric at points. He got an assist (or something close), drew a penalty, drew a red card, was constantly cynically fouled and beat an older Joevin Jones in a foot race fairly easily -- yes, he's older but Jones is not slow. Absolute wrecking ball. He's going to get knocked around because he's still pretty small, so I can see some limitation of minutes, but I suspect he has a massive breakout this year.
Assist Cavan Sullivan's first goal contribution for the Union's first team is this sharp assist:pic.twitter.com/qhcXWVBSFE— Jonathan Tannenwald (@thegoalkeeper) February 19, 2026
If I had to nitpick ... he needs to work on his right foot. The assist was great -- although maybe a bit hard of a pass -- but I think he took that rather than attack the goal because his right isn't that strong. But a nitpick.
American soccer players throw and catch American footballs as well as French or German, etc soccer players.
How many goals do players really score with their weak foot on that type of cut in move needing some curl?
Obviously, I don't have stats, but we have a number of two footed players who absolutely would have attacked that way -- Dest, Pulisic (from the right), Arfsten, etc. It's a nitpick, for sure, which I said twice, but Cavan has a chance to be truly special. He can be a great player with a weak right foot for sure, but if I were him, I'd work on it, because it makes you so much harder to defend. Him going at goal with a stronger right foot is almost certainly a higher % play than what he did to get the assist.