Oh yes, any differing opinion, and pointing out irrational exuberance must be stopped, at all costs! Where, exactly, did I hurt you?
Look, I'll grant that when I joked about your comparison between Reyna and Sullivan, perhaps I could have added /s to the end; I didn't think it was all that necessary, given the two players' profiles. But then, you also compared Sullivan to Messi, and come on. Isn't that just "a little" overcooked?
1. If you’ve seen him play why do you mischaracterize his game so badly? 2. I’m not hurt at what you’re “pointing out” I’m pissed off at you interrupting a good conversation with ignorant crap. 3. And who is “expecting” him to be world class?
We HAD differing opinions in this thread. YOU are bragging about owning other posters’ emotions. Can you really, seriously not see the difference?
Because you (and @gogorath ) are treating this like I've pissed in your coffee. I've already conceded that at the top of this discussion, perhaps I could have added /s to my mocking him for comparing Gio Reyna to Cavan Sullivan. Meanwhile, you're getting amped up about something that ain't that big a deal.
Hi there. I think you've been on this site longer than I have, so you must be aware that you can reach a moderator privately by using the "report post" button. I hate karaoke and I'm not overly fond of being dragooned onto singing the Abba song of your choice. As irritating as it was to be handed the microphone by superdave, I can't help but notice that you're doing a lot of woofing at people. Please play the ball and spare us the afters. You two need to try ignoring one another.
Only mission yesterday was to get the 3 points. When they went up 2-1, the only mission was to bring it home. The minutes their 16 year old winger was playing at the end didn't really matter. Important to get the 3 points next week. They moved two positions up the standings. Bottom of the East is Orlando. Turned out that parting ways from Pareja didn't improve anything.
Notably One nugget in there: Sporting KC expressed interest in signing Cavan Sullivan on a short-term loan from Philadelphia Union until the summer, per sources, but the Union quickly declined.Club believes in Sullivan's standing in first team.Reporting with @PaulTenorio. https://t.co/MmJfScrfYD pic.twitter.com/L51iqgX9RD— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) April 13, 2026
Obviously a loan to KC wouldn't be ideal- it really puts things in perspective when you think about Cavan Sullivan, the future of US soccer living with a host family, as he is still only 16. Carnell should have played him more last year- when they were winning. And should be playing him more this year- so he can contribute. He needs time to acclimate and then he'll produce. It's painful to watch his u17 teammates get the support and opportunities he should also be getting. Carnell's shortsightedness is biting him in the ass now. In 5 years he's going to have to say he played Bender, 38yo Bedoya, Anello more than Cavan. On another note, it was a pleasure to watch Union2 play some nice attacking football yesterday. LeBlanc and Tyler Gladstone (debut) did very well. Malik scored a banger- I can't imagine he won't be first choice by the end of the season. Teams need to start finding a solution for players who are too good for MLSNP but not quite ready for first team. If USL loans aren't an option maybe look overseas. Though Neil Pierre's loan is looking disastrous (played 120 mins in 6 games- which is still more than Cavan
No harm in SKC asking....................................... SKC went from being one of the model franchises in MLS to being completely anonymous. If they were able to get Sullivan and make him a key player in their group, they wouldn't be nondescript any longer. And maybe they could use that to aid recruiting of other young players. They advertise themselves as wanting to be the "soccer capital of America." Sporting Kansas City announces “Soccer Capital Summer” series of events at Sporting Park | Sporting Kansas City
Which of his U17 teammates are getting those opportunities? Cavan is already on pace to play more than Jack McGlynn did at the same age. People need to relax already. He's 16. He's not going to be a 90 minute every game player in MLS (or any other first division professional league) at this stage of his development. Expecting that is quite frankly unrealistic.
Indeed. Cavan and Malik are the 2nd and 3rd youngest players to see the field this season in MLS. The youngest was Arana of Houston who had one garbage time substitution. Both are on course.
Yes but he should be getting more minutes than he has so far this season. Which I’m sure is coming soon.
Julian Hall, Luca Moisa, and Cooper Sanchez have all played more than him in MLS so far this season. Additionally, Matthew Dos Santos, Ian James, and Adri Mehmeti have too, even if they weren’t on the U-17 WC team. So there are a bunch of 08’s and 09’s getting more minutes than him.
I think it was a lot of things - if he had elite physical tools to go with his elite ball skills, he perhaps could have become a star on talent alone, but lacking that, he had too many weaknesses to overcome - poor work ethic as you mention, poor soccer IQ, poor off the ball movement, blackhole dribbler in search of hero ball, devotion to partying, lacking separation speed, believing his own hype that he didn't need to work to improve, lacking any defensive abilities, playing in a modern era where teams don't build around one player who never defends. He may have looked like a star, but it was a bit of Harold Miner Syndrome - all sizzle and no steak. People say that MLS ruined him - but Adu made the choices he did - and I'm not convinced he ever was destined for much more no matter what path he took. You can't teach the kind of competitive fire Pulisic has and even that might not have been enough to overcome his limitations.
Julian Hall is 18 years old...... Luca Moisa has played in 3 games this season. Cavan has played more minutes. Or does his CCC play not count? Cooper Sanchez is 18 Nearly all of these players you've named are more than a year older than Cavan.
Cavan's playing time is fine and keeps building. It's not really a thing to be worried about. At least I'm not. There are a lot of young guys getting minutes in MLS. None as young as Cavan get regular minutes. He's half a year younger than Mehmeti, who is the 4th youngest player used in MLS. Sal Olivas of the Union is the 48th youngest player used in the league this year. That's quite a thing. We have these guys that just broke into MLSNP that are actually older than Cavan Sullivan. Sam Sedah of Dallas, for instance. Cavan might be just within the 25 youngest players in MLSNP this year.
The question with Cavan will be more where is going to be minutes wise by the end of the season because I do think his time will continue to tick up. And at this point he just needs the minutes to continue to grow.
Yes though if Cavan is truly a Pulisic/Reyna type prospect (both of whom started getting minutes with Dortmund at 17) this is the period you’d expect him to start getting minutes in MLS (unless he just isn’t quite there physically yet which I don’t think is the case).
The discussion was his U-17 teammates. They were quite literally his U-17 teammates. I know they’re older. They also aren’t anything special overall. Cavan is supposed to be special. Heck, Adri Mehmeti is less than half a year older than Cavan and starts every single game. Also, no I don’t think counting CCL is a fair comparison. Not all those players teams play CCL. Yes, obviously CCL helps up his minutes, but if we’re trying to compare to other US U-17’s, I think you can only fairly limit it to league minutes. Otherwise, the comparison will become skewed in favor of players whose teams play CCL.
Yeah, but Cavan doesn't turn 17 until just about the end of the MLS season.................................. Gio Reyna debuted for Dortmund when was 17 years old 66 days. Christian PUlisic debuted for Dortmund when was was 17 years old 4 months.12 days. Mathis Albert has yet to play a second at Dortmund and he's ~half a year older than Cavan Sullivan. Cavan is still REALLY young. By any standard, he's still REALLY YOUNG. And no, this "if he's the elite prospect that we think he is, then he should be playing more first team soccer by now" track.........................is not accurate. Unless one thinks he's Yamine Lamal, its not accurate. I'll pick a Ballon d'Or contender off the top of my head. Ousmane Dembele of PSG. He debuted for Rennais at 18 years old and 175 days. 2 years older than Sullivan is right now. [Five years from now we'll probably have posters debating whether we damaged Cavan Sullivan's development by having him focused on first team playing time as a 15-16 year old. Debuting as a 14 year old.]
We keep going back to age. This conversation is devoid of age. Sullivan is a better attacker than most of the players who play in front of him. Damani sucks but players a majority of the minutes. Ben bender Vassilev, the list goes on. From the outside looking in, it genuinely looks like Philly has a rigid strategy in place where players don’t get a regular role until 19-20 arbitrarily. Tanner has made it clear he doesn’t like charging his vision, so who knows. I would love to ask around to see what the player’s parents think about integrating.
Why? He played over 90 minutes against Club America. We're going to just hand wave those minutes away as if they didn't happen? If this last point is in play, then we need to discount Jude Terry's minutes from this past weekend. If LAFC wasn't in the CCC, they wouldn't have needed to rotate their lineup so heavily. Game minutes at the first team level are still game minutes no matter what competition they come in.
We also don't know what input ManCity has regarding him. I'm actually not too worried as I'd probably be worried if he gets too many minutes at this age. I think slowly upping the minutes so his body can handle them would be a good idea. By the end of the year I'll be concerned if he's still getting what he has so far.