The Cavan Sullivan Thread

Let's see how he does for the Union reserve team before putting him on the World Cup roster.

Just a thought.................................

 

But I think the thing is no player not even Messi was doing that at that age. And it wouldn’t be happening if not for the financial issues at Barcelona preventing them from bringing in players from the outside.

Honestly if’s he’s going to go to a big club Barcelona should be the one he picks. Those financial issues aren’t going away and even independent of that they bring up lots more guys through the academy compared to other big clubs. But given the financial issues they won’t be able to offer as much as a Man City.

 

I mean I think the chances are extremely low. But what’s the point of being on here if we can’t engage in some idle speculation.

 

That's basically why I saw its at best like a 2-5% thing. It's technically possible, but almost certainly not going to. Otoh, Ivory Coast just did what they did at the AFCOn, which statistically was probably less than 1% probability (make it as a third place team after canning their coach, and being in the ------, beating 4 consecutive foes in the knockouts after falling behind in each game, and I believe 2 or 3 of the 4 comebacks were in injury time). It can happen. It's just so unlikely it's largely not worth thinking about. And as was previously mentioned, if it does happen, it means something much worse has happened on the roster (more than likely) kind of like if we're looking at strikers #4 or #5 at any major tournament in the next few years.

 

Idle speculation is great.

....................but we're putting a player on the World Cup roster that hasn't even succeeded in MLSNP yet.

 

No we're not, were speculating about how high his non-zero chance is compared to zero. I think every single person thinks its low, and probably less than 5-10%. I'm of the 2-3% variety.

 

I mean we have a 43 page thread on a 14 year old who just last week got moved up to MLSNP. By summer 2026 I feel like the thread will be double in length. We’ve got to at least have some World Cup speculation even if the chances are extremely low.

I think his real breakout will be the 2028 Olympics in LA.

 

Only 86 pages by summer 2026 would be extremely disappointing

 

I’ll be shocked if he plays in the Olympics. I don’t see any way that happens unless his development stalls.

 

He’ll be 18 and the Olympics will be in LA. I think he’s there. It’s the 2032 Olympics that are unlikely.

 

If he’s anywhere near as good as folks think, he will be a regular for a team in a top 5 league by then. There’s no way those clubs would release him for that, imo.

 

You only have to look at the current Olympics roster speculation, where we're not expecting a dozen different age eligible guys to make the roster, to conclude that if Cavan Sullivan made the 2028 Olympic roster that would be almost as disappointing as if his thread was only 86 pages by summer 2026...

 

It’s pretty rare for an 18 year old to be a regular at an elite club. How many 18 year olds are playing key roles right now for Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal, Real Madrid, or Bayern? And the thing is if you are that good you actually probably have some leverage with the club to play in a tournament in your home country that’s a huge deal to you and which doesn’t actually require to miss games. If he’s at a club lower down the food chain they’ll probably more amenable as a potential showcase.

The only thing that could stop him is if there is a Copa America that summer that we are invited to and he’s good enough for the senior team. But it’s been said if there isn’t the expectation is we are going to go all out for the 2028 Olympics because they are at home.

 

Though part of that is because they are going to be on the Copa America roster instead. And they are still older than Cavan Sullivan would be in 2028.

I don’t think there’s any 18 year olds who won’t be at this Olympics because of fhe Copa America or lack of release.

 

I have a hard time understanding why we expect this. Other than '16 in Brazil, which was an entirely August based tournament, and a more mixed bag covid impacted tournament in Japan in '21 which had more releases than '16, but not at the level of '00-'12, it does seem like teams usually release guys. Add in that the schedule's seem pushed back a week for the EPL, Serie A, Bundesliga, and Ligue 1 (start date is the third weekend in August instead of the 2nd which is more typical) and it feels like they're trying to be accommodating? Why are so many people convinced we'll get noone released except scrubs? That wasn't true in '04, '08, or '12 for the big powers of UEFA and Conmebol, and only half true in '21.

Maybe I lack information, and am clueless, always a heavy possibility, but the prior track record seems like guys do generally get released unless it's like Brazil in '16 (where it kicked off around August 7th and ran into late August, this one kicks off in late July and runs through August 10th, ending a week before all but the Eredivisie kick off (la liga sounds like it hasnt announced the kick off date, but we have few in la liga so who cares)) it does seem like players would get released for that. I'm not expecting everyone to get released, but I do expect to see a reasonable amount of releases, maybe 2/3's to 3/4's of what we'd want from Euro based players, half at worst, sounds like people expect barely any and I don't get that.

 

< Drudge siren > Cavan is a Messi fan < Drudge siren >

We asked some of the best US talent who a player they look up to is… pic.twitter.com/lXiomQY7rY

— Youth Soccer Central (@yscentral) February 16, 2024

 

So you're saying he has a chance?

 

Is there any chance of Cavan and Philly II playing televised? Apple TV have some reserve league games right? Idk about you guys but ive never seen a full game of his, only highlights

 

They did have a bunch of MLS Next Pro games last year. Not sure if you needed Season Pass or not.

 

All MLS Next Pro games were available on season pass last year. Some were available on YouTube, but I don’t know if that will continue.

 

I was curious about this too. After we got all of these breathless reports about his play with Philly II, everything has gone really silent. I did look at the Philly II roster on the official MLS Next Pro website, and he's not listed, but I don't know if that means anything.

 

He didn’t play with Union 2 in their last two preseason matches and he hasn’t been with the u17 for the last month.
I was wondering if he’ll play with the u17s in the GA cup.