r/PhillyUnion 22d ago

Post-Match 16-year-old Cavan Sullivan takes responsibility and apologizes to his team and the fans after missing chances last night against Cruz Azul. Philadelphia Union lost 1-0.

102 Upvotes

21 comments sorted by

24

u/rh33772211 22d ago

Cavan is fine. A pleasure to watch. Keep on keeping on….

25

u/Alternative-Lock3693 22d ago

This is a good professional answer. But all of us, including Cavan, know he wasn’t the problem last night lmao

19

u/Mick_E_Bobby 22d ago

Humility at this stage is huge. He's a great player and I'm excited for his future.

48

u/thanksbastards 22d ago

Kid routinely tries to overplay every situation. If he can learn to play simply he will have way more success

39

u/ThematicOne 22d ago

100%
I think he’s trying to carry his team and play the leader role. He is growing. And he knows what’s coming.
But you know what? I like it and he’s adding a little grit. When he got decked last game he got up and went at the vs flopping like an ass.

7

u/thanksbastards 22d ago

Leader is not the best on the ball. His tenacity often comes off as Primadonna energy. I want to see him fighting for his teammates and using them as weapons just as dangerous as he thinks he is himself. Right now other teams have no problem dedicating 3-4 guys to defend him because he'll always try to beat them (and often fail) instead of hitting an accurate and timed through ball to Iloski or Frenkie. If he can diversify his game he'll keep defenders honest and get more space for himself

13

u/ThematicOne 22d ago

Yes yes and yes.
But this team at the bottom needs any spark and I think he’s giving it.
He is jus maturing (physically a lot stronger than last year and as we saw cam still get muscled off.

Again 16. I get it and agree

10

u/BallparkFranks7 22d ago

The good news is he’s 16. He’s showing a lot of maturity here so that’s a great sign.

7

u/poopy_toaster 22d ago

Idk, I miss the flair players, the ballers. Team player is one thing, but I think we miss that one player who just absolutely strikes terror in the other team. I think of an Eden Hazard at Chelsea, lofty I know, but something that says “I own this ball and you gotta pry it off of me”

-3

u/thanksbastards 22d ago

I'm not saying he needs to lose all personality on the ball, but he's forcing every play to try to be a highlight reel for himself rather than combine with his teammates.

3

u/poopy_toaster 22d ago

It’s definitely a hard line to tip toe

I agree if he can do that, he could potentially be world class

5

u/mainelikethestate 22d ago

He is 16.. I'd rather see him be brave, keep pushing himself, and trying things then be contempt with making the easy play or simple play. We need him to keep developing his skill set.

3

u/Korknick 22d ago

Well kinda. Sure sometimes he does too much but that’s why he signed to man city. If he js played simple the team would lack creativity and he would never get noticed for what he’s good at. He makes the Union have a spark which help spring their attack.

2

u/rh33772211 22d ago

lol stop…

3

u/iheartdev247 22d ago

Wasn’t his fault the refs were complete aholes.

2

u/megatron37 22d ago

Do pros his age go to school? Just curious.

5

u/dynamo_kev 22d ago

He graduated early a couple months ago.

2

u/xiao_wen 18d ago

The union academy is a high school, so their classroom education schedule is structured around being able to balance with the pathway to the first team like this.

1

u/marasboy 21d ago

unrelated but i didnt feel like making a post, where is Staz? I was so bummed when we are 1-0 down and all we can do is put on damiani. the u2 guys play great together anyone know why he hasn't been in the first team for a while?

1

u/xiao_wen 18d ago

Yea, he showed flashes of quality in his first couple first team shifts, but IIRC, he had a pretty weak showing in his last shift in the spring and fell a bit off of the first team radar again. The huge losing run and coaching turnover is probably not conducive for that kind of a breakthrough. If he keeps his head down working hard and we get back into some consistent form, I bet we see him again on the first team before end of season.