Cavan Sullivan could have cut the ball back. His brother was open, and there was another Philadelphia Union man making a run into the box. It was stoppage time, and the 14-year-old had a slither of space on the left wing in his professional debut in July 2024.
But instead of the smart, he went for the spectacular, unleashing a strike from 20 yards from a difficult angle. New England Revolution keeper Aljax Ivacic parried it into the ground. Philadelphia would win 5-1, anyway.
The whole sequence is chronicled in the Apple TV+ docuseries “Onside: Major League Soccer.” Here’s Cavan Sullivan, doing his math homework (he gets a 7/10.) There’s Cavan Sullivan, not knowing that he should eat the pasta with his pre-match chicken parmesan ("It’s the carbs" his older brother points out.)
But throughout this all, Sullivan seems a kid mature beyond his years. If there is any pressure associated with 38 minutes of television, a camera crew at his house, and the constant background chatter about just how good he is, then Sullivan doesn’t feel it.
“It’s something you’ve got to get used to, especially when they’re a documentary film crew at your crib. So yeah I did have to get used to it,” he told GOAL in an interview at Philadelphia’s training center.
And therein lies the point. Sullivan is a youngster suddenly in the pressure cooker of the American soccer world before most are ready. But where most prodigies have failed - Freddy Adu is the cautionary tale raised with every other breath - Sullivan looks mighty comfortable. There’s a confidence, perhaps, at times a cockiness. Sullivan might be the biggest talent American soccer has ever seen. And he’s entirely comfortable with it.
“I know the pressure is there,” he says. “But once I step within these white lines, it fades away.”
