NEW YORK – If you've ever wondered what hype looked like, a few minutes in and around Cavan Sullivan's orbit will do the trick. The 16-year-old may have walked into the EA Sports FC 27 launch party quietly on Tuesday, but in no time, he was swarmed with attention he seemed to be prepared for and was ultimately unfazed by, perhaps because he had enough people in the room whisking him away from those obligations in short order. The buzz was a reminder rather than the point itself.
Two days removed from scoring off a backheel and nutmegging a goalkeeper in San Diego, the latest in his tally of five goals and seven assists following MLS' World Cup break, the Philadelphia Union attacker has earned the spotlight. He claimed Tuesday that he has no idea if his first senior call-up to the U.S. men's national team is on its way, though he'll reportedly be on Thursday's squad, per ESPN, instead characterizing his current priorities differently. "I'm just working to develop my game and get better day by day and hopefully keep proving myself, proving [to] the world what I can do in the games and just having fun," he said.
After a North America-set World Cup that gripped U.S. audiences, Sullivan's impressive run of form has allowed him to fill the attention vacuum seamlessly. He is tied for first on goal contributions post-World Cup with Inter Miami's Lionel Messi, who had already collected three LaLiga titles and two UEFA Champions League trophies before Sullivan was born. The 16-year-old said he was unaware of that commonality with Messi, though he did not hesitate to link it to the Union's unbeaten run that has been intertwined with his own uptick in form.
Call it What You Want: A weekly podcast where Jimmy Conrad, Charlie Davies and Tony Meola cover all things USMNT and the state of the beautiful game in the United States. Catch the show YouTube live every Tuesday and Thursday at 10 a.m. "I didn't know that," he admitted.
Like I said, I'm just trying to show what I can do. I told people that the goal contributions will come with the games but as always, the wins are most important, and 10 unbeaten is pretty special." The connection to the Union is obvious – Sullivan essentially blew up as soon as he was given an important role with his boyhood club, his promotion only coming this summer. The youngest player to make his MLS debut at 14, his integration into the Union's first team was understandably slow but Sullivan has been handed a bigger role by interim head coach Ryan Richter, who succeeded Bradley Carnell after he was fired just before the World Cup.
Sullivan has made his moments count since, attributing it to the vibe shift in the Union locker room. "I think it was sort of just a spirit thing, a belief thing," he said about the tonal change for the Union, who were below the playoff line before the World Cup and now have a three-point cushion on the flip side of the line. "A healthy competitiveness.
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