Great read!
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USMNTProspects
@ProspectsUsmnt
*Long Tweet Alert* (think of this as an article):
Wanted to provide an update on the progress I'm seeing from Cavan Sullivan ('09).I've been watching a bunch of his games from the Spring recently, both with the academy teams and reserves, so that's the timing for this. I also get it that there's more interest in him than everyone else. I try to disperse discussion of the top prospects relatively evenly, but the interest in Sullivan is there and I'd be doing a disservice to what my followers want to read to not incorporate some coverage of his development.He's making real positive progress. This has become a theme with him essentially every Spring. The last three seasons I've seen it each time. I think the biggest reason is that he's constantly going against older competition (sometimes significantly older), and there's an adjustment period for him. Not to say he's been "bad" in the Fall (Fall 2022 was maybe the worst I've seen, as they were using him completely wrong as like a 6/8 at times, so it's no big issue), but the Spring each season has been his time to shine in the academy leagues. He's legitimately been like a Best XI or Second XI caliber of player in the U-17 Division during this Spring (before he stopped playing with the U-17's and is now full time with the 2's). Most people don't realize, but players who "play up" rarely are standout performers. Maybe the tools stand out, but the performances usually don't. That he's now become a top player in the U-17's this Spring playing up an age group is very encouraging, and suggests a player who is ready to be a full-time pro.
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Where is he improving? I would say the two areas I see the most improvement are physically and with his assertiveness. The obvious area it's going to take him time is growing taller, becoming faster, quicker, stronger. Very few ever are naturally capable when they are the youngest player at a level of physically belonging. Yet, the caveat with him is that it's been pretty likely that the potential was there (two of his three bros are at least above-average athletically), and what I hear is that his overall athletic testing is elite. It's just going to take a little time for him to physically and athletically mature. I'm starting to see that. He's more able to beat U-17 players (and even pros) off the dribble now than he was or would've been six months or a year ago. The athleticism and physical profile is going to be an important part of his game going forward. For instance, he is absolutely fearless in duels for such a skilled attacking player, so continued progress in this area will help him overall withstand the way he wants to play. Yet, he also looks a lot more assertive. I think this is just that adjustment to a new level I mentioned above. He played almost exclusively with the U-15's last season. A little towards the end with the U-17's, but starting out the season it was a newer level for him. He wasn't even bad or anything like that. I would say he was more "decent" than anything spectacular you might think a prospect of his caliber should be, yet I'd argue that was probably an unrealistic expectation, given his age. He's started in 2024 taking over some games, like his talent dictates he can, at U-17 level. He always plays with natural confidence, but now you can tell he's more involved and quicker to make decisions. Quicker to try to make a creative play than make a safe play. Like mentioned above, some of the physical/athletic improvements are helping with that. I suspect he's more confident he has better tools now than he had in the past against this competition to make the plays he wants to make.
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I've seen him play a million times over the years, but there are a few things I've been picking up on a little more recently that I think are worth mentioning:You might hear some people laud him for being more athletic in how he plays the game than cerebral (how he runs with the ball can stand out immediately), and then question how he thinks the game as a follow to that, but I think these people almost misunderstand how I suspect he was taught the game. I'm going to call this a Sullivan-ism because Quinn does this same thing (and I've seen it before from Ronan the one time I watched him play, although Declan plays the game maybe a little differently). These kids perform a lot of all out sprints. I don't know if they were taught this from a young age, but they sprint at full speed more than most players you'll find. They do it when closing down the ball and they do it when their team has a numerical advantage advancing forward. It almost makes Cavan look like "just an athlete" because he's sprinting at high speeds a lot, but there are absolutely moments where he's not running full speed and makes the cerebral play. Would it be preferable if he didn't have good sprinting speed and wasn't capable of sprinting all out at a fast pace? Seems like a silly criticism to me. His touch on his passes is very high level. He weights passes and touches extremely well. Often times through layers and with very good accuracy. It's not just a lot of attempts at incisive plays, and he eventually pulls one off. Almost every time he tries some play that requires extreme quality of the "touch" element, he pulls it off. So again, going back to Quinn, I think the most underrated part of his game is some of his technical qualities (passing vision, crossing, how he strikes the ball). Cavan is just all around better in this area (Quinn's a little deficient with having too many heavy touches and his ball control), but this is definitely a part of the game these kids are naturally good at. I'd even mention that the one time I saw Declan play that I thought passing was the best part of his game.
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A few points I want to add:I don't know why people were criticizing his GA Cup. From the games I watched (admittedly not every one), I thought he was fantastic. There were some plays he was making that maybe weren't showing up as goals or assists, but were the types of "scouting plays" you take a lot out of for what his game projects as going forward. I think the current expectation should be that he should be allowed time to adjust to MLS Next Pro for the rest of the season. I suspect he will get an MLS game or two at some point during the summer, but his current level is MLS Next Pro (no 14 year old is ever ready for MLS). I don't think it's unrealistic to hope for a quick learning curve in MLSNP. Maybe by the end of his first season he'll show the types of things he's showed at the academy level (hitting a higher level of performance towards the end of the season after adjusting.). If so, maybe, just maybe, you can hope for that he's playing regular MLS games starting out 2025 as a 15 year old.That's a long way off, and he needs time to continue to develop. He has a long way to go to reach his potential, but is showing some very encouraging progress. Here are some clips I took from recent games that show some of the things I mentioned above
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