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Cavan Sullivan is a Nice Story, But Let’s Talk About Tai Baribo and the Union Actually Winning a Game

Kevin Kinkead

By Kevin Kinkead

Published:

Caean Couto-USA TODAY Sports

Cavan Sullivan made his Philadelphia Union debut on Wednesday night at 14 years and 293 days old, setting a North American record in the process:

It’s a nice story. A nice moment for the Union Academy and the family and everybody who played a role in Cavan’s development. He’ll play with the Union for a couple of seasons before joining Oil Money Football Club aka Manchester City. There’s also the possibility he leaves at 16 to play for one of City’s non-England clubs, like Girona or Troyes. He can’t play in England until he turns 18.

Anyway, the bigger story on Action News is that the Union won a game for the first time since May 18th, hammering the short-handed New England Revolution 5-1 at Subaru Park. The winless streak started when they built the new beer hall outside the stadium and lasted for 60 days, a time span in which the Union fell all the way to the bottom of the Eastern Conference with 21 points and a 4-10-9 record. This W moved the U up to 14th, joining a jumble of seven teams separated by just three points. There’s a lot of soccer left to be played and if they figure it out they can get back into playoff position.

One of the things that may get them there is the play of Tai Baribo, who scored a hat trick on Wednesday night. Baribo signed with the team last summer but was buried on the bench and played just 29 minutes in his first 24 games. With Julian Carranza transferred to Feyenoord, Baribo has now started six straight games and scored six goals, putting himself in a three-way tie with Carranza and Mikael Uhre despite playing half the minutes. And sure, the hat trick skews the number, but the bottom line is that the guy is good. Wednesday night, he put himself in the right spot to head home a second ball on a set piece, made a simple near-post trailing run to finish a counterattack, and then made a really nice back-shoulder movement to get on the end of a Kai Wagner cross for his third:

So the guy can play. It begs the question why he didn’t for the first two-dozen games. It’s been reported that he didn’t practice well. Okay, fine. A lot of guys don’t practice well. See: Iverson, Allen. You need to work to earn your spot, especially when you’re coming to a new team in a new league on a new continent. Nothing is given.

But everybody with two eyeballs and a functioning brain can see that Baribo is better than Chris Donovan. Same Donovan who started the Leagues Cup semifinal opposite Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba. And me pointing out the Miami thing is more of a snapshot of Union shortcoming over the last two years, not to unfairly shit on Donovan, who is 23 years old and good enough for some bench minutes here and there. That being said, Baribo came here as a full Israeli international who scored a goal almost every other game in Austria. Stink, he does not. So I don’t envy the decision a coach and a front office has to make when they know they’ve got a decent player who might not be at the attitude or effort level of other guys in training. Where does the line separate stubbornness and justification? It’s hard to say, since we’re not in Chester every day, watching these guys practice. We’re not in the locker room. You just have to trust that the coach and the staff are making the right personnel decisions, a benefit of the doubt that’s been earned over several years of success, but might be waning ever so slightly.

Regardless, the U are on a one-game winning streak. Let’s keep it going.

Kevin Kinkead
Kevin Kinkead

Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com

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