{"id":6992,"date":"2026-02-28T01:36:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T01:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=6992"},"modified":"2026-02-28T01:36:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T01:36:06","slug":"16-year-old-cavan-sullivan-becomes-youngest-american-to-score-in-concacaf-champions-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=6992","title":{"rendered":"16-Year-Old Cavan Sullivan Becomes Youngest American To Score In CONCACAF Champions Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<div data-v-d04fc069=\"\"><!--[--><\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">Hailed as the <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/soccer\/mls\">MLS<\/a>&#8216; teen soccer sensation, 16-year-old <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/soccer\/cavan-sullivan-player\">Cavan Sullivan<\/a> delivered an American scoring record with his first professional goals for the <a class=\"entity\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/soccer\/philadelphia-union-team\">Philadelphia Union<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">Sullivan broke through with the game of his young \u2014 very, very young \u2014 career when he scored twice and had two assists to lead the Union to a 7-0 win over Defence Force FC on Thursday night in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/soccer\/concacaf-champions-league\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CONCACAF Champions Cup<\/a> \u2014 the North American equivalent of the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">&#8220;It&#8217;s another moment in the right direction,&#8221; Union coach Bradley Carnell said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">Sullivan became the youngest American goalscorer in a CONCACAF Champions Cup game at 16 years, 4 months, 29 days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">&#8220;It means a lot,&#8221; Sullivan said. &#8220;It took a long time in my eyes. I wish I had it sooner. This is a special moment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">At 14 years, 293 days, Sullivan is believed to have been the youngest player to appear in a game for any major North American professional sports league when he made his July 2024 debut for the Union.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">The hype surrounding Sullivan has mushroomed by the day in MLS and could go global by the time he is expected to transfer to Premier League powerhouse Manchester City at the end of 2027 when he is 18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">Sullivan&#8217;s first goal on Thursday was a left-footed blast into the net that made him the third youngest goalscorer in CONCACAF Champions Cup history. He added an 88th-minute tap-in after starting the attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">&#8220;Happy to score my first goal,&#8221; Sullivan said. &#8220;Two of them, actually. It was pretty special. More important is the clean sheet in the win and we advance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">The Union advanced 12-0 on aggregate \u2014 Philadelphia won 5-0 on Feb. 18 in Trinidad and Tobago \u2014 over the two legs and will next play Mexican team Club America.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">The 5-foot-7, 150-pound Sullivan led the United States to victory in the 2023 CONCACAF Under-15 Championship, which marked the first time the U.S. ever won the tournament. The youngest player on the team, Sullivan\u2019s four goals scored earned him the Golden Ball as the best player in the tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">Sullivan and the Union play their MLS home opener Sunday against New York City FC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">&#8220;I think I&#8217;ve sort of made some good impact when I came in,&#8221; Sullivan said. &#8220;At this level, things get faster, things get harder.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"false\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\"><i>Reporting by The Associated Press.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--]--><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/stories\/soccer\/16-year-old-cavan-sullivan-becomes-youngest-american-score-concacaf-champions-cup\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hailed as the MLS&#8216; teen soccer sensation, 16-year-old Cavan Sullivan delivered an American scoring record with his first professional goals for the Philadelphia Union. Sullivan broke&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}