Photo Kyle Grantham

Cavan Sullivan’s birthday’s possible implications; also Frank Wesfield at the 2025 FIFA U20 World Cup ; finally the Union’s pursuit of the Supporter’s Shield.

Sullivan the younger

This past Sunday, September 28^th, 2025 was Cavan Sullivan’s 16^th birthday.

On that birthday because of his German ancestry, he became eligible for what we older Americans might call “working papers” in the European Union. “Brexit” excluded the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the EU January 31st, 2020.

City Football Group, Manchester City’s umbrella ownership organization, owns four men’s professional teams in the European Union.

• Girona in Catalonia plays in the Spanish First Division, aka La Liga. Girona has both an academy and a reserve side that now competes at the fourth level of the Spanish soccer pyramid.
• Palermo, from Sicily, plays in Serie B, the Italian second division. Palermo has an academy and an interesting type of reserve side, its U19s, which competes in the Italian Campeonato Primavera. Its players are trying out for the organization’s senior team while they compete against other similar sides in a league of other youth development sides.
• Troyes, located southeast of Paris in France, plays in Ligue 2 the French second division. Troyes has both an academy and a reserve side. The reserve side competes in the fifth tier of the French pyramid.
• Lommel, near Limberg in Belgium, plays in the Belgian second division. Lommel has an academy and a reserve side. The reserve side consists of U21s and competes in the reserve league 1A. It consists of other U21 sides from the bigger clubs. Descriptions resemble The Italian situation described above, with the youth development leagues separate from the adult lover division amateur ones.

Lommel has Englishmen as CEO, Sporting Director, and Head Coach. Lommel’s staffing details lend credibility to reports that Sullivan might go there were City Football Group to decide to move him away from Philadelphia for developmental purposes. Frther credibility flows from Lommel’s proximity to England.

A tangentially relevant ancillary detail is that YSC Academy, where Sullivan is a student, requires a foreign language and offers only Spanish.

Monday night Jonathan Tannenwald posted on social media @the goalkeeper  that Sullivan did not play this past weekend because of a minor tweaked groin suffered in the Union II game Sunday, 9/21.

Westfield in Chile

 Frank Westfield started the US of A U20s first match in Chile at right back. They played New Caledonia from the Oceania federation, winning 9-1.

After the first half the score was 7-0.

Westfield had scored the fourth goal in the 28^th minute off a corner kick. He played the full match.

The other six first half goals were scored by midfielders Niko Tsakiris and Benjamin Cremaschi (3) and left back Nolan Norris (2). None had come from strikers. New Caledonia may have been vulnerable to secondary runs into the box from deep, but that is unsupported surmise.

Two games remain for the US in the group stage, against France on Thursday, October 2^nd and South Africa on Sunday, October 5^th.

Supporters’ Shield “Scoreboard-watching” chart

Here are the maximum possible MLS regular season points for the Philadelphia Union’s remaining competitors for the Supporters’ Shield.