Cavan Sullivan is set to host Lionel Messi for the first time as the Union face Miami

Two years ago, Cavan Sullivan was a starstruck rookie standing on the field with his idol, Lionel Messi, when the Union visited Inter Miami.

Sullivan didn’t actually get to play against Messi until May of this year, when the Union infamously surrendered a two-goal first-half lead in a 6-4 loss that became Bradley Carnell’s last game as manager.

Now, finally, the Union’s 16-year-old star might get to play on his own turf against the Argentine legend.

Though there’s no guarantee Messi (or anyone) will play Wednesday night at Subaru Park (7:30 p.m., Apple TV), all signs point to it happening. So the hype machine is up and running: Messi vs. Sullivan, soccer’s greatest of all time against an American phenom in the land of underdogs.

It won’t just be those two on the field, of course. There will be several other players, and Sullivan was quick to point that out.

“Just more excited, because I know I’ll be able to go against him and play against him,” Sullivan said. “But not just him, right? Obviously, [Sergio] Reguilón’s on the field, [Rodrigo] De Paul, Casemiro, there’s other tremendous players. But I’m not too focused on that — just focused on my play and the team preparing and just ready to go.”

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There also will be a lot of eyes on 18-year-old Union centerback Neil Pierre as he prepares for a potential battle with a star striker more than twice his age, 39-year-old Luis Suárez.

“It’s not going to be so much about the physical part of it, but it’s the clever movements, it’s the experience, it’s the guile, the way that he positions himself,” Union interim manager Ryan Richter said of Suárez. “The way he almost goes invisible from the game from the centerback, has been standing in an offside position, and then pops up at the right time. It’s going to take a lot of focus from Neil and a lot of communication from Andre [Blake] and from our back line to make sure that we know where he is at all times.”

But the big picture is that the Union have never beaten Miami with Messi on the field. They’ve lost four meetings and tied one, with a combined score of 18-10. The last Union win in the series was on June 24, 2023: a 4-1 rout a few weeks after Messi announced he’d join Miami but a month before he first took the field for the Herons.

His first meeting with the Union was his sixth of 108 games in pink, the Leagues Cup semifinal in August of 2023. It also was 4-1, but in the other direction. Messi scored Miami’s second goal in front of a bursting-at-the-seams crowd in Chester.

» READ MORE: Ryan Richter challenged Cavan Sullivan to step up in New York. The teen phenom went on to steal the show.

This time, Inter arrives following another 4-1 result: a shocking loss at first-place Nashville on Saturday that will echo all the way until the playoffs. It was a reminder that for all the Herons’ star power, they can be beaten.

The Union, meanwhile, are riding a four-game winning streak in MLS games, including Sunday’s wild comeback win in New York.

“I would say momentum exists,” Sullivan said. “We have it right now: Four wins in the league is pretty cool, coming off a poor start of the season. So, yeah, obviously vibes are high. But never too high, never too low, and we’ve just got to stay focused and be ready to go.”

The vibes were especially high after Sunday night’s final whistle, when Sullivan and fellow Northeast Philadelphia native Frankie Westfield led the team’s celebrations with the Union fans along the first-base line at Yankee Stadium. For all the talk of Sullivan eventually going to Manchester City, that moment showed the Union are his club.

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“That moment was really special to me,” he said. “Since my debut to now where I’m actually playing, these fans have welcomed me and supported me along the way. … Big thanks to them, and I obviously feel at home.

So what will it take for this to finally be the time the Union beat Messi?

“We’ve just got to come out with that fire,” Sullivan said. “We went through it today: Don’t play scared. Have that same bravery we’ve had in the past. We’re just going to put our body on the line to fight for the fans, fight for each other, and the fans will see.”

He’s also ready, as many longtime Union fans are, for there to be a lot of pink shirts in the crowd amid the usual blue and gold. A victory could win some of them over, too.

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Sullivan claimed he “doesn’t really focus on the fans too much,” but within a breath he admitted he knows.

“You obviously notice when your home crowd is there to support versus when they’re not,” he said. “But, yeah, I think by the end of the night, you’ll see people buying Philadelphia Union jerseys because they watched a good game and they saw a team with spirit and fight. Maybe we have a little bit of an underdog story.”

For those who thought the Lionel Messi Effect had worn off, given that it’s his third MLS season, know that it’s still alive and well here in the Philly area.

The Union’s game Wednesday night vs. Inter Miami at Subaru Park again will be in front of a near-capacity crowd with just standing room only tickets remaining, according to multiple sources.

That leaves the secondary market for an actual seat, and, as of Tuesday evening, tickets jumped close to three times their usual price. The cheapest seat was in the Union’s supporters’ section, the River End, for $187, which included fees on SeatGeek, the official secondary ticket market for several MLS clubs, including the Union. That same seat on a regular match day is a fraction of that.

Premium tickets, like Managers Row (behind the team benches) could run you $1,229. It was $136 to stand along the Seaport Party Deck, with limited availability remaining for standing room only.

But currently in a quest to lock in a playoff spot — which if you can believe that the Union are a mere five points out from the final playoff spot in MLS’ Eastern Conference — Richter says that the Messi hoopla is “an amazing thing for the league,” but at the end of the day, three points are all he and the Union are envisioning.

“What Messi and what Miami has done for MLS and for our league has been incredible,” Richter said. “Just the following that they brought and the excitement that comes around with them coming into town. But for us … we are pushing to win the game. It’s a league game, and we’re in desperate need of three points. And that’s how we have to approach it. … We are in a moment where the three points are the most important thing. And that’s what we have to attack the game with. [Our motivation] is going for the win.”