Cavan Sullivan’s veteran U.S. Soccer teammates have seen up close how good he is

Everyone who watches Cavan Sullivan regularly gets asked the same question: Is he the real deal?

It’s impossible to know for sure, since much of his story is yet to unfold. But you can at least get a lot of perspectives.

One of the U.S. men’s soccer team’s veterans gave a good one on Tuesday. Antonee Robinson sat next to Sullivan for a news conference from the national training center. He offered a lot as he reflected on his colleague and the big crop of young players who’ve joined the senior squad this fall.

“Luckily, the last camp was a longer camp, so they had even longer with us to get used to the expectations of being with the senior team and the standards we set,” Robinson said. “And I’ve got to say, Cavan, everyone has settled in really comfortably. I think we all made it quite an easy environment for them to settle in, and everyone showed a lot of personality, a lot of confidence in how they wanted to play and how they wanted to train with the group.”

The culmination came when Sullivan scored his highlight-reel goal against Mexico. It prompted a team-wide celebration, and as it concluded, Sullivan emerged with Robinson and fellow veteran Chris Richards on each side of him. Team captain Tyler Adams joined that group a moment later.

While it wasn’t quite intentional, it was certainly symbolic.

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“I think the whole team, whenever there’s new guys coming in, you all want them to get a positive experience, whether it’s a goal, whether it’s just a good game,” Robinson said. “People like Cavan, Julian [Hall], Mathis [Albert] all scoring goals at such a young age for the team is incredible, and something that we all take pride and enjoyment in.”

He then turned to Sullivan’s skill set.

“For me personally, looking at Cavan, his talent is pretty self-evident: how good he is on the ball, his technical ability and his directness,” he said. “But another thing is off the ball, whether it’s in training or games. He’s so competitive, works so hard to press, close down space, he’s aggressive.”

He said that “being able to do both sides of it, being elite with the ball and then working hard off the ball, is an incredible recipe for a great player. And that’s something that we want on the team.”

Sullivan responded to all that simply saying: “Thanks, dude.”

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Though Mauricio Pochettino is under contract through the 2030 World Cup, it was no surprise to learn Tuesday morning that his eyes are drifting again. This time, it’s an offer hard to not at least consider.

ESPN reported that not only is Manchester United interested in hiring Pochettino, but he is interested in them. That raises the odds of a departure as United prepares to dismiss its current head coach, Michael Carrick.

The Athletic reported that Pochettino’s buyout number is $10 million, rising higher if his assistants come along. As they usually all go together, that would likely happen.

Pochettino didn’t say anything to reporters when he took the field at Tuesday’s practice. He will have his scheduled news conference Friday, ahead of Saturday’s Concacaf Nations League game against Haiti in Miami (4:30 p.m., TBS, Universo).

» READ MORE: Cavan Sullivan’s stunning first USMNT goal was part of an incredible game against Mexico

So it was left to the players to talk, and Robinson took the lead. He’s a veteran of the Premier League’s circus, having spent his entire career in England including the last six years at London-based club, Fulham.

“That news kind of got sprung on all of us like the rest of the world, I’d say,” he said. “And similar things happened in the past, happened at the World Cup, where huge teams lose their manager and they start looking at possible candidates. For us to have a manager who’s linked with those sorts of jobs means we’re very lucky, and we know that we’re working with a top class manager.”

Robinson added “that never seems to leak into the work we do, whether it was the World Cup or whether it’s going to be this camp,” and that Pochettino is “very much focused on getting the best out of the team and getting these two wins in the Nations League, and we’ll be on the same page as that.”

Sullivan didn’t have anything to say about the news, but he did give some insight on getting to know Pochettino so far.

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“He’s taken me under his wing in the most tremendous way possible,” he said. ”I was obviously a young guy coming in and he told me to to just play free and be myself and have confidence in my ability. But that didn’t mean I was let off the hook or the standard was lowered for me — that standard remained the same for everybody in the camp, and every training, and every game.”

Sullivan called himself “someone who really appreciates that, and the directness on the field, but also the warmth, the hugs, and he’s a really personal guy off the field.”