16-Year-Old Cavan Sullivan Backheels His Way to First Brace as Union Rout San Diego FC 5-0

Plenty of 16-year-olds spend their Sunday nights cramming for a Monday quiz. Cavan Sullivan spent his flicking a backheel past a goalkeeper on Sunday Night Soccer, then coming back after halftime to do it again with something a lot less subtle.

Sullivan scored the first brace of his career, Bruno Damiani added another, and the Philadelphia Union flattened San Diego FC 5-0 at Snapdragon Stadium in the first meeting between the clubs. It was the Union's second straight 5-0 win, coming four days after they did the same thing to FC Cincinnati.

Patience, Then a Backheel

Coach Ryan Richter stuck with what had been working, making just two changes from the Cincinnati rout, one of them bringing Vassilev back into the lineup. A crowd the Union put at more than 18,000 showed up for the first-ever meeting, and the home supporters opened Hispanic Heritage Night with a three-tiered tifo.

San Diego actually started brighter. Andre Blake had to stop Amahl Pellegrino in the fourth minute, Onni Valakari sent a chance over the bar moments later, and Anders Dreyer put an effort just wide of the left post in the 12th.

Philadelphia answered with a steady diet of set pieces. Neil Pierre and Danley Jean Jacques each got their heads on Kai Wagner corners, but neither hit the target, and Blake had to come up big on Pellegrino again in the 42nd minute.

The half nearly turned ugly just before the break. According to the Union, San Diego's Alejandro Alvarado kicked the ball into the face of a grounded Milan Iloski and was shown a red card, but a VAR review downgraded it to a yellow.

Then, five minutes into seven minutes of added time, Indiana Vassilev raced down the left on a fast break and found Sullivan in front of goal. Instead of a conventional finish, the teenager flicked a backheel toward the far post, and it slipped past 19-year-old backup keeper Duran Ferree into the bottom right corner. The Union say it caught Ferree off guard. It would have caught most people off guard.

The Second-Half Avalanche

Philadelphia came out of the locker room hunting. Damiani missed from distance in the 49th minute, and Iloski, the Union's leading scorer facing his former club, smashed a shot off the crossbar in the 52nd.

San Diego head coach Mikey Varas made a triple substitution on the hour, including former Union homegrown David Vazquez, and Vazquez immediately forced Blake into a save with a header. A minute later, the Union scored again. Sullivan worked a quick give-and-go with Vassilev and lashed a left-footed shot past Ferree from a tight angle on the left.

Six minutes later, it was over. Frankie Westfield sprang Damiani on another fast break, and Damiani finished low into the bottom left corner from the middle of the box. Per the club, that made it four goals in two matches for him.

San Diego's misery piled up late. Substitute Aníbal Godoy put a Wagner corner into his own net in the 87th minute, per the Union's account, and homegrown Malik Jakupovic, on the field for about eight minutes, scored the first MLS goal of his career from very close range in stoppage time. The Union credited Quinn Sullivan with the cross; ESPN's match data lists the goal as unassisted.

The Stars

Cavan Sullivan scored twice on three shots. The Union say he now has a goal contribution in seven consecutive matches, and he sounded refreshingly unbothered by the whole thing. "First brace, it was pretty cool," he told Apple TV after the match, according to MLSsoccer.com. "I'm really happy to score those ones, but, like I said, three points matters the most."

Indiana Vassilev assisted both of Sullivan's goals before coming off in the 70th minute. That kind of night rarely trends, but it wins games.

Bruno Damiani followed his first career hat trick against Cincinnati with another goal, on three shots, while also picking up a first-half yellow card.

Andre Blake made five saves for the clean sheet, two of them during a first half in which San Diego had the better of the early chances.

The Turning Point

The backheel. San Diego had held their own for 45 minutes and arguably had the sharper early looks. Conceding five minutes into first-half stoppage time sent them into the locker room trailing, and the Union scored four more after the break while Vazquez, Cédric Bakambu and company kept running into Blake. A goal like that does not just change the scoreboard. It changes the mood of an entire stadium.

Stats That Matter

• Shots: Philadelphia 21, San Diego 10. Both teams put five on target, and only one goalkeeper kept them all out.
• Possession: San Diego held 58.5 percent and completed 467 passes to Philadelphia's 320. Possession, meet efficiency.
• Saves: Blake 5, Ferree 1.
• Defending: The Union made 19 interceptions and 31 clearances.
• Corners: San Diego won 11 to Philadelphia's four and got nothing from any of them.

What It Means

Philadelphia improved to 9-6-10 with 33 points and stretched their MLS unbeaten run to 10 matches, one shy of tying the longest league unbeaten streak in club history, per the Union. The club also says a teenager has now scored or assisted for the Union in 11 consecutive MLS matches dating back to May 24, the longest such streak in league history. Doing it in their third match in eight days makes it more impressive.

San Diego dropped to 8-6-11 with 30 points and have lost three straight, conceding nine goals along the way.

Next up, the Union visit Sporting Kansas City on Saturday, and San Diego head to Inter Miami on Sept. 20.

The Closing Take

Most teenagers' biggest Sunday-night decision is which show to binge. Sullivan's was whether he even needed to face the goal before scoring. The Union are playing like a team that has figured something out, and their 16-year-old is playing like he skipped the tutorial and went straight to the boss level. San Diego just happened to be standing in the way.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Club notes as reported by PhiladelphiaUnion.com; Sullivan's postgame comments as reported by MLSsoccer.com.