{"id":459689,"date":"2026-09-10T19:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T19:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/459689\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T19:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T19:36:10","slug":"cavan-sullivan-philadelphia-union-face-san-diego-fc-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/459689\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavan Sullivan & Philadelphia Union face San Diego FC test"},"content":{"rendered":"

9th in Western Conference
\n30 points (8W-10L-6D)<\/p>\n

San Diego dropped their second consecutive contest on Wednesday night, falling 3-2<\/a> to the San Jose Earthquakes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Star winger Anders Dreyer<\/a> found the back of the net, as did new signing C\u00e9dric Bakambu<\/a>. Goalkeeper CJ Dos Santos<\/a> was red-carded in the 81st minute, ensuring some rotation this weekend.<\/p>\n

Anders Dreyer: The 2025 MLS Newcomer of the Year and two-time All-Star is once again San Diego’s goal-contribution leader with 20 (9g\/11a).
\nElias Achouri: San Diego’s latest DP signing, Achouri<\/a> recently joined<\/a> from Danish powerhouse FC Copenhagen and has recorded two goals in four starts.
\nManu Duah: The Ghanaian youngster has been a constant in the Chrome-and-Azul backline, starting each of the 23 league matches he’s been available for.
\nC\u00e9dric Bakambu:\u00a0Bakambu just joined<\/a> as a free agent following an illustrious European career. He also represented DR Congo at the 2026\u00a0FIFA World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite early-season struggles, San Diego have turned their season around and sit inside the Western Conference’s playoff places.<\/p>\n

The Chrome-and-Azul can’t get too comfortable, however, as they’re hanging onto the ninth and final spot in the West, with Real Salt Lake<\/a>, Minnesota United FC<\/a> and LA Galaxy<\/a> all snapping at their heels just one point behind.<\/p>\n

As San Diego aim to reach the postseason for a second consecutive year, expect Dreyer to spearhead a new forward trio that includes Achouri and Bakambu.<\/p>\n

8th in Eastern Conference
\n30 points (8W-10L-6D)<\/p>\n

The Union continued their winning ways on Wednesday night, dominating 10-man FC Cincinnati<\/a> in a 5-0 rout<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bruno Damiani<\/a> led the way with a hat trick, while Cavan Sullivan added three assists and Quinn Sullivan<\/a> contributed 1g\/2a.<\/p>\n

Cavan Sullivan: The 16-year-old homegrown phenom is developing into a star right in front of fans’ eyes, with 4g\/10a in league play this season.\u00a0
\nNeil Pierre: The 18-year-old center back has played a key role for the Union backline in recent months, while also adding 4g\/1a on the offensive end.
\nMilan Iloski: The forward has been Philadelphia’s star man this season, leading the team with 18 goal contributions (12g\/6a).
\nQuinn Sullivan: Cavan’s older brother recently returned from a torn ACL he suffered in July 2025 and has added a spark to the Union attack, with 1g\/3a in nine games.<\/p>\n

Only St. Louis CITY SC<\/a> have been hotter than Philadelphia as of late, as the Union have embarked on a nine-game unbeaten run (7W-0L-2D) since returning from the World Cup. The streak, recorded entirely under interim head coach Ryan Richter, has seen them vault from last in the East into the playoff places.<\/p>\n

Paramount to their incredible midseason turnaround has been emerging superstar Cavan Sullivan. The young midfielder \u2013 who is reportedly set to sign for European giants Manchester City when he turns 18 \u2013 is in the midst of a breakout campaign, with 7g\/14a across all competitions, including a goal contribution in each of his last six games.<\/p>\n

This Sunday Night Soccer matchup is essentially a toss-up, with Philadelphia entering as slight favorites (39%) compared to 37% for San Diego.<\/p>\n

Market insights shared are current as of Thursday, Sept. 10 at 2 pm ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"9th in Western Conference 30 points (8W-10L-6D) San Diego dropped their second consecutive contest on Wednesday night, falling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[43951,11414,74,1254,76,75,181295,6532,98582],"class_list":["post-459689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-philadelphia-union","tag-priority-match","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-fc","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sdvsphi-09-13-2026","tag-sendtonews","tag-sunday-night-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}