U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino sees many reasons to believe in young American talent

The U.S. men’s national team has opened a World Cup cycle with four consecutive victories for the first time since … well, since ever.

What Mauricio Pochettino did with the U.S. team in the opening camp of the new World Cup quadrennium never had been done before. And Pochettino did it while using 28 players, including 13 who earned their first caps with the senior national team.

The kids were all right, as it turned out, with more than half of the 12 U.S. goals in the four games coming from teenagers who were playing with the team for the first time. So when the coach calls up his regulars next month for a two-leg Nations League quarterfinal with Haiti — the first competitive matches of the new cycle — expect some of those new players to receive invitations too.

“They are so smart. They have talent,” Pochettino said. “With more experience with these young talented players, plus the senior players that we have, we have a very good mix. I hope that we can guide this group of players to reach our best level and compete in our best way to try to be with the big national teams in the future.”

Others players who are age-eligible will join Steve Cherundolo’s U23 national team and begin preparations for the 2028 L.A. Olympics. The U.S. may be beginning the push for the next World Cup and Olympics with the deepest and most talented player pool in its history.

“So happy. So, so happy,” Pochettino gushed after last Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Canada. “Not because of the results but because of the performance and the commitment that the players showed. That is the way that we want to be in the future.”

Yes, this all could be a mirage. It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve been fooled.

Remember the 2006 cycle? After reaching the quarterfinals in 2002, a U.S. team that featured Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, Kasey Keller and Brian McBride lost just 10 of 62 games over the next four years and was ranked No. 4 in the world before the World Cup in Germany.

It didn’t win a game in the tournament.

Or how about this past summer? A golden generation of Weston McKennie, Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Timothy Weah had been groomed for years for this one tournament. Pochettino openly talked about reaching the final.

Instead, the U.S. went out in the round of 16 for the fourth time in as many World Cups.

So while history insists it’s wise to greet any success by the U.S. with a generous amount of skepticism, the early returns suggest this cycle could be different. The U.S. played quality teams in this international window — Mexico and Canada also reached the final 16 of this summer’s World Cup and are ranked among the top 30 in the world by FIFA, Mexico at 10 and Canada at 27.

Justin Ellis scores during a win over Canada in an international friendly at St. Paul, Minn., on Oct. 6.

(Abbie Parr / Associated Press)

The U.S. shut out both of them.

With the next World Cup still four years away, however, Pochettino is looking beyond the results toward building something enduring.

“Not talking only about the results, talking about the way that we competed and the way that we came together, I think it was amazing,” he said. “That is a starting point to keep going with the basis and the principle that we were talking about. To develop and evolve in this way.

“The effort was massive. To play always with the same effort, the same commitment and the same passion, that is a thing that we need to keep.”

Assuring that happens, Pochettino said, is a job for the coaching staff.

“How are we going to evolve with them?” he said. “How we are going to protect, how are we are going to guide, how are we are going to make them understand that now they have more responsibility? That is a mentality that we are trying to apply.”

Some players already proved they have the talent. Winger Cavan Sullivan, who will leave the Philadelphia Union for Manchester City next year, made three appearances, starting twice, in the fall window and became the youngest scorer in U.S. Soccer history with his goal against Mexico five days after his 17th birthday.

That broke a record teammate Mathias Albert, also 17, had set less than a week earlier against Chile. Last April, Albert, a month shy of his 17th birthday, became the youngest American to play in the German Bundesliga when he came off the bench for Dortmund.

Chile’s Iván Román, left, and the United States’ Julian Hall battle for the ball during a friendly in St. Louis on Sept. 29.

(Jeff Roberson / Associated Press)

Striker Julian Hall scored in each of his first three senior national team appearances, against Peru, Chile and Mexico. Just 18, he’s already made more than 60 appearances and scored 14 goals for the New York Red Bulls in MLS. Orlando City forward Justin Ellis, 19, had two goals in his first three international games, including the game-winner against Canada.

Then there’s goalkeeper Diego Kochen, 20, who has made 37 appearances for Barcelona’s B team. He played 135 minutes against Peru and Mexico and did not give up a goal. No position on the U.S. team is as wide open as goalkeeper, and Kochen has shown he deserves to be in the conversation.

All four very well could be called up for the Nations League matches, but they certainly will form the foundation of Cherundolo’s Olympic team in two years. And there could be more young players coming, Pochettino said.

“It’s a big pool,” he said. “In this window, certain players made their debut. But there are plenty of other young players who are on our radar and we are assessing them. Here in the USA but also outside the USA.

“We are watching different young kids that maybe, in the future, will have the opportunity.”

Four games into the new World Cup cycle, that future may be brighter — and closer — than ever.

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