ST. PAUL, Minnesota - After watching his players win four straight games in the just-completed FIFA international window, U.S. men's national team manager Mauricio Pochettino gave his young charges a new challenge: Don't be satisfied.
The U.S. capped a perfect window on Tuesday with a 1-0 win over northern neighbors Canada. Justin Ellis, hobbled by an earlier leg injury, scored the only goal of the game in the 29th minute, diverting Alex Freeman's driven pass into the net.
As pleased as Pochettino was with the win, he stressed that now comes the hard part, that of guiding and pushing the players to greater heights.
"It's not, 'I am an international now. My teammate needs to run for me,'" Pochettino said.
"No, you need to run for you and for your teammate. Yes, that is a mentality that we are trying to apply and I think they are so smart and intelligent. They have talent for sure. They would use that experience to be much better players, with more experience.
"The future with this talented player, young talented player plus the senior player that we have, I think we have a very good mix and I hope that we can guide this group of players to reach our best level and compete in our best way."
The U.S. had to survive steady pressure from Canada in the second half, including a Luc de Fougerolles volley that U.S. keeper Brian Schwake tipped onto the bar, but they came out victorious.
Overall, the FIFA window was successful on all fronts for the USMNT. All 28 players on the roster earned at least one cap. Thirteen players earned their first cap and seven different players -- including four teenagers -- scored at least one goal.
Pochettino had nothing but praise for his players. Over two-and-a-half weeks, the team navigated four matches in three different time zones, and the U.S. manager felt the team's standards didn't drop.
"They deserve the credit," Pochettino said about his players. "Not talking only about the result, it's talking about the way we competed, and the way we made that journey together."
"I think it was amazing and 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. So happy, so grateful to the players and to the whole staff. We played four games in two weeks and to play always with the same intensity, with the same commitment, with the same passion. That is a thing that we keep."
Pochettino also said the attitude of this U.S. side was top-notch, with positivity the order of the day.
"I think no one said nothing negative. We didn't hear nothing negative in those two weeks," Pochettino said. "And that is why we perform and we create that [environment] that can provide us the possibility to be close to the result because you can express your talent."
The U.S. will now face Haiti in the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Nations League over two legs, with the second leg in Cincinnati on Nov. 17. Pochettino said he has no concerns about maintaining the current level.
He said, "I think if we build that idea of every time that we are involved with a national team, we compete in this way, I think it's going to be easy to carry over the level of intensity into November."