Wow.

It feels like the American soccer world emerged, in a span of 24 hours, from a dark and forlorn place and back onto the light and airy part of the global stage.

A changing of the guard even as a veteran was back in the coaching box. … The goal-laden return of Clint Dempsey. … The new No. 10 in a brilliant debut as playmaker. … An emphatic cleansing from the sickly funk of the Jurgen Klinsmann era. … The notion of the U.S. failing to qualify for the World Cup again returned to the realm of the fantastic.

In a way it began the night before, when Landon Donovan — having earlier in the day confirmed what we surmised nearly two months ago, that his playing career is over — reinforced that decision by jumping off the top of a taco truck and into the arms of fans belonging to the American Outlaws support group.

The following night, his replacement as the No. 10, Christian Pulisic, emphatically answered the question of “who is the next Landon Donovan” by scoring a goal and setting up two more as the Yanks overwhelmed Honduras, 6-0.

And U.S. soccer returns to broad, sunlit uplands.

Let’s take a closer look at the key developments.

–Landon’s swan dive. He hates this sort of thing, us trying to get inside his head, but could he make it any more clear that his career is over? Stars, especially rising stars, don’t do that. It probably is in the fine print of their contracts. “Parachuting, hang gliding and leaping off taco trucks is expressly forbidden.” Far as we know, Landon never had the wild and crazy late-teens/early-20s phase because he was playing for money. He was one of the most sober (perhaps literally, too) individuals I encounter in three-and-a-half decades of covering sports. He was eternally conscious of growing the game and being a good citizen and ambassador for the game. Well, that’s over, and he can jump off a taco truck — and maybe run with the bulls and scale Mount Everest, too — even if at age 35 most of the rest of us are over the adrenaline-chasing phase. Oh, and the F-bomb he uttered before going over the side? I am not sure I ever heard him use one in a public place. Never. And I knew him from when he was 16.

–So Landon is done, and how does the U.S. replace its “best ever”? We have fretted over this for years, going back to 2011, noting the lack of attacking players rising from the youth ranks.

Well, we ask it no more. Christian Pulisic is the Next Landon.

Did you see Pulisic, against Honduras? He has been given the keys to the car. He now is in charge of running the offense, of making those inch-perfect passes (see goals Nos. 3 and 5) and scoring more than a little himself. The kid already is in the starting lineup for Borussia Dortmund, one of the dozen top clubs in the world, and he is better, at 18, than was Landon, who was going on 19 before he got his first U.S. match.

And this violates everything sports coaches and organizations preach, but let’s project a little. Pulisic, a midfielder, could be around for a dozen years. In 2030, he would be 30 when he, in theory, played in his fourth World Cup. (Meanwhile, U.S. soccer fans should begin including petitions for his continued health and well-being, in their prayers.)

–The return of Clint Dempsey. He missed six months with an irregular heartbeat, which is scary as hell, and wouldn’t you think a guy would maybe back off a little when pushing himself in a 90-minute game? Not Dempsey, who is a fairly well-preserved 34. He never has tracked back much on defense, but he remains a formidable scorer. Go back and look at his three goals again. The first shows his brute strength, as he holds off a defender (who is desperately wrestling him to the ground) and pokes in a goal while using a fistful of Honduran jersey to keep his balance. The second, when he goes in alone on the keeper, shows his ability to convert those “easy” chances. And the third is as fine as piece of dead-ball striking as we saw over the weekend. He is arguably the greatest scorer in U.S. history because so many of his goals (55, now) were of the “high degree of difficulty” sort. Landon (57 goals) was the king of converting breakaways, and he also scored a lot of penalties (15) that Dempsey did not get.

–The return of Bruce Arena. His predecessor was contemptuous of Major League Soccer and Yanks who played in it which, yes, became a problem when coaching the U.S. national team. Jurgen Klinsmann tried like hell, but he never did find 11 Germans to play for the American team.

Arena is what the Brits call “a safe pair of hands” — and creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable is a sort of genius. Great coaching is sometimes as simple as putting guys in places where they have a chance to succeed, which Arena is all about and Klinsmann was not. The lovably crabby New Yorker, now 65, also believes that U.S.-born-and-raised players can compete with anyone which, not surprisingly, helps the self-image of his players. Actually, he rivals Donovan as the most important figure in modern American soccer, and if he gets this team to Russia 2018 and a couple of games into the knockout round … we will have to consider him as the most important.

So, everything is hunky-dory again. At least over the weekend, ahead of the Tuesday match in Panama.

Panama is not a bad side, and directly above the U.S. in the Hexagonal table. The U.S. gets to welcome back Jermaine Jones but may be missing Sebastian Lletget and John Brooks, each of whom came off with apparent injuries.

A victory in Panama puts the U.S. no worse than third in the group, which is good for an automatic berth to Russia.

A defeat … well, we may look back on this as an example of irrational exuberance. But I don’t think that will happen. It feels like a page has been turned and the U.S. is a rising soccer power once again.