Who did well? Who disappointed?

And most importantly, who will U.S. coach Bob Bradley pick to get the United States to South Africa in 2010?

When World Cup qualifying starts back up next spring, the Americans will be without three veterans who are retiring from international competition: forward Brian McBride, defender Eddie Pope and midfielder Claudio Reyna.

Their likely replacements have already started to emerge from the squads from the Gold Cup (the championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean, where Bradley brought all of his stars), and the Copa America (South America's championship, where he clearly took a largely developmental team this month).

And the 2010 World Cup is far enough off that American players may also come from the under-20 World Cup, still going on in Canada, where now 18-year-old midfielder Freddy Adu is captain of a U.S. team that last week beat four-time champion Brazil to advance to the second round.

Already, the pundits are evaluating the first early tests of the new crop.

FORWARDS

"I'm a big fan of Brian Ching's right off," said Ray Hudson, former coach of the Miami Fusion and D.C. United and now an analyst on GolTV. "He has the most overall natural ability of the (forwards)."

The 29-year-old Ching, seen competing with Eddie Johnson and Taylor Twellman for the forward's job, was instrumental in the Gold Cup final, getting a good touch and turn in the penalty area, drawing a penalty from Jonny Magallon for the Americans' first goal.

Johnson, who impressed some at last year's World Cup and has rediscovered his goal-scoring prowess with the Kansas City Wizards this season, also earned praise. He often got behind the Argentine defense and drew the penalty that he converted for the lone U.S. goal against La Albiceleste at the Copa America, South America's national championship, where the U.S. was an invited guest.

But Ching's familiarity and chemistry with U.S. star Landon Donovan from their two years together on the San Jose Earthquakes gives him the nod, say former U.S. national team veterans Marcelo Balboa, now a TV analyst with HDNet, and Christopher Sullivan, a commentator on Fox Soccer Channel.

"Ching has a good understanding with Landon," Sullivan said.

And as for Twelmann, he "probably dropped a few notches," Balboa said.

DEFENDERS

If this summer's tournaments exposed a weakness for the U.S. team, it may have been on defense.

Both Hudson and Balboa noted some disturbing moments from both veteran defenders Carlos Bocanegra and Oguchi Onyewu.

"The defense looked a little wobbly quite often in the Gold Cup," Hudson said. "It looked a little brittle. There's work to be done there."

The U.S. was thin in the back due to the injury absences of Steve Cherundolo and Chris Albright. Jimmy Conrad also didn't get called for the Gold Cup due to his recovery from an injury.

He did go to Venezuela, however.

Many have lauded the introduction of Chivas USA's Jonathan Bornstein to the U.S. side this year, but his disastrous backpass early in the second half against Paraguay, which put the U.S. behind in a 3-1 loss, took some of the shine off his star.

MIDFIELDERS

The brightest developments came from midfield.

Benny Feilhaber, who plays for Hamburg in Germany, already had drawn wide praise before his game-winning rocket against Mexico in the Gold Cup final. Hudson thinks Justin Mapp had some good and bad moments, but feels Bradley needs to persist with him.

But it was Rico Clark who came away the clear winner.

His insertion into the second half of that game is generally credited as the change that turned the match around; and he followed up the Gold Cup final with his first international goal against Paraguay at the Copa.