D.C. United veteran Jaime Moreno proved himself worthy of a place on the Bolivian national team with his Copa awakening. Miguel Rojo/Getty Images
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The absence of alltime top scorer Agustín Delgado was clearly felt. But support striker Cristian Benítez had a very promising tournament, threatening with both feet and even scoring with a header against Chile. At the other end of the field, Jorge Guagua did not disappoint when finally given a chance to play in place of veteran captain and center back Iván Hurtado in the last game against Brazil.

Ecuador's squad is gaining in strength in depth, and despite its three defeats, it is respected all over South America as never before. The Brazil camp was full of praise for the physical force and technically ability of the Ecuador side.

Colombia, meanwhile, has clearly slid backwards in South America's hierarchy. Perhaps it is still the case that the trauma of USA '94 runs deep. It can be so desperate to get away from the tip-tap short passing game of the Carlos Valderrama years that it can sometimes take it in dangerous directions.

In the build up to the Copa América, the buzzword coming out of the camp was "European." The Colombians were going to be more direct; they were going to get the ball quickly in the opponents' half of the field and so on.

The experiment lasted precisely 46 minutes -- until they went two goals down to Paraguay and the game became a rout. Until then they had not played badly, and had even missed a penalty. But the two-and-two midfield -- two marking and two creating -- left them very exposed against a side that strung five across the center. Unable to put pressure on the ball, Colombia found its defense pierced time and time again.

It then became damage repair time for coach Jorge Luis Pinto. In came the extra midfield marker, and they were left with the counter attack. Instead of imposing themselves on the game, they found it hard to create against the U.S. once coach Bob Bradley switched to a five-man midfield at halftime in Thursday's match.

Is Pinto's "European" project salvageable? It seems that Colombian soccer, so rich in potential, is still stumbling around in search of a new identity. It could do a lot worse than to try to get in touch with its former tradition of midfield possession.

And then there's the U.S. Now, I'm a layman in this, and got in trouble with a few people for arguing that it came out with credit from the 4-1 defeat to Argentina. Two more defeats later, I'm still seeing some good things. Most of the squad was unknown to me. But now I'll keep a lookout for the way Benny Feilhaber strikes the ball, the odd flash from Justin Mapp and Ricardo Clark and the infuriating talent of Eddie Johnson.

As the American slink away from the Copa América, together with the Bolivians, Ecuadorians and Colombians, they can reflect on one of the great truisms of football: The lessons of today's defeat can help serve as preparation for tomorrow's victory.