To the USA got what they needed out of the Gold Cup. If there was ever any doubt that Bruce Arena was playing to lift the trophy, the call-up of some of his biggest players after the group stage demonstrated absolutely that Arena knew what was at stake here.

Arena had entered the US job damned with faint praise as the safest pair of hands to help the US fight its way out of World Cup qualifying trouble, but over the course of what’s now 14 unbeaten games he has carved out something like a mandate for himself as the right man in his own right.

Gold Cup: USA beat Jamaica in final thanks to Jordan Morris's late winner Read more

Yet the narrow margin for error Arena inherited from Jürgen Klinsmann has remained the same and after his predecessor’s condescending comments about fans lack of understanding in the wake of the USA’s loss in the last Gold Cup, Arena knew there’d be little indulgence for him should he try to advise fans to “trust the process” if there was a similar loss this time round.

In the event, having got to the final, Arena faced the team that eliminated the US last time around, and while we’ll never know what might have happened had tournament Golden Glove winner Andre Blake stayed on the field, the US ultimately managed to get the job done.

There was little surprising about how they did it. Not for Bruce the excessive tinkering of other coaches. He’s not going to surprise his way past anyone, but in coolly playing the percentages he knows that, in theory, his team should win most games they play in Concacaf competition, and that’s how it turned out.

And don’t underestimate the simple power of putting players in their best positions to succeed, keeping their instructions simple, and instructing them to carry them out. Michael Bradley had begun to look look a haunted figure towards the end of the Klinsmann era, as he dutifully tried to figure out where exactly his coach wanted him to operate along the spine of the team. Under Arena, he sits deep, screens the defense like a natural six and dictates play. Against defensive teams he holds the defensive midfield line alone. Against more aggressive evenly matched sides, he plays with a slightly more advanced partner. But there’s not much more variation than that, and Arena doesn’t need there to be.

As for what we learned about the team in relation to the remaining World Cup qualifiers, the tournament followed a familiar blueprint for the US – this is not a tournament where outsiders necessarily play themselves into the team, but it’s definitely one where failure to perform to minimum expectations can cost a player further shots. Kelyn Rowe, for example, did enough right to catch the eye in the group stages, but not enough to make himself indispensable. He duly watched the remainder of the tournament on TV, and barring injuries or his club team finally (and quickly) building the team around him as playmaker, he’ll watch the World Cup at home too.

Even those who remained for the whole tournament can’t rest on their laurels – Kelyn Acosta and Paul Arriola are still young, have a lot of promise, and both started the final. But at international level the willingness both displayed in showing for the ball, needs a more reliable final product if it’s to be truly eye-catching, and too often both provided a sense of danger rather than creating tangible chances.

Position by position though, here are the impressions from the tournament as a whole.

Goalkeeping

It’s Tim Howard’s position to lose again. Brad Guzan may regroup to challenge, but any assumption that Howard had ceded the number one spot has long passed.

Defense

The US came into this tournament still looking for a starting left back so that poor DaMarcus Beasley could finally retire. They left the tournament still unsure if Jorge Villafana is the answer.

By the end of the final Villafana was a potent threat going forward. His early crosses looked the most consistently effective hope of unbalancing a well-set Jamaican defense. But his defending still needs to improve – at times he was caught out by the speed of Costa Rican or Jamaican attackers. At the next stage up he could be exposed badly.

On the other flank Graham Zusi, likewise, offers plenty of threat going forward, but Arena’s pet project of converting him to an international right back might make for some clever depth at a tournament, but not a starting option.

In the center of the field, seeing Matt Besler and Omar Gonzalez start together was a throwback to the 2014 World Cup cycle, and it was a positive development for Gonzalez in particular to demonstrate his maturity since returning to Liga MX, but one or both of John Brooks and Geoff Cameron should keep this pairing as a back up option.

Midfield

We’ve mentioned Bradley and Acosta, but the link-up play of Darlington Nagbe got a sustained airing in this tournament, and of all the players in this US roster he may have done the most to solidify his claim. Clever, great on the ball, and always capable of driving at the box and earning dangerous free kicks, Nagbe also has a range of subtle movement in midfield that can be very effective for combining with Bradley when he’s making himself available for the ball further forward. Nagbe’s occasional diffidence is the knock against him – his positioning in the El Salvador quarter final threatened to make him anonymous. But then again he was quiet in the final before his smart run forward started the move that won the free kick Altidore scored from, while the more visible Arriola did plenty of conspicuous work without being noticeably more effective.

Elsewhere, Dax McCarty did what he needed to when asked, but whether there’s a path open for him becoming the Kyle Beckerman of the 2018 World Cup – a willing destroyer who maintains the team’s balance – remains to be seen.

Attack

Dom Dwyer scored in each of his first two international appearances, and finished the tournament as a big Orlando City signing, being mobbed at the airport as his new international team-mates prepared for the final. He did well, and will be encouraged to believe he can earn a fourth striker spot at the World Cup if he continues to catch the eye at his new club, but with Altidore, Morris, and Wood definitely ahead of him, that may mean making his case as a better maverick choice to throw into a game than Clint Dempsey would be. Provided Deuce’s body holds up, that’s a hard argument to make. Deuce’s semi-final cameo suggests he’ll be a supersub weapon for Arena.

Altidore remains the focal point of the team, and got another spectacular goal in the final, but this was a key tournament for Jordan Morris and he came through – playing every game and scoring the winning goal in the final. Morris had been somewhat eclipsed by the emergence of Christian Pulisic in recent months, but he remains a key talent who maybe needed to remind us of his worth. His laser-like shot to win the tournament did that and should keep him being a key player for the remainder of the cycle.