As a rule, finishing last in competitions is bad.

The United States women’s national team finished last in the 2017 SheBelieves Cup on Tuesday, following a narrow 1-0 win against Germany, a late 1-0 loss to an England team the Americans dominated and a deflating 3-0 beating at the hands of France.

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You can spin this pretty much whichever way you want. You could argue that Jill Ellis is rebuilding her team in the wake of the Women’s World Cup and the Olympics and that she has two years to figure things out. You could just as easily point out that her team is young, played in an experimental back-three formation, faced three of the top-five teams in the world (the U.S. being tops), was just emerging from its off-season, and had to contend with frigid temperatures and heavy rain.

A brief inquisition into the first back-to-back losses on American soil in 17 years and the worst women’s national team defeat in almost a decade turns up a few negatives, but also some positives.

Let’s go look for some silver linings and lessons:

1. Relax

The U.S. had two good games and one bad one, against a strong team. Ellis is finally getting the time to build a modern national team that’s equipped to handle increasingly technical opponents. There were always going to be growing pains. It’s just that this one happened to plunge the U.S. into last place. Tough break.

2. Rose Lavelle can contribute now. So can Mallory Pugh

Lavelle was immensely impressive in her debut against England, going 90 minutes, helping out on both sides of the ball and getting the USA’s biggest chance. As a winger who is capable of covering the entire flank by herself, she’s a good fit for Ellis’s demanding roles for her outside players.

Pugh, meanwhile, continues to deliver performances well beyond her 18 years of age. While she had a tough task in trying to make an impression on an attack that mostly blew cold over the three game, Pugh fashioned ways of threatening.

3. A back-three only works if you boss the midfield

The back-three functioned well enough against a defensive and tired-looking Germany and an overmatched England. But France’s high press and midfield presence put constant pressure on the suddenly understaffed American defense, jumping into the gap behind the midfield and the wingers. Three attackers found themselves one-on-one and the result was plain in the score.

4. Chances and goals were sparse

While the USA had plenty of possession throughout the tournament, it had a tough time breaking down opponents. The strikers were largely starved of service, and, consequently, the Americans scored just one goal and created few chances.

Mostly, the attack felt disjointed, with the wingers joining the attacks late and the midfield lagging far behind the front line.

5. There was real promise in the transitions

The ball movement in the midfield was mostly promising. Ellis has gotten her young players to coalesce fairly quickly. With Lindsey Horan or Morgan Brian playing as the deep distributors, Carli Lloyd staying high and the wingers very involved, the ball transitioned zipped swiftly from defense to attack.

It was the final balls and, thus, the final product that were the issue.

6. The central midfield’s future is secure

We already knew that Brian was reliable and convincing stepping into the enormous void left by the retired Lauren Holiday after the World Cup. But during this tournament, we also got confirmation that Horan could be an all-time national team great and that Sam Mewis is a solid holding midfielder. And don’t forget Andi Sullivan, of course, who is one of the brighter talents to have come along lately, although she’s currently out with a long-term knee injury.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.