TEMPERATURES ARE DROPPING and memories of this summer’s World Cup are fading, and suddenly the 2015 Gold Cup doesn’t seem that far away. In other words, it's time to step up the evaluation process for new players.

Under normal circumstances, next week’s games with Ecuador and Honduras would be all about evaluation and getting experience and familiarity at the national team-level. But with the Ecuador game doubling as a farewell match for U.S. icon Landon Donovan, a degree of sentimentality factors into the call-up equation. With that in mind, here are 30 players who should get the invite from Jurgen Klinsmann.

NOTE: With the U.S. U-23 national team having a camp in Brazil concurrent with the senior team’s friendlies, I don’t think too many of the youth-eligible players will be brought in for this friendly. Hence, no Rubio Rubin, Emerson Hyndman, Wil Trapp, Shane O’Neill, Luis Gil, etc…

GOALKEEPERS (3)

Brad Guzan, Nick Rimando, Bill Hamid

Guzan is as close to a no-brainer as this team has right now. Given he’ll be 39 in 2018, conventional wisdom says Rimando should be phased out. His performance against the Czechs thwarted conventional wisdom and, for now, Father Time and there is no one better in a lockerroom. Hamid is having a great season and finally putting consistent performances instead of flashing potential. He gets the nod ahead of Steve Clark, who has been very good for Columbus in his debut season in MLS.

DEFENDERS (11)

DaMarcus Beasley, Greg Garza, Robbie Rogers, Omar Gonzalez, Matt Besler, Jonathan Brooks, Chad Marshall, Michael Orozco, Fabian Johnson, Timmy Chandler, DeAndre Yedlin

There ain’t no way you’re having Landon Donovan’s send-off game and not having Beasley, with whom he’s played since the Clinton Administration, there. That would just be wrong. Gonzalez found his form in Brazil and has brought it back to MLS. Marshall is having a Defender of the Year-caliber season for Seattle and he’s only 30; he may not make the plane for Russia but on his current form he can help this team between now and then. Rogers is starting at left back for the best defense in MLS, and he’ll be younger in 2018 than Beasley was this summer.

MIDFIELDERS (11)

Kyle Beckerman, Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones, Perry Kitchen, Lee Nguyen, Mix Diskerud, Ale’ Bedoya, Edgar Castillo, Landon Donovan, Joe Gyau, Joe Corona

Like Beasley, Beckerman goes back with Donovan to the 90s. Combine that with his form and he gets called in. At some point Jones will become too old for the national team but his current MLS form says that time is not now. The U.S. needs to start grooming some younger defensive mids and Kitchen has been a rock for a resurgent D.C. United team this year and has earned a shot. We’ve seen Castillo play great in Mexico going forward and then struggle at left back for the U.S. for years now. So let’s stop squeezing a square peg into a left back hole and let Castillo play left mid, where his attacking strength and pace should shine and his defensive liabilities aren’t exposed. Gyau showed enough against the Czechs to warrant a second look, especially since he’s debuted with Borussia Dortmund since then. Nguyen’s form and productivity has been too good to ignore any more. I haven’t seen enough from Graham Zusi since the World Cup to get an invite this time.

FORWARDS (5)

Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, Gyasi Zardes, Julian Green, Luis Silva

After two World Cups together, Dempsey and Donovan deserve one-more game and Donovan has always played well with a big guy doing the grunt work up front like Altidore can. Green, if he’s healthy, gets called in based on the goal he scored against Belgium, and his age, or lack there-of. Zardes’ breakout season has earned him a look, and the fact that he has good chemistry with Donovan doesn’t hurt, either. Silva is, admittedly, a bit of a stretch here but he is playing very well right now and a hot striker shouldn’t be ignored.

The starting line-up for the Ecuador game is ALL about Landon Donovan and there’ll be more than a little sentimentality to this. Beasley, Beckerman, Dempsey, Bradley, Gonzalez, and Altidore are locks because of their history with Donovan. Heck, I’d have Tim Howard break his national team sabbatical for this and if they were actually healthy and playing somewhere I’d have found a way to get Oguchi Onyewu, Carlos Bocanegra, and Steve Cherundolo on the field for this, too. (I probably would have drawn the line at D.J. Countess and Nelson Awkwari. Sentimentality only goes so far!)

Above all else, Landon will want to win his final game so he’ll also want a good lineup next to him so Besler, Fabian Johnson, and Bedoya will round out the roster even though they don’t have much history with Donovan. Thus, this is the team I'd play:

Given that he’s helped nurture him, at some point I’d have Zardes on the field in the second half with Donovan... unless he’s the one who replaces him for a final curtain call.

Now it's your turn: Share your thoughts in the comments and/or create your own Starting XI for the Ecuador match with our custom widget.

Brooke Tunstall is an American Soccer Now contributing editor and ASN 100 panelist. You can follow him on Twitter.