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USA drop to 30th in latest FIFA Rankings

UruguayCopa (Getty)

South America's top performers at Copa America saw the biggest boosts in the latest FIFA World Rankings, with champions Uruguay catapulting 13 places to No. 5, while Chile climbed 16 spots to No. 11.

The U.S. men's national team fell six plays to No. 30 in the world in the latest Rankings. The United States fell after losing in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final, while Mexico, the Gold Cup champions, sit at No. 20 overall after dropping 11 points.

What do you think of this month's FIFA rankings? Think 30 is too low for the USA, or just about right?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. the rankings must always be taken with a grain of salt. Uruguay is not the #5 team in the world. The rankings always give more credit to teams that have played more recently though.
    However, the US is probably in about the right place. They have taken a big step back and don’t look like they are willing/able to find players who are creative and technically able.

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  2. top 20 team after beating Jamaica 2-0, Guadelope 1-0, Panama 1-0, Canada 2-0 and South Africa 1-0 over the last twelve months?

    Basically a team what was in the WC only because it was the host and four teams that have not made into the Hex, let alone the World Cup in a while….

    #30 is about right…

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  3. Maybe after we get blown out in the upcoming friendlies US Soccer will finally realize we’re heading the wrong direction and do the right thing. I dont know why they’re waiting so long?

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  4. It’s really funny ….

    When this ridiculous FIFA ranking places the U.S. well positioned even sing and rejoice, but when this happens they rant against.

    .

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  5. Danny, why do fifa rankings “blow”? they’re simply a function of measuring performance… as the scoreline dictates.

    i wish fifa would do a better job of managing the difference between tournaments and friendlies… mainly given extra points for making it deeper into tournaments (e.g. wc). see: atp/wta rankings.

    but generally, these rankings do a pretty good job at objective calculations. even if you don’t like the outcome.

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  6. Where did you get this misinformation? It was Chuck Blazer and Jack Warner who forced Mexico to send a u23 side. Mexico then decided to send a u22 side to prepare for the Olympics. Just google it.

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  7. What does that have to do with anything? The gold cup the year after the WC will always be well attended because of the Confed invite it confers. And the one the year before the Cup always well attended (save by the previous champion) because of the upcoming World Cup bythe good teams and because the bad teams have nothing else to play for. You think Honduras’ door is being knocked down for friendlies?

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  8. Blowstein blew it and BB sucks. If Dolo could have finished the game, the US wins. You guys are a bunch meat-swingers, swinging on the Mexican meat.Disgusting!!!

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  9. RB and the rest of you dopes do not know anything about soccer. You guys are idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mexico sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  10. Look at the clubs our players played at 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006. Then look at the 2010 World Cup roster and where THOSE guys played.

    I think the “serious” issue with player development is vastly overstated.

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  11. Interesting, but at the U.S.’s current from I wouldn’t consider any of those 8 to be easily worse than us. We might be better than Slovenia (who we tied 2-2 in the World Cup and we were much better then), Greece, Australia, Norway, and South Korea. None of these teams we are easily better than. By that I mean I don’t think it’s gauranteed we’d get a win if we played them. You think we’re better than Sweden? Do you really think we’d perform better than any of these teams in Euro qualifying?

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  12. The FIFA rankings are a slap in the face to Mexico, CONCACAF, and GOLD CUP. The GOLD CUP organizers must take notice or countries have every right to send them B sides in the future.

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  13. I follow Elo rankings because they make more sense, not because they soften the blow of lower FIFA rankings for the US. The US has usually been ranked lower in the Elo than in the FIFA rankings, over the recent past. So it would be a bit hard to do it for the reasons you’re saying, actually.

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  14. Personally I don’t know why there is such worry over the US’s position. I get the worry over the US’s performance and situation and so forth, don’t get me wrong. But the number of our ranking? Is anybody upset because we’re 32nd rather than 24th or 19th? I don’t see what it matters outside the top 5 or 10.

    Interestingly, the current FIFA and Elo rankings agree on the top 4, at least, and my guess is that there would be a good deal of consistency between them wrt to the very top teams over time (though I personally am not inclined to go trying to look up old rankings and do a lot of detailed comparisons — just my bet). Arguing over rankings much father down the list seems rather pointless, to me…

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  15. Who cares about the rankings, the USMNT is in a big crisis, big deal, until Gulati and BB are fired and we start developing some player we will really improve.

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  16. Does not matter. I could care less what we are ranked. We’re not going to be high enough to ever get seeded any time soon, so that doesn’t matter. I’m all for teams seeing the ranking and taking us lightly.

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  17. touche, RB.

    I’m still suspicious of how applicable this is to international football. There are so many matches where getting a good result isn’t the top priority.

    I guess lorinczi kind of addresses that point. If you tend to win games even when winning isn’t your main objective, you’re probably a pretty good squad.

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  18. The US finished 12th at the last World Cup about a year ago. We finished second in our confederation championship, the Gold Cup. A couple of hard losses to Brazil and Spain in the last year, but also a tie against Argentina. The loss against Paraguay doesn’t look as bad when you consider they were a finalist at the Copa America.

    Our form is poor and there is a serious issue with player development. But Montenegro, Greece and Côte d’Ivoire better than us? Don’t think so.

    I’d put us barely in the top twenty-five by comparative results. No higher than twenty though.

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  19. You effectively get this if you look at the Elo rankings mentioned above, because unlike the FIFA rankings, you get not only the number of the ranking but also the points that got the team that ranking. So for example the current Elo rankings show about as much point differential between 1st and 4th as between 5th and 16th, and again about that same all the way through the US’s position and through to 36th. This appears to agree with people’s criticisms of sides like England’s being so highly ranked. The FIFA ranking is (at least usually) presented as a simple ordered ranking with no such other indication as to the relative proximity of any 2 teams or tiers of teams.

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  20. “wallowing in sorrow over its collective ineptitude”

    LOL

    Did you bring enough of whatever you’re on to share with the whole class?

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  21. Its not a stretch at all they would be favored if we played today by almost everyone. Not to say we wouldnt win but they are rally good tho.

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  22. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings for how the rankings are arrived at.

    The USA should not pay too much attention to the rankings, the only time it really comes into play is for the US is seeding for the W.C. and for that to be a factor the US would have to be 6th or better,

    The US should continue to attempt to schedule games with the best opposition it can find. Bring on Spain, Uraguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina, England, Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, in the friendlies, be sure to meet Mexico in qualifying. That is the only way the players will learn what is expected of them. To the extent he has a say on who to play in friendlies, this seems to be BB’s strategy for making it clear to the players what is not good enough.

    Wins against Panama, El Salvador, even Honduras are too easy except perhaps for chances to look at prospects to evaluate if they might be ready for the next level. (Of course, playing Costa Rica there, or other CONCACAF teams away, represents a special challenge during qualifying and will test the resolve and courage of even the best players.)

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  23. Don’t be offended. Lighten up. The USMNT is bad enough without you wallowing in sorrow over its collective ineptitude.

    Have a nice day

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  24. “That’s funny actually. Elo means “The first” in Hungarian. The First Rating System.”

    Well I think it’s just named after its creator, actually, but then that’s an odd little coincidence re the meaning.

    I think Poo’s comment below is actually more on target: the rigid, numbered ordering of a ranking, despite a situation where there are bunches of teams close together, is what tends to make such systems look weak. But that’s an issue of interpretation and presentation rather than the system being flawed.

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  25. “The joke isn’t offending anyone…”

    It offends me as a US supporter with a brain and a realistic view of the USMNT’s performances and its standing in the world. Which, it turns out, is precisely the topic of this article.

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  26. We all better get used to it. Until USSF makes some serious changes from youth development, to senior team manager, to front office, we are going to stagnate in the 30s.

    Mark my unfortunate words…10 years of Mexican dominance over the US starting two years ago.

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  27. That’s funny actually. Elo means “The first” in Hungarian. The First Rating System.

    Ok…those are points well taken. It is hard to create a methodology that accurately ranks teams for a variety of factors.

    I will argue that Brazil’s C team came to the US and beat us last summer. Does that not reflect the strength in the Brazilian program?

    Mexico’s C Team goes to the Copa and performs badly. Isn’t that a reflection of their program. Apart from the 1st team, the depth is weak?

    Just another way of looking at it.

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  28. You know it’s funny, when the FIFA rankings don’t mesh with what US fans think the team should be ranked, they usually pull out the ELO Rankings card, saying they’re more accurate. So I was curious why no one has done that yet. Well it looks like this time the US is ranked 35th even lower than FIFA’s ranking so go figure.

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