Top Stories

USA stays 29th in FIFA rankings

USA (ISIphotos)

The U.S. men's national team will reconvene next week, and it will do so as the 29th-ranked team in the world.

The U.S. men remained at 29 in the FIFA rankings after a month that saw little action on the international stage and thus little change in the world table. The only move among the top 33 teams was Argentina sliding a spot ahead of Denmark for ninth overall.

In terms of CONCACAF, Mexico remained stable at 20th and El Salvador stayed put at 49th. Jamaica climbed five spots overall to supplant Panama as the fourth-highest-ranked team in the region. Spain remains the No. 1-ranked team in the world, followed by Germany, Uruguay, Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil, England and Croatia, respectively.

The United States' next five opponents are ranked as follows: Scotland, 48th; Brazil, sixth; Canada 75th; Antigua & Barbuda, 100th; Guatemala, 83rd.

The rankings are poised for a shakeup in the coming months, with World Cup qualifiers, the European championship and other international tournaments taking center stage.

Comments

  1. IN your dreams that’s fair to say. Yeah I forgot that Italy win automatically makes US a top 15 team, yeah we have arrived!! Give us the spot everyone move aside we beat Italy.

    Reply
  2. I was slightly off–reduce the non-CONCACAF games by 20-40 points.

    FIFA averages the two federation coefficients, which is not mentioned in their explanation of the formula.

    Reply
  3. FIFA ranking point values for USA win/tie per game:

    Scotland 456/152
    Brazil 582/194
    Canada 330/110
    Antigua 660/220 (WCQ)
    Guatemala 772/257 (WCQ)

    Who says friendlies don’t matter? That’s 2800 ranking points on the line, for a team that currently only has 776. I don’t know how many of our points expire in the next month, but a good showing will boost the U.S. considerably. 10th place Denmark has 1069 pts., and Mexico 867, for example.

    Reply
  4. Having seen Laudrup brothers play, I have a soft spot for Denmark, but their current team is clearly not a top ten side. At least, FIFA finally moved Argentina above Denmark. As for European teams, many of the European teams will be playing in Euro this summer and their rankings are likely to go up.

    Reply
  5. Jeez, take the politics to another blog, please? The last thing that a soccer blog needs is an injection of bitter political fighting.

    Reply
  6. When will you believe them? That is to say, what would your top 20 look like? Not criticizing, just wondering how you would rank teams right now.

    Reply
  7. A lot of mediocre-ish euro sides are being overrated in these rankings due to the sheer number of Euro qualifers they’ve been playing while CONCACAF has not had meaningful games since the Gold Cup.

    I mean, really… Denmark is a top ten side? Really, they’re better than Mexico at 20? Sweden and Ireland are ten spots above us? Slovenia, Bosnia, Norway all ranked ahead of us? Doesn’t pass the laugh test. I didn’t believe these rankings when we were 4th in the world, and I don’t believe them now.

    Reply
  8. Obama is too old to make a difference, and let’s face it, even if he scored a hat trick every game of qualifying, which the US wins 3-0, FIFA only moves the US up to 28th.

    Reply
  9. Go USA! Well we’re better at soccer in national rankings than we are in:

    literacy
    healthcare
    science
    happiness
    infrastructure
    corporate taxes

    Reply

Leave a Comment