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USMNT drop one place to No. 14 in latest FIFA Rankings

USA team group

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By DAN KARELL

The U.S. Men’s National Team has paid a slight price for their forgettable performances in Europe in November.

On Thursday, FIFA released the updated World Rankings for November, which sees the USMNT fall one place to No. 14, one spot ahead of Chile and one place behind England. There was a lot of movement within the top 20, as Mexico used their emphatic aggregate victory over New Zealand to jump four places into No. 20.

Portugal was the biggest mover in the top ten as they moved up an incredible nine places to No. 5 in the rankings while Belgium dropped six places to No. 11. Brazil moved up one position as well to No. 10. Spain still remain the top ranked side, followed by Germany, Argentina, Colombia, and Portugal, in that order.

Within CONCACAF, in addition to the USMNT and Mexico, Costa Rica remained at No. 31, Panama fell one place to No. 37, and Honduras dropped seven places to No. 41 after a friendly defeat to Brazil and a draw with Ecuador.

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What do you think of this news? Do you agree with the USMNT’s overall ranking? Do you believe that the U.S. is a top 15 team in the world?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. The USA has 2 matches in Europe with a draw and a loss, England also has 2 matches in their own back yard at Wembley with the same results. This is where the FIFA rankings logic ends for me. Not to mention Portugal jumping 9 spots…..Euro friendly much? Certainly not logic.

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  2. What’s the seeding update for World Cup stadium building deaths? Did Brazil jump two places over Qatar, and what will Russia do to compensate?

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  3. Who cares what we’re ranked, the seeds for the World Cup are set.

    And thank God, because Mexico at 20, after the year and a half, is beyond a@@inine.

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  4. For me the real value of the FIFA rankings is to see where the US is then see if there are teams above that the US may be better than or teams below that are better than the US. I usually find the ranking, in my estimation, to be pretty on point by +/-2 places

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  5. We definitely deserved to drop a little bit. We played pretty poorly against two lowly ranked Euro teams that didn’t make the World Cup. When we beat Germany, Bosnia and Italy in friendlies many people on this forum though we should be ranked higher. Fifa can’t just count friendlies when we win.

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  6. flawed system but how else can you rank teams globally? i am an avowed fifa hater but i can’t complain too much about this.

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  7. You must be kidding – “as Mexico used their emphatic aggregate victory over New Zealand to jump four places into No. 20”

    A crap showing in qualifying, an expected double-win against the Oceania champion – this moves them up?

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      • You get more points for winning games that matter (e.g., World Cup qualifiers). That’s why FIFA used the October rankings to determine the top seeds — teams in the playoffs were going to play games that were more highly valued, even though they finished initial qualifying at a lower level.

    • Grant Wahl did a pretty good job explaining the system. Basically, teams get points for wins and/or ties, but the points are weighted by the importance of the game and to a lesser extent by the opponent. WCQ and continental championships garner more points than friendlies. Therefore, two WCQ wins by teams like Mexico or Portugal, when everyone else is playing friendlies that count for less, allows teams like Mexico or Portugal to gain ground. Brazil gets hurt because they haven’t played any qualifiers this cycle. I assume FIFA realized that the November WCQ might unfairly aid some teams, which is why they based the WC seeds on the October rankings before these extra games. The system isn’t exactly fair, but I think right now it’s relatively accurate. The US and Mexico should be expected to compete for 2nd/3rd in their groups respective of how hard they are. That puts them somewhere in the teens to twenties with a glut of other teams.

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    • The qualifying crap was already factored in. The only thing that changed in November was the two games vs. New Zealand. Since so many other teams just played friendlies, its easy to jump four places. That’s the way the rankings work. Win qualifiers and you get points. If you do it as other teams play merely friendlies then you go up in the rankings. Its not a great system, but its how the system works.

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