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USMNT rise up to No. 13 in latest FIFA Rankings

USMNTStartingXI1-MexicoAprilFriendly (Getty)

By DAN KARELL

The U.S. Men’s National Team may not have beaten Mexico on April 2, but the draw did boost them in the latest FIFA World Rankings.

FIFA unveiled their April rankings on Thursday, which saw the U.S. jump back up to No. 13 on the back of their 2-2 draw with Mexico. The result gives the U.S. a points total of 1015, four points ahead of No. 14 Chile and 24 points behind No. 12 Belgium.

In CONCACAF, Mexico also jumped up one spot to No. 19, Honduras moved up four places to No. 32, Costa Rica stayed level at No. 34, and Panama dropped six places to No. 35.

The latest rankings have Portugal moving up one place into No. 3, behind first-place Spain and second-place Germany. Colombia in No. 4 and Uruguay in No. 5 round out the top five. Argentina, who dropped three places, are tied with Brazil in sixth-place, followed by Switzerland, Italy, and Greece in the top ten.

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What do you think of these rankings? Think the U.S. deserve their position? Do you see the U.S. staying in the Top 15 prior to the start of the World Cup?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. “These rankings are arbitrary.”

    “Yes, but FIFA does use them sometimes, so they’re important.”

    “U.S. is too high/too low/about right.”

    “[Fill in name of country] is too high/too low/about right.”

    There. That about covers it whenever these rankings come out.

    Reply
    • That’s it, fill in any name anywhere, however like Brain Guy said,
      Do not be too foolish as to not realize these rankings do matter.
      When it’s time for the games we find out just how much these rankings
      are justified or not.
      For example in this WC does anyone think Switzerland, will end up in the elite eight?,
      as their ranking/seeding would suggest.

      Reply
  2. why no mention of Ghana in the article? The first, most important thing we need to do to have a chance of advancing is beat them, so I would have thought their ranking merits more discussion than Italy etc.

    Looked it up, they are 38. Haven’t really been following them at all, but I thought they were supposed to be on par with us. Am I wrong or are these rankings as crap as they usually are?

    Reply
    • I like to think of it as people don’t realize how good we are actually going to be. I may be seeing this through rose colored lenses but, I do not see Ghana beating us 3 times in a row. I know they are good, i know Portugal is good(can be good might be more appropriate), and Germany we all know. But lets not forget that game in ’02 very easily could hve gone the other way….

      Our boys will rise to the occasion against Ghana. It’s absolutely perfect that we got them in the first game. The boys from ’10 will have that extra motivation to not lose again. I think the travel and the heat in Manuas favors The U.S. I think all the European teams that play up there will find it difficult. They won’t like that heat an humidity and they definitely won’t be used to being crammed in plane for that length of time….. And i put it at 50/50 CR goes all Diva again and Nani continued on with his me first attitude…
      I think 4 points from those two games is very doable…. I hope i am right!

      Reply
      • I don’t know I just don’t see this team being that great this cycle to achieve those results. You could argue our 2010 squad was stronger then this one.

      • You could argue we’ve actually played our best against the better teams. Draw England in 2010, draw Italy in 06, beat Portugal 2002. On paper those were probably all loses going into the World Cup.

      • I share your optimism but…. 13th?

        the new or casual fan looks at this ranking and goes “32 teams competing, 16 move on to the knockout stage, USA ranked 13th… we got this….”. Americans like winners but US soccer takes a step back when a wrongly perceived letdown occurs.

        FIFA and its Coca Cola bull crap ranking hurts the US every time and more damaging, I think the US players and staff buy it…

      • Well, if they expect the rankings to determine the outcome, then numbers 2 and 3 will be expected to play out of group.

        I do think Portugal is somewhere well below third, but it will bolster the group of death argument that will give us some cover. Of course, we have to beat Ghana. And with our stellar defenders, that shouldn’t be a problem…

      • I’m counting on a Nani suckfest too. He doesn’t worry me nor does their striker or defense. They have some good Center mids and CR. We have a chance.

        Just need to keep CR from getting a long ball over the top and running at our defense. That’s what they did to Sweden if I remember correctly.

  3. Portugal is 3rd? US 13th? Both are off!!!

    I don’t really see Portugal as even top 10 team. Are they better than Argentina, Brazil, Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium? I think I even would take England over them…. okay just barely top 10. They aren’t that much better than us…. I see at least 4 points out of our first two games. Go on you Yanks!

    Reply
    • The USMNT is certainly not the 13th best team in the world, but Portugal at #3 is far more erroneous.

      Think of it this way: for the USMNT to be 13th suggests that it could regularly beat the following teams:
      14 Chile
      15 Netherlands
      16 France
      17 Ukraine
      18 Russia
      19 Mexico
      20 Croatia
      21 Côte d’Ivoire
      22 Scotland
      23 Denmark
      24 Egypt
      25 Bosnia and Herzegovina
      25 Sweden
      25 Algeria
      28 Ecuador
      29 Slovenia
      30 Serbia

      With the exception of Netherlands and France, I don’t think that’s too far-fetched. (Chile would be close, but the ranking appropriately close too.)

      But Portugal, at #3, would have to regularly defeat:
      4 Colombia
      5 Uruguay
      6 Argentina
      6 Brazil
      8 Switzerland
      9 Italy
      10 Greece
      11 England
      12 Belgium
      and of course everyone on USA’s list.

      On that list, only Switzerland and probably England would regularly lose to Portugal. Greece is always better than it should be, so I begrudgingly rank it roughly equal to Portugal.

      Thus, USMNT is ranked a few places higher than it should, but is still appropriately ranked ~15th. Portugal, on the other hand, is probably 9 places higher than it should be.

      Reply
  4. Fifa rankings. Hah!…I’d rather take an inside stock tip from Enron or Global Crossing execs. I seem to remember our USMNT ranked 4 ahead of the 2006 tournament!
    That’s why they play the games in June/July…on any given day…

    Reply
    • Haha This is definitely not his last cap bro. Jurgen wont just wax him off the squad for a few mistakes. He’ll be in Brazil

      Reply
  5. ————-Lukaku————-
    Hazard—–Witsel—–Mirallas
    ——–Fellaini–Dembele—–
    Vertonghen———-Alderweireld
    ——Kompany–Vermaelen—–

    Better than these guys, huh……

    Reply
  6. Is Nick Rimando really 5’9?

    I know Iker Casillas is reportedly 5’11. but whoa that’s short for a GK or am I just too used to 6’4 keepers in the Premier League and Bundesliga?

    Reply
    • If you look at the above picture carefully, you will see that Rimando is standing on his tippy-toes! Yes, he really is 5’9″.

      Reply
  7. It’s consistency that kills us. I see that we are a top 20 footballing nation. Like ranked 17-20. 13 is incredibly high and I’m pleased to see this but I don’t see it as realistic if you ask me

    Reply
  8. Isn’t the real concern here that Portugal moved up two spots? Now the US has to contend with #2 & #3 in the world in WC Group Play (if nothing changes before June). The Group of Death just got even more… deathier.

    Reply
  9. Jozy Altidore continues to get no playing time at Sunderland. And deservedly so. He is lousy, and should be kicked off the USMNT. Aron Johannsson should be the starter instead. Backed up by Eddie Johnson and Wondo.

    Reply
      • Even more fantastic is that he should be replaced by the guy who is succeeding in the same way for the same team that Jozy played for last year…So at exactly the same place they had the same success, but… never mind. It hurts to think this through…

      • So based on this (and I definitely agree about Fifa’s rankings so don’t think I am arguing with you), who do you think has their stuff together in regards to rankings? The only other thing I can find online is the ESPN Soccer Index and they have US 21 and Switzerland a more realistic 22. Do you think they have it right? I find it hard to believe that Brazil is the best team in the world at the moment.

      • Yeah they have it more realistic IMO. ELO ratings are another system out there too. And Brazil is definitely one of the best. They looked pretty damn good in the confederations cup

  10. why is gonzalez smiling? it was supposed to be go to work time…i guess that’s why he played so poorly, his mind wasn’t in it…and the only reason why he had a ‘good’ first half was because mexico didn’t see much of the ball to put up much of a challenge….

    Reply
    • this is a huge deal! US is now the 13th best in the world! This just shows how much better US has been under Klinsmann. He was a great player in EUROPE and he doesn’t mince words and challenges the players and like before him, US was like, ranked number 100 or something? I don;t know cause I like didn’t really follow soccer or the team, but yay USA!

      Reply
      • Correct. Before Klinsmann took over, we were wedged into the second hundred in the rankings, slightly ahead of Bhutan but slightly behind Lesotho. This was the case even though we won our group at the last World Cup. FIFA hated Bob Bradley, but they like Klinsmann. It’s all pro-Euro favoritism and cronyism.

      • What? Hahaha. And Bradley had us in the same position at some point. I prefer jurgen but hate how nobody gives bob credit

      • This was sarcasm. I like Bob Bradley and think he was a great coach. We were never in the second hundred. Pretty sure Blokhin is being sarcastic, too.

      • if u don’t know, now u know, Bradley made USA what they are today, he was the man to build USA footy, a manager like Klinsmann will take them higher. BUT the unfortunate truth is that until the majority of US players are playing consistent footy in europe’s top leagues, they will never beat the top nations

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