The U.S. national team has slipped six spots to 26th in the latest FIFA World Rankings released on Wednesday.
Three African teams jumped ahead of the United States after the recent African Cup of Nations. Ghana moved up a remarkable 29 spots to 14th, Cameroon jumped eight spots to 17 and Ivory Coast moved 14 spots to 24th. Poland (20), Russia (22), Israel (23) and Sweden (24) also moved ahead of the United States.
Don’t trying making any sense of these rankings. After all, Egypt, which just won the African Cup of Nations for a second straight time, is ranked 29th, fourth best among African teams (though it did move up six spots).
The Americans aren’t the biggest losers in the latest rankings among top 50 teams. That distinction goes to Nigeria, which went from 19 to 45 after a disappointing African Cup of Nations showing.
A handful of CONCACAF teams saw their rankings plummet. Cuba dropped 17 spots to 88, Trinidad & Tobago dropped 20 spots to 98 and Haiti dropped 27 spots to 100. That isn’t good news for T&T and Haitian players who were thinking of making moves to England this summer.
It’s not all bad for CONCACAF. Honduras moved four spots into a tie for 50 while Guatemala jumped 11 spots to 94.
Here is the full table of rankings.
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