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.
About right. The thrashing by Spain and losses to Panama, Mexico, and I think Paraguay in a friendly. The draw against Argentina feels like ancient history already and appears to have been an aberration. Yes, good opponents but still not much to show for it. But US should continue to play quality teams because it’s diminishing returns beating up on the Guadeloupes, Jamaica’s, etc.
We’re probably better than some of the teams above us, but certainly not 10-12, and definitely not “easily”. Why are you so delusional? A lot of people get called euro-swine on this website for far less, but what about ameri-swine?
30 is probably 5-10 spots too low, IMO, but I guess it really doesn’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things. Play well in the friendlies coming up and we’ll vault back up.
Go USA
CONCACAF ensures that teams send their best sides to Copa Oro by making that the confed cup qualifier. CONMEBOL this year forced MEX and CRC(?) to send their B teams to Copa America to soften the group stages evenly.
That said, I’d LOVE to see a western hemisphere Copa Americas.
Please stop taking a joke from the comment section of an article about pointless FIFA rankings so seriously. It’s embarrassing. The joke isn’t offending anyone, it just makes it look like the US has no sense of humor.
Actually, it was CONMEBOL. Don’t blame CONCACAF for South America wanting to try to ensure a SA team wins their tournament.
Great! Then as I say, please stop. It’s embarrassing. The joke isn’t funny, it just makes it looks like the US is a bunch of sore losers in denial.
It appears that FIFA has punished Mexico for sending their best side to the Gold Cup and winning. If not mistaken CONCACAF insisted they do just that. Both Concacaf and Gold Cup are in jeopardy, as FIFA as denigrated the results of that tournament, and teams should no longer send their top sides.
Not really. Well, at least not for us.
We weren’t going to get a seed regardless. We’ll get a seeded power, a second-tier Euro team, and an Asian or African team in our group. In the end, how well we stack up will depend on form at the time. The rankings aren’t really a big deal for us.
We are a better team now than we were in 2005, and we were ranked #6 then. That tells you everything you need to know.
These rankings are a farce. No surprise there. Unfortunately, they mean everything when the World Cup draw comes around in December 2013.
*yawn*
Part and parcel on how FIFA rankings work is predicated by how well our federation is ranked, which, sadly to say, was lower than any federation other than Oceania. While a win for a Euro or SA team against an inferior opponent will net them MORE points than a win by the US over a better opponent. So wins over Concaf opponents will yield the US less points than lets say Scotland over Macedonia. As the US ranking sink lower so does Concacaf ratings and so does our points. Wins over top opponents can only reverse this trend.
Sadly when you select poor and/or average players as we did against Spain, well, you get what you put into it, a 4-0 loss.
Bob Bradley hopefully understand now, that you need to field your best players in tournaments regardless of if they are in the MLS or playing elsewhere. What the MLS wants should be of little concern.
If the US is to climb out of mediocrity, they will need to select a coach who understands that, given opportunities, no stoned must be unturned to bring in the best US players no matter if it “hurts” their club teams. and that half the battle is won in player selection.
Please Support the “Save American Soccer Fire Bob Bradley” Facebook page. This news post confirms he’s a homer and should be put out to the pasture. Argentina did terrible in the Copa America and their manager was let go. We need change!!
well there were a lots of players from the Mexican Team that were positive but any was Vicent Fox was just making a Joke out of it.. Yes we know that Mexico was better.
My view is BB has done well and he represents a step in USMNT’s development ladder. But me thinks it’s time to push technical ball possession and creativity.
“Really it’s kind of a joke to think ranking teams accurately is even possible.”
Why?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system
FIFA itself has already accepted such a system for women’s rankings, but TPTB can’t bring themselves to allow it for the men.
I agree with the ranking – close enough. We’ve been in relatively poor form lately. And I do prefer underdog to overhyped.
Please stop. It’s embarrassing. Mexico didn’t win the GC because a few players had some clenbuterol in their systems. They were simply better than the US and everybody else there.
I would say bottom half of the top 30 would be accurate for us. Australia, Norway, and Japan better than us though? I seriously doubt it.
I also agree that bob needs to go, but to describe his tenure as “an almost complete failure” is just silly.
If this is an almost complete failure, what would be a good job, winning the world cup.
Reset your expectation plug.
Actually it was CONCACAF that made Mexico take it’s B team. Glad to see you keep up with the soccer world 😛
Bob Bradley’s tenure as head coach has been an almost complete failure. Absent a late, and very successful, run at the Confederations Cup, the USMNT had produced very little under his tutelage. It is my opinion that he must be replaced promptly, before World Cup qualifying begins and any coaching change becomes very problematic.
insightful even though he is right
It was Mexico’s fault for taking a B team to an A FIFA tournament.
The U.S. has put together a string of shaky and downright poor performances, so it’s to be expected. Having said that, I think we’re probably better than #30. I would say somewhere in the 18-22 range would be more accurate.
I think the U.S. really needs to consider a coaching change. I know this has been discussed ad nauseum, but I think our recent showings suggest a drought of new ideas and creativity, and an unfortunate clinging to old favorites such as Jonathan Bornstein that have proved very costly. There are lots of talented players out there in the U.S. pool. Bring them in and give them looks. This could possibly open up a whole new set of ideas in terms of formations and tactics as well.
Any ranking system is difficult when items 15-30 are not that far off. The bigger issue is trying to rank teams than how Fifa does it. Would almost be better if they ranked them based on grades or tiers or something…i.e. A+= Germany, Holland, Spain, Brazil. A= XXXX, and so on.
The argument against the rankings being meaningful is that there is no algorithm that can legitimately order teams that play such disparate, local (for the most part) competition.
Really it’s kind of a joke to think ranking teams accurately is even possible. See also: college football. True league play (play every team, home and away) is the only real way to obtain a meaningful table.
Rankings can still be fun for talking points though.
I think that the best example of the flaws in the FIFA rankings is what happened to Mexico. Despite a very impressive showing in the Gold Cup, they plummeted in the rankings because of their performance in the Copa America, even though it was their B team (at best) playing in the latter.
Can someone help me understand how they are a joke?
What are the metrics you think be used to rate teams in the ranking?
What is it about the methodology you do not like or think is biased?
I don’t understand the FIFA rankings are a joke criticism. Since they revised it, seems to be a better system than the last.
Since the World Cup, the US record is kind of weak. How does that not reflect our position in the rankings?
True dat.
USA and Ghana..underrated.
I would rather be underrated than overrated.. like England, Australia, Norway, etc…
Your an idiot…
See my reply to KevDC…
Actually they are used in seedings for most of the continental tournaments. So, yeah, they are good for quite a bit. Are they accurate? Eh, within about 8-10 spots I’d say so.
We DID beat them in the game that mattered, the knockout game.
i don’t think it’s too far off. but i don’t get why australia is above us. but then again, brazil went up while argentina went down even though both exited at the same time.
Why even report on FIFA rankings? They are completely meaningless.
Croatia & Norway in the top 12? England @ 6? What a Joke.
England gets the “we invented this game” bias.
As always, the rankings are a joke, but hey, we’re here talking about them, right? That’s really all they are good for — debate.
#1: If we played them in a tournament, it wasn’t a friendly.
#2: I don’t put much credence in FIFA rankings, but your logic is severely flawed. Losing to a lower-ranked team should not require a team to fall below them in the rankings. Better teams lose to worse teams all the time. We beat Spain a couple years ago: that doesn’t mean they should have dropped 25 spots in the rankings.
england is at #6. that shows how realistic these are.
Before any homer complains about the rankings, I’ll point to this country’s performance in the Gold Cup. We couldn’t beat Panama in a friendly folks.
I think we’re lucky to be at 30.
Way off base. We’re a top 20 team despite recent results. This is the same ranking that has both England & Portugal at 6th and 7th respectively.
FIFA rankings a good idea but in this case so off the mark.
We are easily better than 10-12 teams above us, but with european teams playing many more meaningful games as they build towards EURO 2012 and the way these stupid rankings are scored, its no surprise that teams like Norway, Greece, Montenegro, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia and Switzerland are above us.
Well, we didn’t play any games in the month of July so that’s to be expected.
deservedly so.
About right. Should climb after the friendlys. FIFA rankings blow though.
Bottom half of the top 32. Yeah, still about right.
The US team needs to locate that “special Mexican restaurant.” I sure after a meal there, our rankings will improve