Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By DAN KARELL
The U.S. Men’s National Team has earned a boost in the FIFA rankings thanks to their victory at the Czech Republic.
Coming off their 1-0 victory in Prague, the USMNT has moved up one place in the latest FIFA World Rankings to No. 17, one spot behind Mexico and one place ahead of England. The U.S. remain the third-highest ranked team in CONCACAF, with Costa Rica staying level at No. 15.
There was plenty of movement inside the top 20, with Colombia switching places with the Netherlands to move to No. 3 and Uruguay, Spain, and Switzerland all dropping in the top ten. Croatia fell three places to No. 19, and Algeria advanced four places to No. 20.
The top five in the world rankings currently sits as: Germany, Argentina, Colombia, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
Back in CONCACAF, Panama jumped eight places to No. 55, while Honduras fell 13 spots to No. 56. On the back of their run to the Copa Centroamericana final, Guatemala advanced an incredible 77 places to No. 57.
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What do you think of the latest FIFA rankings? Glad to see the U.S. move back up? Think they could jump a few more places in October?
Share your thoughts below.
Suspend hope solo
I just had my first boregasm. Glad we could share it together.
Let’s go discuss the experience over at MMQB or one of the many American football sites who enjoy having their sport destroyed by dragging off-field incidents into the fray for monetary reasons. Maybe it can backfire all over us too!!!!
We should never rest as long as Mexico and Costa Rica are ranked ahead. Chile should be closer to Spain whom they beat and wtf is Uruguay doing in the top 10? Obvi that the WC results did to count for that much.
Uruguay did beat England and Italy, going to the round of 16, so it’s not like they had an awful world cup.
it’s a algorithm with weights allocated to each game. so yes, WC games do count for much. especially WC games that just happened. but since these ranking include historical results, even with a reduction in the weight, the results will reflect that. it may seem strange and we can all complain about the effectiveness of the algorithm, but it’s just math in the end.
“Guatemala advanced an incredible 77 places to No. 57.” – wow look out 2015 Gold Cup, Marco Pappa is coming for you!
Pappa will be somebody’s daddy.
I mean costa rica was in a major tournament. all of their wins in it gave them major points.
fifa rankings are kind of meaningless. its just math. you can figure them out way in advance if you have a calculator. or just use the fifa ranking calculator they conveniently provide folks on their website.
nothing about teams quality or ability exists in them. again if you win and play a lot of tournaments with the multiplier you are going to be higher up. we always drop after the world cup. its a given. friendlies crush it and now our coefficient has dropped again making it even tougher for a concacaf team to rise…..
Cue the “The FIFA rankings are meaningless” comments …
They aren’t “meaningless”, but they are silly, that teams could move so much in such a short period after a world championship competition, based upon a couple friendlies.
They are not meaningless. LIke the BCS they are a great baromter of how teams are performing. A number 7 team should always beat a 78 team but a 7 team and 8 team might be relatively close. I like to look at the tiers. Top 5, Top 10, Top 15, Top 20. The order may be debateable but generally the teams on those lists are correct.
Costa Rica and Mexico earned their way high on the list. The World Cup does and should have a ton of weight because the buck stops with the World Cup. Making a quarterfinal is HUGE! Making a SEMIFINAL to me makes you top ten.
I don’t know if I totally agree with your last statement due to bracketing issues, but I generally think you are right on with your tiers comment.
Not sure I agree with the Mexico part of the comment… but that’s just how the algorithm works so fair enough, and otherwise this is basically a fair assessment.
Not meaningless, but always suspect, or at least curious. I know Brazil got trounced by Germany in the semi-final, but didn’t they beat Colombia for that right? So how is Colombia #3 and Brazil out of the top 5?
Good for CONCACAF with 3 teams in the top 20, even if the US is the third.
It goes off a 3 year point system. Brazil didn’t have qualifiers so their average is still pretty low.
European teams will get a bump for the Euro qualifiers and we will get a little help next year for the Gold Cup. Yes these rankings are relatively insignificant, but I want to be in striking distance of the top 7 to get a group leader spot for the 2018 draw. [Yes, I am aware we have to qualify first]
Three CONCACAF teams in the top 20. Pretty cool!
that’s got to be a first?