Photo by Dylan Butler II/USA TODAY Sports
By DAN KARELL
The U.S. Men’s National Team woke up this morning outside of the top 20 ranked teams in the world.
FIFA released their latest world rankings on Thursday as the USMNT fell six places to No. 23, following a pair of 1-1 draws to Ecuador and Honduras in October. The U.S. now sit one place behind the Czech Republic and one place ahead of the Czech’s neighbors, Slovakia. The last time the U.S. was ranked outside the top 20 in the world was in July 2013.
Much of the reason for the precipitous fall has to do with the fact that other nations are currently playing qualifying matches, either for Euro 2016, the 2015 African Cup of Nations, or the 2015 Gold Cup. In CONCACAF, the U.S. remain behind top ranked Costa Rica, who are ranked 16th in the world, and Mexico, who are 17th. Trinidad and Tobago, who are now the fourth-best ranked team in CONCACAF, jumped 37 places to No. 49 following three wins in October.
There was plenty of movement in the world top ten as well. Germany, Argentina, and Colombia remain the top three ranked teams, in that order, but Belgium jumped over the Netherlands into fourth place, with the Dutch following in fifth. Brazil checks in at sixth place, France moved up two places to seventh, Uruguay fell one spot to eighth, and Portugal moved up to ninth in front of tenth place Spain.
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What do you think of this development? Worried about the USMNT’s fall? Think they can move back up with wins over Colombia and Ireland next month?
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