Photo by Brad Mills/USA Today Sports
By SBI SOCCER
The U.S. Men’s National Team and Mexico are preparing for arguably the most important 2015 meeting in CONCACAF on Oct. 10, but as of Thursday, FIFA’s ranking system continues to be unimpressed with the two sides.
FIFA updated its world rankings Thursday morning, and the USMNT dropped one spot into 29th place, while Mexico also fell into the 27th spot.
Among the top teams, Spain made the biggest climb, rejoining the top 10 in the world by jumping five spots into sixth. Germany overtook Belgium to claim second, and Argentina remained in first. In total, 14 of the top 20 nations are a part of the UEFA.
Many teams from CONCACAF did not fare so well in October’s installment of the rankings, as Costa Rica dropped three places into 42nd, Jamaica fell five places into 57th and Trinidad and Tobago also slipped five place into 59th.
What do you think of the USMNT’s drop in the rankings? Think they are ranked too high? Too low?
Share your thoughts below.
We, UMSNT, are not top 15 yet; that’s why we continue to bow out in the round of 16 to teams like Ghana and Belgium, who are not world powers. We need to beat those teams. If we had lost to Argentina, Germany, Holland, ect, I’d say it can not be measured, but by failing to middle of the table teams every time, it only means we are not top 15, we are 16-32. We can beat or lose to any team in that bracket.
Sounds about right. we aRe a top 25 nation at our peak. A regular Japan/Australia/paraguay type team
I regularly post that the US is steady top 20, if not top 15 squad at a peak. The top 8-10 UEFA teams are always better than the US, as are the top 4-5 CONMEBOL teams.
I would strenuously argue that the US (and Mexico) are comparable to any African (Ghana or Ivory Coast) or Asian (Japan/South Korea) nation, and they should rank at or above the better than average UEFA squads.
We are actually 16-32 depending on form.
Thank you thank you thank you.
Fiat rankings take into account games as much as 4 years ago although at a lower rate, why are the USA higher than Panama or Jamaica because they’ve repeatedly beat them over the last few years just not in the last matches. World Cup matches also count more so victory over Ghana and a draw with Portugal boost the score. UEFA teams are soaring now because of Euro qualifying as WC qualifying starts up you will see Conmebol will move up some and US and Mexico will rise a few spots as well.
Sorry the Android auto corrected Fifa to Fiat for some reason.
there was a time maybe two world cups ago. i remember fifa had the usa ranked maybe FIFTH in the WORLD. then, we had some meaningless wc tune up match (a friendly) against some familiar concacaf foe. it might have been trinidad. and i think we won. so, then, i guess because of that, the next day, fifa ranked the usa FOURTH in the WORLD. i think i laughed out loud when i saw that. that was the day that i knew that these fifa rankings are “incorrect”. specifically, they rate the usa higher than i believe they really are. it’s perhaps a bit more subtle now – we are to believe usa is 27th in the world. (not fourth lol.) but still its the same idea (make usa seem better than they really are).
panama beat us in the recent gold cup, how are they rated, 26th in the world? and didn’t brazil just beat our best team like 7-0? and watch old man drogba tearing up mls. he’s still better than guys that jk recently called up, yes? so ivory coast is probably better than usa, don’t ya think?
just a few examples that i can think of. i’ll bet some guys here can think of even more.
Subsequent to the US being ranked fifth, the FIFA ranking method was tweaked to prevent similar mis-rankings. However, it seems to have retained or created new possibilities for achieving higher than reasonable rankings. The FIFA method is considered by most analysts to be inferior to the ELO method.
I will be the first to highlight the strangeness, all the way to the top. Argentina, who finished second in the last WC and the last Copa America remains first. Germany, who won the last world cup, and who is currently winning its group in Euro qualifications is second, having to overtake Belgium, who barely beat the US (by the scoreline) in the round of 16 at the last world cup.
Concerning the US, did this ranking take into account the last Gold Cup? If so, I am not sure how Jamaica falls.
The rankings only mean something when we are top ten. When USMNT keeps falling without a bottom, then their are meaningless and other more favorable formulas should be used.