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USMNT rises four spots in latest FIFA rankings

Photo by Logan Bowles/USA TODAY Sports
Photo by Logan Bowles/USA TODAY Sports

The U.S. Men’s National Team’s recent successes have been rewarded with a rise in the FIFA rankings.

Following World Cup qualifying wins over St. Vincent & The Grenadines and Trinidad & Tobago, the USMNT rose four spots to 22nd in the latest FIFA rankings. The rise sees the USMNT sit as the third-highest ranked CONCACAF team, behind Mexico (15) and Costa Rica (18).

Argentina maintained the top spot in the monthly rankings, while Brazil made the leap from ninth to fourth due to their recent wins over Ecuador and Colombia, the latter of whom join their South American rivals in a tie for fourth. Rounding out the top five are Belgium and Germany, while Copa America winners Chile and European champions Portugal sit sixth and seventh, respectively.

Wales return to the top 10, where they sit ahead of Spain,England and Italy, who have been ranked in 11th, 12th and 13th respectively.

What do you think of the latest rankings? Should the USMNT be ranked differently, or is their current spot just right?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Clearly the performances by the USMNT in the Cops didn’t sway too many people or else we’d be higher than both Costa Rica(whom we beat) and Mejico. To me, this is just another sign that these rankings are a farce and I think most people would agree.

    As for the upcoming friendlies in october, I have to say that I’m really interested to see who JK calls in. You’d have to think it’ll be heavy on our younger players out of Europe and possibly Mexico. If there are any MLSers you’re talking about maybe Acosta, Birnbaum and Klejstan(because JK said “see you in October lol). Brooks would be the only youngin I see not called up due to a string of injuries of late but I’d like to get everyone’s picks for the upcoming roster if people are up for it!

    My Picks:
    Horvath, Guzan
    Yedlin, Chandler(maybe Lichaj)
    Birnbaum, Gonzalez, CCV, Cameron
    Acosta, ??(maybe Ream or Besler)
    D Williams, Stanko, Morales
    Gooch, Klejstan
    Pulisic, Arriola
    Rubin, Wood, JA

    There will probably be other players from mls to fill out the roster because the likes of GZ, JG are not playing first team football but that could change for Julian Green due to the number of games Bayern will be involved in.

    Reply
    • Its a mathematical formula, people have nothing to do with it. US didn’t jump much after the Copa because many of the teams ahead of them won games in the Euros too, CR stayed ahead because of the win over Colombia (computer doesn’t take back ups playing into account) and because of their two wins in qualifying as well.

      I think the October friendlies are interesting as well, could be an almost camp cupcake for European players and leave MLSers in their playoff push or could just be a tuneup for the 18 he wants to use in Columbus vs Mexico.

      Reply
      • good retort, i didn’t know the rankings were formula based.

        As far as the roster selections, i was thinking the same thing with regards to it either being all youngsters or a mixture of old and young especially when you consider the Hex starts a month after the friendlies. It’ll be intriguing nonetheless!

      • There is a mini break built into MLS that week only Houston and Colorado play the weekend following the Cuba match, but Seattle and Houston play the Wednesday after NZ and Fire vs Columbus and Colorado vs San Jose play on Thursday. The rest of MLS starts up again that Sunday. So you could have Morris and/or Dempsey for the Cuba match, but I don’t see JK keeping them for NZ, JJ would be doubtful for either with Colorado in playoff push (JJ may not being playing at all of course), but other than that you really only have Ethan Finlay, and the Crew are just about out of it.

  2. Outside the top 10 teams the FIFA Rankings are fairly useless. The ranking only impact is pot placement during the World Cup beyond that it’s pointless. There are to many factors…Current form, Injuries, suspensions, location, weather & field conditions, etc…that can play into a given teams ability to obtain results. Generally speaking Teams tend to fall into tiers of ability….1-10 are 11-35, than 36-50, 51-100, 101-higher. None of the CONCACAF teams are tier 1 quality but the top 3 probably do fall into the tier 2 range.

    Reply
    • Very good breakdown. I look at them like college basketball rankings, top 3 or 4 are going to be at the top most of the year, then when you get between 5-35 on any given night in the right location anyone could win.

      When it comes to seeding FIFA is just like the NCAA they use what they want to get the seeds they want. Remember when the US was right on the edge of being seeded in Brazil so the criteria changed to current rankings plus results of the last few World Cups. Let’s say Costa Rica goes on a run and wins the hex going away and the GC next Summer there is still no way FIFA would seed them, Mexico maybe, but not the US or anyone else in CONCACAF, Africa, or Asia.

      Reply
    • Don’t know enough to know if I disagree with all you said, probably not, but the system is flawed, biased and it DOES affect the WCup. aka Swiss in top 10.

      I hear you that it is math based, but the formula favors Europe teams. The debate is should it.

      Reply
      • Its all math, but yes it favors European and South American teams because wins over those opponents are worth more in the formula. European teams have the biggest advantage because they are always qualifying either for Euros or WC which count more, and SA and NA teams automatically qualify at least the top CONCACAF teams.

        For example the US gained 841 points for its victory over then #68 TnT (goal differential is not factored) while Beligum got 846 points for beating #86 at the time Cyprus, purely because Cyprus is in UEFA.

        You also get more points for Qualifiers or Cup matches so Brazil gained a bunch with two qualifying wins whereas Spain lost positions because it had one friendly and a qualifier against Liechtenstein.

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