Top Stories

USMNT slips to 13th in latest FIFA rankings after mixed results in September qualifiers

41 Shares

The U.S. men’s national team secured five points from the three September Concacaf World Cup qualifiers, and while that is enough to keep the Americans in a comfortable top-three position in the Octagonal standings heading toward October, it wasn’t enough to keep the Americans in the top 10 of the latest FIFA rankings.

The USMNT slipped three spots to 13th in the newest FIFA rankings, released on Thursday, just a month after consecutive tournament triumphs in the summer helped the Americans crack the top 10 for the first time since 2006.

Denmark, the Netherlands and Uruguay all moved ahead of the Americans in the latest rankings, which still have the USMNT higher than they were before the summer, when they were 20th prior to the tournament triumphs in the Concacaf Nations League and Concacaf Gold Cup.

Mexico held steady in ninth place after securing two wins and a draw during its September World Cup qualifiers. Canada enjoyed a big jump, eight places to 51st, its highest ranking since 1996, after its own five-point September, which included the 1-1 draw with the United States in Nashville.

Jamaica suffered a nine-spot drop after its winless September qualifying run, falling nine places from 50 to 59.

Costa Rica remains the only other Concacaf nation in the Top 50 along with Mexico and the USA, maintaining its hold on 44th place.

The USMNT will resume World Cup qualifying at home in October against Jamaica, hosting the Reggae Boyz on October 7 in Austin, Texas before visiting Panama on October 10, then closing out the window with a home match against Costa Rica on October 13 in Columbus, Ohio.

Comments

  1. That Canada is ranked so low and we so high is a reflection that the rankings are pretty silly, and they always have been.

    That said, it’s nice to be top 15 lol

    Reply
  2. They should rank largest talent-to-performance gap. Anyone who’s not disappointed with the quality of soccer we’ve seen from this team over the whole summer (the quality, not the results) is either delusional, doesn’t watch much soccer, is just trying to be positive, is an ex-player on TV, or is (present company excepted) a journalist who needs to keep channels open with what looks to be a seriously insecure culture inside US soccer. We need a new coach.

    Reply
    • david moyes’ manu record was 27W 9T 15L and they finished 7th. for other teams that would have been stellar. for manu that is a firing offense. what is it we aspire to? i was sold winning and not just stuttering attempts at style change. the problem right now is we have abundant talent and the team continues to overcome the coach in key decider games where personnel and tactical ideas are abandoned and we just play. if the trigger for a change is an absolute suckage implosion, you may not see that for a decade. if that remains the trigger for a decision then the team is going to repeatedly overcome any situations where the coach could be at risk, in spite of management. the question is do we expect and want more. i mention manu because higher level teams tolerate less. we handle coaching retention decisions like a global midtable team content to just qualify. that’s likely enough to get you back to the quarters again. do we want more?

      Reply
      • IV, “absolute suckage implosion” is so spot-on, and it’s obv what got us a new coach last time, and I don’t see it happening. I just wish we’d stop saying “hey it wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take it!” That is totally counterproductive. They don’t need more support, they need more intelligence. Costa Rica and Panama finished last in their groups at the 2018 WC. Do we all think England came in and said “we need to grind it out” before beating Panama 6-1? I’m not saying we need tiki-taka, but let’s maybe complete a few passes before we start calling ourselves candidates for a seed in the next WC.

      • Let’s see Man City won the 2013/14 title with a record of 27-5-6. Let’s see Berhalter’s record is … 27-5-6. Gregg has won 2 of 3 tournaments so I’m going to say if Moyes had won the FA Cup and the Premier League he wouldn’t have been fired either. I’m all for holding people accountable but saying anyone else would have fired him is fantasy.

    • While that may be, less delusional fans might help the cause as well. Sheesh. Is there talent there? Sure. But it’s largely under-23 and no group of players that age is just gonna storm in and collectively take over the international scene. Why does no one realize that the int’l game is the realm of players in an age and experience group that currently is a loss generation for American soccer. (ages 25-31)

      The expectation for 2022 is simply to qualify…and that was never gonna be a steamroller. That became clear after El Salvador where it was obvious most of the wunderkinds had no idea what “away CONCACAF” entailed. Baptism by fire. Hope to see improvement from all in the next two windows.

      Reply
      • actually, history suggests pulisic, donovan, beasley types tend to arrive fully formed with fairly immediate impact. we have several players of that level. they are hemmed into a boring tactical straitjacket we only occasionally remove, and sewed together with a horrorshow defensive selection that ships goals. if he lets them play soccer and runs out a competent defense, sorry, no, bunk, we should be the runaway first place winner here. most of these other teams have 2-3 good players, tops. you mark them out of the game and then run an offense that actually works. you don’t make the team carry yueill and ream and brooks and co. voila. not complicated.

        i thought we just saw an exercise in how the difficulties of road soccer might not be so hard with the right tactics and players. it’s only a slog with ream and brooks back there and the team running the ball to the flag for keepaway as their offense.

    • the best games i have seen us play in recent years were canada home 2019, costa rica 2021, and honduras away. the common thread is they weren’t his usual tactics, and they weren’t his usual players. costa rica in particular saw use of speed up the wings. to me we are not even close to tapping full potential here.

      Reply
      • History also suggests those types arrive as role players on experienced teams. Too many of them are being asked to have to be more than they really should be right now.

        Yes, you gotta get the tactics right but to expect dynamo performances from a group averaging sub-24 years of age every time out seems a bit much, no?

    • see, I disagree with that. They are a talented group but inexperienced in tough games and international games. I am kind of 50-50. I wanted to see better but I know this will be a learning/maturing process.

      Reply
    • Thank you for giving 5 choices. I think I am delusional and trying to be positive. Doh!! Who would you like to coach the team and do you think they are reasonable candidates?

      Reply
  3. on a somewhat tangential note, the U23 team just got a boost when concacaf decided that 2024 olympics qualifying is through the summer 2022 U20 championship, not the “during season” U23 tournaments they have been using. top 4 make U20 worlds and the finalists also get the olympics.

    Reply
    • Is a ‘roast’ banter between friends or enemies, Bruce? Are the comedic arts of parody and impersonation and caricature born from malice or respect? It should be possible for me–an American patriot and a soccer fanatic-player-coach–to poke fun at my beloved team in good humor. Soccer is just a game after all, and it shouldn’t be taken so seriously.

      Reply

Leave a Comment