The U.S. men’s national team’s two World Cup qualifying wins in October helped solidify a hold on second place in the Concacaf Octagonal standings, but it wasn’t enough to help the Americans climb in the latest FIFA rankings.
The USMNT stayed at 13th in the latest FIFA World Rankings, released on Thursday. The Americans did lose points in the FIFA equation, largely because of the team’s loss to Panama, but remained in 13th place.
Among the Concacaf contingent, Mexico remained in ninth place despite gaining total points in its score, while Canada continued its steady climb, checking in at 48th, marking the first time since 1997 that Canada had broken into the Top 50. The Canadians are currently the fourth-highest ranked Concacaf team, behind only the USMNT, Mexico and Costa Rica, which slipped to 45th in the latest rankings.
Belgium remained the top-ranked team in the world, followed by Brazil and France, with England slipping to fifth overall.
The USMNT returns to action on Nov. 12 against Mexico in Cincinnati, before traveling to Jamaica to take on the Reggae Boyz, which checked in at 59th in the latest rankings.
That’s a fascinating list and it got me interested so I started clicking on rosters…on paper, anyhow, we’re not far off Brazil or Argentina. (I was surprised how many players both teams had playing in their national leagues, which really aren’t much better than MLS.) Of course, those rosters also include talismans like Lionel Messi and Brazil has, you know, Neymar. We have no such creature.
That list does indicate something else, though: Germany’s DEFINITELY underperforming for the talent they have. When only Belgium, Portugal, and the Netherlands can match your roster in terms of CL talent – and the Dutch’s roster was over-amped because more than half their players come off Ajax and Feyanoord, which inflates their presence in Champions League – you’re underperforming at #12. Bigly.
So yeah, we’ve got a ways to go but I we’re definitely getting there…and I still opine the biggest deficiency the USA truly has is that lack of a true marquee striker because those guys change everything. And our reliance on Josh Sargent – who literally cannot score – was absolutely killing us because nothing is more limiting to a team’s ceiling than a near-total lack of end product.
Odd that the 13th ranked team in the world lost to the 69th ranked team, and tied the 65th and 48th ranked teams. Did get those key wins against the 45th, 59th and 68th, I guess.
Talent wise this team looks like a mid 20s team looking over the list, but in CONCACAF they’ve played like a mid 30’s team based on results.
13 may be a bit high, but I wouldn’t discount the difficulty of playing concacaf qualis, especially on the road. I’ve always wondered how a similarly ranked team from Europe would do playing away to a Central American team with WCQ on the line. Say, Switzerland playing in Panama, with Panama using all the dirty tricks, fans keeping opposing team up all night, throwing stuff at them in stadium, and of course all the time wasting antics during the game. I tend to think it would be a struggle, same as us.
European teams have to play in Turkey and Eastern Europe where the atmosphere can be just a tough or tougher than CONCACAF- just Google how many fans have been stabbed, fireworks shot onto the field and started fire in the stands and fans subsequently banned from matches. There’s this misperception that every game is on a perfect, Wembley like pitch. Plus most national stadiums hold a lot more fans than CONCACAF stadiums do
So when it comes to WC pot assignments (assuming we qualify) does anybody know if it is just done by strict FIFA rating and spot 15 is the cutoff for Pot 2 (assuming Qatar is not in the top 16) or are there other factors considered. Inquiring minds want to know.
2018 the pots were based on Fifa rankings, 2014 only Pot 1 was seeded the rest were allocated by region. I believe they are sticking with the Fifa rankings but I couldn’t find that for sure with a quick search.
That seems about right for the moment. Until we establish a money striker – I love ya, Pepi, but you’re still just 18 and you’ve got some a-provin’ to do at the next level – we’re probably just not any better than that even though we do have a boatload of Champions League players. And until Gregg starts getting a little more ruthless replacing his MLS favs we still seem likely to see games like Panama when too many of them get to be on the field at once.
I still opine not many – or any, really – teams in the world would feel overly safe against our A-team at the moment, though.
For comparison Germany ranked #12 had 16 CL players on their 23 man roster and 22 of 23 play in top 5 league with Brenden Aaronson’s teammate Adeyemi the lone player. That tells you how much further we have to go. The US had 6 in CL, which would have been 9 if not for injuries or 10 with Pefok.
Yeah, but Germany’s better – or should be – than their ranking. On PAPER, anyhow, they’re up there with Brazil/France/Argentina/England/Belgium/Spain for the most-talented squad in the world but they are not kickin’ it like they should be right now. Dunno what’s up with them but the Germans seemed to have sort of traded places with England, that team that should be a lot better than they are but can’t get it together for whatever odd reason.
Germany just does not play like a superpower these days. No clue why. But that old Steely Ruthless Teutonic Strut just seems missing from their team these last couple years. They used to be an absolute machine.
11. Netherlands 19 CL players
10. Denmark 7 CL players
9. Mexico 2 CL players (2 more injured last window)
8. Portugal 16 CL players
7. Spain 15 CL players
6. Argentina 12
5. England 13
4. Italy 13
3. France 14
2. Brazil 14
1. Belgium 16
With the exception of Denmark and the extreme outlier Mexico the US’s talent pool is not as deep as the teams ahead of them. This was just a quick glance sure I missed some.
Whoops…sorry, I replied but the reply apparently wasn’t entered under your post. Apologies, I erroneously entered it as a normal post up top. But that list was fascinating.
Denmark is def better than Mexico.
quozzel
“I still opine not many – or any, really – teams in the world would feel overly safe against our A-team at the moment, though.”
No offense but what you opine has been true since at least 2002. The USMNT has been and is a 2nd tier team at best.
But since at least 2002, on their day, the USMNT have been capable of beating anyone. To paraphrase Arjen Robben back in 2010 before playing the USMNT in a friendly and beating them 2-1, ” They are hard to beat but not much quality”.
Today’s USMNT A team have more quality but a lot less cohesion and less organization, so it’s kind of wash.
These days there is more parity in the international game. The big boy teams still mostly wind up in the semis and in the finals of the big tournaments but it’s getting harder and harder for them.
The big boy teams certainly respect the USMNT’s A team talent level, and I’m sure they don’t feel overly safe, but behind closed doors I doubt that they are any more concerned about us than they ever were.
Nor should they be.
Gawds as a USSF coach I can tell you this incessant sophisticant poormouthing of our program gets tiresome. Rather than talk about the US, shift the focus to Canada to provide a little neutral perspective…they’re not exactly the same, but they’re a fair representation of where the USA was in, say, 2014. A couple of respected players everybody’s heard of (in Canada’s case, it’s obviously Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David while in 2014 everybody knew about Donovan and Dempsey and Howard for us) but despite the fact that nobody outside of CONCACAF has heard of hardly anybody else on that roster there’s still some really athletic players – courtesy of MLS – who might not be the most technically polished guys in the world and are certainly no-names but are pro soccer players who can legit play.
The Canucks are going to qualify for the World Cup – I think that’s obvious by now to everybody – and they’re going to mess some people up when they get there. They’re too athletic, too cohesive as a unit, and while their coach may not be well-known he clearly knows his group and knows how to push their buttons. They just come at you and will…not…die. They’ll probably swim a bit here and there at the Cup just because the bright lights and big stage can dazzle but at the end of the day those dudes have game. They’re going to come in as a joke, an unknown, group-stage filler…and then when they pick off a superpower that didn’t take them seriously enough and advance out of group people are going to realize it.
That’s everybody’s perception of the USA right now: plucky tough-if-unsophisticated overachievers who can. But we’re better than that now…and the World Cup tends to bring out potential. And it tends to smile on young rosters.