The U.S. men’s national team ended 2021 as the highest Concacaf ranked nation in the year’s final FIFA rankings.
The Americans moved up to 11th place in the December rankings, which were released on Thursday. It was the highest year-end ranking for the USMNT since 2005 and the first time the Americans finished the year higher than rivals Mexico since 2013.
Gregg Berhalter’s side recently set a new federation record by earning its 17th victory of 2021, after a 1-0 friendly triumph over Bosnia and Herzegovina. The USMNT captured both the Concacaf Nations League and Gold Cup trophies while also defeating El Tri three times in a single year, the first time ever in federation history.
Mexico remained in 14th place, three places behind the USMNT in the overall rankings. El Tri’s final match of the year was a 2-2 friendly draw with Chile earlier this month after falling to third place in World Cup Qualifying back in November.
Canada remained in the top 40 of the overall rankings, which remains the highest mark for the Canadians since 1996. John Herdman’s side heads into 2022 in first place of the current World Cup Qualifying cycle.
The top ten spots in the FIFA World Rankings remained the same, with Belgium and Brazil currently occupying the top two places. France, England, and Argentina round out the top five while eight of the top ten come from UEFA.
The USMNT will open its 2022 January camp early in the new year before resuming its qualifying schedule on Jan. 27 against El Salvador in Columbus.
Seems…about right.
We have a really good if really young squad. The glaring weakness remains our #9 and the lack of a pure #10 connector/lockpicker type to unlock the middle in the final third but aside from that we’ve got some really, really good players everywhere else, and increasingly we’re building that depth that true Top-10 World Cup contenders have.
I don’t see us truly cracking that Top-10 until we get a money goal-every-two-games type striker, though. Clearly Pepi has that upside but he’s still got to come good on that potential, or Dike or Hoppe have to emerge and not just tease.
does anyone know where to find the method they use for the ratings, if there is one?
Wikipedia under Fifa World Rankings.
thanks!