The U.S. men’s national team rose in Thursday’s FIFA world rankings following a busy June window of matches.
The Americans jumped up one spot to 14th place in the third FIFA rankings in 2022. Gregg Berhalter’s side went unbeaten in a four-match June window, defeating Grenada 5-0 in Concacaf Nations League before tying El Salvador 1-1.
The Americans also took part in two international friendlies, defeating Morocco 3-0 in Cincinnati before tying Uruguay 0-0 in Kansas City.
The USMNT was joined by Jamaica as the only teams within the top-six Concacaf nations to move up in June’s rankings. Mexico dropped three spots from No. 9 to No. 12 while Costa Rica also fell three spots despite winning its Intercontinental Playoff vs. New Zealand to clinch a World Cup berth.
Canada dropped in the rankings for the second-consecutive period, falling to No. 43 after splitting its Nations League schedule this month. The Canadians defeated Curacao 4-0 before faloling 2-1 to Honduras.
Brazil and Belgium remained in the top two places while Argentina leapfrogged France into third place. Denmark jumped into the top ten after registering a 3-1-0 record in Nations League play this month, defeating France once and Austria twice.
The USMNT continues its summer break from action before traveling to Europe this September for friendly matches against Japan and Saudi Arabia.
Going into the World Cup USMNT goals should be advancing out of the group and then making the top eight. These are very difficult goals but achievable. Although top eight would require beating a top ten team or two.
Fielding the youngest team in the WC a
positive result could build a great foundation for the next WC and a top ten ranking.
They should build the ranking bottom up by looking at the players’ minutes in their clubs and the performance of the clubs.
That’s the only way to get anything approaching statistical significance, and it matches the way everyone thinks about national team quality anyway (“Honduras is playing with USL guys”, “Canada has a few guys killing it in Europe”, etc.)
You can’t use actual national team results when winning isn’t always the primary objective of the game even in a “competitive” tournament like the gold cup (it could be player dev, tactical experiments, etc), and everyone knows soccer results are fluky even for mismatched teams (I doubt they adjust for PKs, red cards, and howler mistakes, which would all be removed from a proper data set)
Yes you’ll miss Italy’s failure this way, but no method could predict that.
“You can’t use actual national team results when winning isn’t always the primary objective of the game even in a “competitive” tournament like the gold cup (it could be player dev, tactical experiments, etc)….”
Correct.
It’s a device to aid seeding nothing more.
Some people put more into the word “ranking” than is really there.
In tournaments , which is what FIFA is all about, lower seeds beating higher seeds is not exactly uncommon.
at a loss why people think the FIFA rankings are that useful at this point in the cycle vs simply looking at who dominated each region’s WCQ. italy is 6th. italy missed qatar. canada is 38th and the 4th best CONCACAF. canada dominated WCQ. the US is the 2nd best regional team despite finishing a clear 3rd in WCQ. not even sure if they are that useful for the rest of the cycle either, as the “lag” of old results tends to serve to prop up the status quo rather than show current quality. we used FIFA ranks to seed WCQ and either give the first 5 a bye or send them to repechage. canada, who were the 7th best team at the time, not only fought through the two extra quali rounds but won the whole thing. mexico, US, and CR all bumped down a slot. jamaica, who on paper should have been on pace to be the playoff team as 4 seed, finished 6th. honduras got a qualifying bye as 5th seed then finished abysmally 8th, last and didn’t look like they deserved any preference whatsoever. in other words every single top 5 team got worse from seeding to finish. ES then seeded 6th finished 7th. canada seeded 7th finished 1st. curacao seeded 8th didn’t make the ocho. panama seeded 9th made the ocho and finished 5th. none of the rankings predicted where they would finish and only 2 of the top 9 teams performed to (or above) the level of their supposed rank (canada and panama).
it’s a definite conversation starter but due to the long period it covers it has a lag, including in favor of teams like honduras that long ago fell apart and against teams like canada who just got good. a real rank would literally tell you just who is good now. IMO the lag is there to protect historical powerhouse teams like italy who hit hard times. if they make the tournament they still get a seed and a favorable group draw. if they miss the tournament they maintain their rank anyway.
to me i’m like at this juncture why aren’t people looking at WCQ instead. i think the argument is it may not be sustained success but with the schedule ballooning to 14 WCQ games that’s plenty of data you either won lost or drew.
I’m good with where we are. The obvious problem with moving up is you have to boot someone out of their place. The top 10 doesn’t become the top 11. Don’t see us getting up there for quite a while.
I’d say about right. Mexico’s probably too high for where they are right now…they’ve got defensive problems and suddenly have a real problem scoring goals too. Still a ton of possession but it doesn’t seem to lead to much these days. I keep hearing Tata’s having talks with Carlos Vela and Chicharito again – not surprising, El Tri is getting a little desperate – but can they really just seamlessly integrate those guys back into the group in time for the World Cup and hey, everything’s cool again? I can’t imagine the guys who ground through qualifying would like that much.
Still think we’ve got a chance of shocking some people in Qatar.
Quozzel,
“I keep hearing Tata’s having talks with Carlos Vela and Chicharito again – not surprising, El Tri is getting a little desperate – but can they really just seamlessly integrate those guys back into the group in time for the World Cup and hey, everything’s cool again? “
Of course they can. Those guys are professionals. They’d do anything to increase their chances of doing well in Qatar.
If Chicharito and Vela were Americans one or both would be in Qatar with them. World Cup experience? Check. In scoring form? Compared to our motley crew? Damn right they are. If this were possible, I’m sure the USMNT would find a way to “seamlessly integrate” one or both of these guys back into the WC team.
And Mexico are a worse team than the USMNT. So if they can get that dynamic duo willing to come back then they better find a way integrate them. Dump Funes Mori? Are you kidding? In a heartbeat.
That’s not desperate. Not even remotely.
It’s a smart move.
World Cup history is full of vintage strikers who did well in one last hurrah for their national team. Klinsmann was 33-34 in his last World Cup and scored 3 goals. Klose, the guy who broke JK’s record with Germany was 36 and starting for Germany in 2014. He scored twice in the tournament and Germany won the World Cup. Diego Forlan was 32 and had a fine 2010 World Cup for Uruguay. The list could go on and on.
American fans keep looking at 2022 as prep for 2026 and that’s ridiculous. A World Cup is the ultimate “WIN NOW” team situation. There is no tomorrow. 4 yeasr later is not “tomorrow”, especially in soccer. USMNT fans are used to Landon or DMB regularly going to WC’s. But that was true because our cupcake qualifying almost guaranteed qualification and the USMNT had no one else to send.
We’re still going to be regularly going to the WC but competition for places has gotten much tougher and is likely to remain that way, hopefully for some time.
The players who get to play in Qatar should give it everything they have got. It is possibly their only chance to ever play in a World Cup because that is the truth.
By 2026 they could be hurt, out of form or retired.
Far better players than them never got the chance to play in even one World Cup.
“I can’t imagine the guys who ground through qualifying would like that much.”
Those guys won’t be on the team so no one will care what they like or think. The media will have bigger fish to fry.
“Still think we’ve got a chance of shocking some people in Qatar.”
Of course. And it would be better if we had veterans the quality of Chicharito and Vela to draw on. But we don’t. More’s the pity.