The U.S. men’s national team has moved up two spots in the second FIFA Rankings of 2023.
The Americans jumped to No. 11, sitting just outside of the Top 10, the federation announced Thursday. B.J. Callaghan’s squad recently lifted the Concacaf Nations League title for the second-consecutive edition following victories over Mexico and Canada earlier this June.
The Americans have also kickstarted their Gold Cup defense with a 1-1 draw vs. Jamaica and a 6-0 victory over Saint Kitts and Nevis. Trinidad & Tobago will oppose the USMNT in its final Group A match on Sunday before a potential knockout round berth.
The USMNT and Mexico remained No. 1 and No. 2 respectively among Concacaf nations while Costa Rica sits third despite dropping to No. 42 overall among all national teams. Canada, Panama, and Jamaica round out the top-six in terms of Concacaf nations.
2022 FIFA World Cup winners Argentina remained in the No. 1 spot while France and Brazil also retained their respective places in the Top Three. England leapfrogged Belgium into No. 4 while UEFA Nations League Finalists Croatia moved up to No. 6 ahead of the Netherlands.
Spots No. 8 – No. 10 remained the same with Italy, Portugal, and Spain rounding out the Top 10 places.
The USMNT already has a busy fall schedule lined up with September friendlies against Uzbekistan and Oman before October showdowns with Germany and Ghana on home soil.
These rankings, I think are based on game results graded by friendly or competitive, level of competition WC, Euros, Nations League, etc. I think the formula used rewards teams who win games in their region and teams that play more competitive games, These rankings do not really reflect who would beat whom in any game. They are recent history based, not forward-looking and really are not likely to predict outcomes with any accuracy. They are an attempt to take opinion out of the ranking for competitions, but it is not clear how good they are even for that.
Pulisic and AC Milan have agreed terms. Just waiting on Chelsea and AC Milan to agree a transfer fee.
AC Milan has also tabled an offer for Yunus Musah. Reportedly 17 million Euros plus add ons. Pulisic and Musah at AC Milan would be cool.
Not if both sit on the bench.
If Yunus is seen as a replacement for Tonali he had better impress right away.
Leao has the LW all tied down, so again, Christian better hit the ground running.
And Milan has not stopped shopping, so it’s great if they go there but they will be on a short leash.
Where is Pulisic going to play Leao has LW pretty solidly locked down? Musah would likely slot in for the departing Tonali I would guess.
Well They don’t really have an RW and Brahmin Diaz is gone. Pulisic can play underneath as well. He isn’t just a LW.
They do have DeKetelaere as a AM that they spent 35 million on last summer. He wasn’t very good last season but I don’t know that they’ve moved on from him. Would appear the plan would be a move back to the RW.
Hearing Milan might move De Ketaleare on. Also rumblings Milan may move Leao as an AM/striker role next season.
Leao just got himself the #10 shirt, for what it’s worth. The guy is also 6’2″, 180…you’d think he’s got the size to play striker.
You wonder if the plan is to try him at one of those spots.
Have you heard anything about Reyna and the severity of his injury?
I’m sure he’s on vacation. He was putting weight on it during the second half so I don’t think it was too serious. BvB return to training July 5th we should have an update in a few days.
One of the things I get frustrated with with fans is the idea we just need to “improve” and we’ll move up. That’s not the case. We need to improve more than those ahead of and close behind us improve. If you improve by 10% but everyone else goes up 12% you’ve actually dropped. Every country is getting better. It seems fans think “If we just try harder” or “get the right coach” we’ll consistently be quarter or semifinalists. That’s not true. Look at Italy. European champs in 2020, WC winners in 2006, 3rd place in European Nations League in 2021 yet they didn’t even qualify for the 2022 World Cup.
We are improving faster than I think anyone realizes. Track it with basic “soccernomics”. Just a quick summary of the basic tiers:
Tier 1: The 9-figure teams. There are only 14 teams in the entire world that spend more than €100 million on player salaries, and they’re all in Top-5 leagues, ranging from PSG at the top to Borussia Dortmund and Inter Milan on the bottom. We have between 5-10 players in this tier, depending on contracts and offseason moves.
Tier 2: The high 8-figure teams. There’s another 23 teams in the world that spend between €50-€100 million on players, and every single one of these is in Top-5 leagues, and right at half of those are in the Premier League. Again, we have another 5-10 players on those rosters, depending on how various contracts and moves shake out. So the bulk of our team – more than half – plays at the top two levels now.
3. After that, the next tier down is the low 8-figure teams. There’s only about 100 or so of these, total, in the entire world.
Would you care to venture a guess how many players the USA has in that tier, and how many MLS teams would fall into that category?
Do some digging. The answer will absolutely shock you.
“Would you care to venture a guess how many players the USA has in that tier, and how many MLS teams would fall into that category?
Do some digging. The answer will absolutely shock you.”
I don’t think so.
Your tier system is about clubs.
The topic here is the USMNT.
I have another tier system and it focuses on national teams:
1. Contenders- If things go well are contenders to win the Cup- Argentina France, Brazil, etc.
2. Near Contenders- If things go well, pose a serious threat to Tier One Clubs.
3. Everyone else
The rankings within these tiers are best determined just before the actual competition because they rely heavily on things like:
A. Injury
B. the World Cup draw
C. Intangibles.
D. Injury
Argentina for example was rounding into form heading into Qatar and had really bought into this “Messi’s last rodeo” narrative.
Right now, the USMNT is firmly in Tier Two and it’s really too early to tell where they will finish. If everyone is healthy and in form and if we get a good draw, it is possible that the home field advantage, such as it is, could be the kind of strong intangible that they need to go on a long run.
“We are improving faster than I think anyone realizes.”
A lot of people have a good idea that the USMNT eligible player pool is improving significantly.
BUT, how much better does all this make the USMNT?
Is it enough to push them into my Top tier?
Let me bring up the cliché, “quality or quantity”?
The “bulk of our team….plays at the top two levels now”
How often? How regularly? How many of them are, never mind stars, but regular starters?
Antonee, Timmy Ream, Tyler (if healthy, a huge question with him)
If things go well this season we could see Flo, Timo, Pulisic, Gio, Richards, Weston, Matt, and Dest, join them.
But only Flo and Pulisic are likely to approach star status.
This is not terrible and it’s actually trending upwards.
But it’s a very long way from assuming that this translates immediately into making our potential 2026 World Cup team into a top tier contender.
One consistent mistake I always see fans here making is comparing the current team to past teams and citing the improvement, as if that makes it all better.
As Ross says, “If you improve by 10% but everyone else goes up 12% you’ve actually dropped. Every country is getting better.”.
The 2022 USMNT WC team is not going to play the 2014, 2010, 2006, 2002 WC teams.
This is not Gregg vs JK, Bob or Bruce. This not Pulisic going one on one with Dolo, or Tyler tracking Dempsey.
This is Gregg vs Louie or potentially, Gareth, Didier or whoever.
We went to Qatar with a roster that full of our best young talent and we can’t get past an average Netherlands squad, undone by a guy like Weghorst who is laughed at in the EPL.
We advance out of the group and lose the knockout game. A game we were never in danger of winning. Just like in 2014 and 2010(that Ghana game was closer).
So, what has this improved player pool gotten us? What improvement?
To add to what Ross said, the kind of improvement that we want is not linear in nature.
I’ve said this a million times but we need more than just a lot more good to great players. We also need the right management team. People fooled themselves into thinking that this “great wave of young world class” American players in Qatar would more than make up for Gregg’s limitations.
Teams that achieve things need talent of course but they also must have the right chemistry between the players and the management .
It’s a mixture that is hard to define and even harder to find.
Based on Qatar, we are not there yet.
You can poke and prod the rankings all you want when all that matter is what the final ranking is after the results of a WC.
Pretty sure all teams internally rank their teams based on player pool and team depth. Built around your starting eleven then two deep, and then three deep etc. Formation reflects an emphasis on what plays to your roster strengths and the dexterity to change formation based on what is available player wise.
A realistic ranking for a team is how many players do you have that are globally a top player at their position. Building a team with more than one dominant player is what separates the mid level teams. Top four teams have two deep talent at every position and fit into a system with expectations and demands with how they perform. Obviously a team like France has amazing depth but each WC pull in a player without much hype like Pavard two world cups ago. Argentina had two players perform at dominant level in midfield in Enzo Fernandez and MacAllister, no one expected them to be that good.
The improvement the USMNT needs is there players need to get sorted at club level. Be regular starters and play at a position that best suits the individual on a competitive team. When brought back into US player pool show improvement and push the talent level at your position and improve the overall team.
Something that is bugging me with the Gold Cup US performance is players that are just not improving or leveled off but make mental mistakes. Matt Miazga sticks out with poor soft passes out of the back? Good teams will punish the team with soft slow rolling passes. This is an example of not performing up to expectations of what is the team needs
We made it to the round of 16. 9 thru 16 get eliminated. The US is somewhere in that range. We are just holding serve. 13 or 11 doesn’t matter. It’s 8 or lower, (quarterfinal caliber) that counts. Japan & Morocco are better than us, yet Italy is a quarterfinal country?
Wouldn’t say Japan and Morocco are better.
Italy didn’t qualify for the WC, Morocco & Japan not only participated but made it out of the group stage. Whatcha sayin now? That’s not opinion, 2tone.
I agree 2tone.
When it comes to Japan, why not?
They had a tougher group (Germany , Spain) in Qatar and finished on top of that Group.
They lost their knockout game to Croatia, a better team than the Netherlands, via penalties.
Go through their roster and they have nearly as many players in Europe as we do. And most of them play regularly. Mitoma of Brighton has scored 7 goals this season which is more than any American in the EPL can say.
And if you want direct measurements instead of this indirect stuff, I know it was only a friendly but they kicked our ass when we met them before the World Cup.
They certainly aren’t afraid of us. Nor should they be.
I would say we are right where we should be. Crazy Belgium continues to stay in the top 5 though.
So? 11th is nothing.
We were ranked No. 6 in 2006. That turned out great!
Weren’t those ranking based on voting in 2006?
These are data based.
We’re not that good.
If you look at 11-25 you could make a case for any of them to be anywhere in that range. Germany has name recognition but is just 1w-1d-3l in 2023, 5-7-5 since 2022. Obviously the GC roster isn’t 11th, but the “first team” certainly looked that they might be in NL. There is a big jump between 11-25 and Top 10 though.
Yeah ok, meh.