The U.S. men’s national team’s disappointing September window saw them fall in the latest FIFA Rankings.
The Americans dropped two spots to No. 18 after a pair of winless friendly results earlier this month. Interim head coach Mikey Varas was on the sidelines for the first two matches following Gregg Berhalter’s departure.
However, the USMNT suffered a 2-1 home loss to Canada in Kansas City, Kansas before conceding a late equalizer in a 1-1 draw with New Zealand in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Luca De La Torre and Christian Pulisic scored the goals for the USMNT. Aidan Morris and Folarin Balogun earned assists.
Mexico stayed at No. 17 while Panama fell two spots to No. 37 and Canada rose two places to No. 38. Costa Rica and Jamaica rounded out CONCACAF’s top-six representatives.
The Top 10 overall spots were unchanged as Argentina, France, Spain, England, and Brazil stayed in the Top Five.
The USMNT’s 2024 schedule continues this October with a pair of friendlies against Panama on Oct. 12 (home) and Mexico on Oct. 15 (away). New head coach Mauricio Pochettino is expected to be on the sidelines for his first matches in charge of the program.
IV,
” still believe my basic theory that concacaf in the 2022 cycle was very weak and whatever success we had was in that context. and in the longer, more rigorous WCQ — where you play everyone home and away, and don’t have a hosting bias — we were 3rd and not top. we’ve then frittered away 2+ years to build out of that hole. i don’t know how much mexico has either, who had gotten old last time but was regional 2nd ahead of us still. but anyhow the clear message of qatar and copa is concacaf ain’t anything ”
For everyone, WC qualifying is different from everything else. In CONCACAF the basic approach has always been win at home and at least tie on the road. The idea has been to get to the “magic qualifying number” in terms of points ASAP. That number is different every year but the sooner you get there the better. Qualifying in a timely manner could give you one or two games where you can give your reserves some valuable competitive game time in preparation for the WC. The score in those games does not have to matter.
The point is as long as you are at least 3rd in qualifying (thus avoiding the playoffs) the fact the you are 1st, 2nd or 3rd, means nothing.
“right now. someone wins our regional qualifying and events but then about everyone gets spanked globally. we have <2 years to fix that for this cycle."
For the 2026 World Cup all of our games will be "home" games so there is nothing to "fix".
"i want to believe we're better than a top 16 (world cup) or 18 (rank) team but to do that we have to start actualizing the talent level."
I don't know if you noticed but that' s why the USMNT fired Gregg and hired a new manager; his name is Pochettino.
"i look at the list and we haven't done much against the teams above us. on performance it's about right. but a well coached team shouldn't be so consistently mediocre, should occasionally win games on game plans and adjustments and personnel choices."
When did you get the idea that the USMNT was a well coached team? Didn't you just produce literally miles and miles of copy telling us otherwise?
Pochettino's team, we haven't seen them yet, so whatever the ranking # is especially in October of 2024, is not very important.
After the 2026 World Cup? That's something else again.
all told in a limited period of time hayes already churned 4/11 of the lineup that played in the WWC elimination game we lost. arrogant as heck to think we’ll win with the new coach but the exact same players.
and i doubt that’s what happens.
just watch.
“arrogant as heck to think we’ll win with the new coach but the exact same players…..and i doubt that’s what happens.”
Win what? vs. who?
WTF are you saying? More vague bullshit from you. Of course vague is good because then you can claim to have been right. About what? Who cares since you never defined it.
It’s going to be a while before we play a team that good in a game that competitive.
It was really 2 Coffey and Albert. Davidson would be like Miles Robinson coming in. Always been around sometimes first choice sometimes not, not a new roster person. Mal Swanson was Vlatko’s best player had she not done her knee she’s in WWC. If Macario isn’t hurt one of Coffey or Albert don’t play. Poch is going to like a few pool players better than Gregg did and may be able to lock in a guy like Koleosho but you are not going to have a bunch random Euro journeyman finally getting a runout.
the rankings are just data points this cycle because we will probably get top of the draw as hosts, with the highest ranked, no matter how good or bad we are playing when the tournament arrives.
that being said, our plummeting ranking speaks to the self-defeating silliness of the fanboys who think routinely running out a roster of favorites, regardless how they play, is the best chance at wins and rankings. irony is taking a little more time to promote a good system, work rate, desire, and roster/position competition likely would result over time in more wins and better rankings as the cycle progresses. you win games, you get the ranking. you do dumb things that don’t win games, that you wish would, you lose games and drop ranking. treat that as your feedback. respond to the feedback instead of preach reputations, platitudes, and theory.
The B team losing the Gold Cup and the quasi U23 losing in January also caused the ranking to drop. So yes, if miraculously the guy who barely gets off the bench in the Championship and the guy who is a career 2nd division player mixed with a second division Korean striker and 18 yr old goalkeeper with three passports pull off wins against actual good professionals your theory is correct. However, it’s probably more likely that those guys would be performing just as the 100s of professional scouts say they would and lose, it drops the US down even further. You are right rankings are pretty meaningless for 2026 and even for 2030 you are trying to stay in the top 20. But if you tank by throwing spaghetti at wall with unproven players or players that over and over at their clubs have been found wanting it won’t take long before the USA is in that 25-30 range and looking at WC draws with Spain and Uruguay or Argentina and Germany in our group stage. Your theory is predicated on this isn’t good so there must be better players we haven’t chosen and if we just give everyone a chance we’ll find them. The consequence of that theory being wrong is being Canada in Qatar and needing a massive upset to advance because your ranking is too low. I’ve watched several predictions videos from independent soccer media over the last week on who Pochettino will take to the WC. It’s basically Gregg’s roster with maybe Maloney, Tessmann, Busio, or Koleosho. And that’s 1 or 2 of those not all 4 at once. These are “pundits” who were toxic in their treatment of Berhalter. There just are not sacred cows out there to be brought in. Poch’s success is going to likely be built on how he can get more out of this core group not on uncovering the next Medford Messi.
you keep saying this and then the next reyna or fossey shows up when we do slightly loosen up the roster composition. whatever.
i’ve explained the donut hole problem here and you’re not listening. there’s a set of guys stuck on age groups or not getting called or dual nationals. they have been stuck behind this A team for those opportunities. and they don’t get called for stuff like gold cup and january camps because they play in europe. so the A team is not really the best players, and the B team is a MLS/MX B team not a true one. ergo a donut hole of the european prospects or next dudes up.
when you are losing half the time, the excuses you offer ring hollow. there is risk to statius quo too because the status quo is utter crap.
IV,
“you keep saying this and then the next reyna or fossey shows up when we do slightly loosen up the roster composition. whatever.”
To date Gio and Fossey remain huge question marks. They have answered nothing. If they are loosening up the roster composition it wasn’t much of a roster to begin with.
“i’ve explained the donut hole problem here and you’re not listening.”
It’s may be your loose relationship with facts and accuracy as well as your lack of a compelling argument. Have you thought of running for office?
“there’s a set of guys stuck on age groups or not getting called or dual nationals. they have been stuck behind this A team for those opportunities. and they don’t get called for stuff like gold cup and january camps because they play in europe.”
Has it occurred to you that maybe playing in Europe is not the only reason they have not been called up?
“so the A team is not really the best players, and the B team is a MLS/MX B team not a true one. ergo a donut hole of the european prospects or next dudes up.”
That’s your opinion not a fact. And anyway Pochettino is looking for the the 11+5 that play together the best, not necessarily the best 11+5.
There’s a difference.
“when you are losing half the time, the excuses you offer ring hollow. there is risk to statius quo too because the status quo is utter crap.”
Gregg’s version of the USMNT lost because they were poorly coached, the teams were not well constructed and the players were not that good. There is no need to go much further than that.
A team is a dynamic thing. It’s either better or worse, it’s never the same. With a club team because you play so many games so close together you get an approximation of “status quo” but with a national team and especially not the USMNT, a team with one legit top player and a team who can never guarantee that the same 11+5 will show up at any given game, referring to a status quo is delusional and imprecise. The USMNT is high level pickup, pub team.
Status quo is another of your faux buzz words like fanboy. Neither of them mean anything.
IV
“that being said, our plummeting ranking speaks to the self-defeating silliness of the fanboys who think routinely running out a roster of favorites, regardless how they play, is the best chance at wins and rankings. irony is taking a little more time to promote a good system, work rate, desire, and roster/position competition likely would result over time in more wins and better rankings as the cycle progresses. you win games, you get the ranking. you do dumb things that don’t win games, that you wish would, you lose games and drop ranking. treat that as your feedback. respond to the feedback instead of preach reputations, platitudes, and theory.”
No it does not.
Team
1 – Argentina
2 – France
3 – Spain
4 – England
5 – Brazil
6 – Belgium
7 – Netherlands
8 – Portugal
9 – Colombia
10 – Italy
11 – Uruguay
12 – Croatia
13 – Germany
14 – Morocco
15 – Switzerland
16 – Japan
17 – Mexico
18 – USA
19 – IR Iran
20 – Denmark
21 – Senegal
22 – Austria
23 – Korea Republic
24 – Ukraine
25 – Australia
26 – Türkiye
27 – Ecuador
28 – Sweden
29 – Wales
30 – Poland
31 – Egypt
32 – Hungary
33 – Côte d’Ivoire
34 – Russia
35 – Serbia
36 – Tunisia
37 – Panama
38 – Canada
39 – Nigeria
40 – Venezuela
Yeah after COPA and the EUROs, I don’t know about these rankings ….lol
yeah, colombia over brazil is goofy, ditto france over spain. that likely reflects the multiyear inputs used as opposed to a more current rank like college football. that being said last time i looked at it, it’s very rare a regional tournament winner goes on to double at the consecutive world cup. teams age a couple years, everyone scouts the big dogs.
i still believe my basic theory that concacaf in the 2022 cycle was very weak and whatever success we had was in that context. and in the longer, more rigorous WCQ — where you play everyone home and away, and don’t have a hosting bias — we were 3rd and not top. we’ve then frittered away 2+ years to build out of that hole. i don’t know how much mexico has either, who had gotten old last time but was regional 2nd ahead of us still. but anyhow the clear message of qatar and copa is concacaf ain’t anything right now. someone wins our regional qualifying and events but then about everyone gets spanked globally. we have <2 years to fix that for this cycle.
i want to believe we're better than a top 16 (world cup) or 18 (rank) team but to do that we have to start actualizing the talent level. i look at the list and we haven't done much against the teams above us. on performance it's about right. but a well coached team shouldn't be so consistently mediocre, should occasionally win games on game plans and adjustments and personnel choices.
“Yeah after COPA and the EUROs, I don’t know about these rankings ….lol”
You’re right to be skeptical. Rankings only make sense of you are talking about a group of teams that play each other on some kind of consistent basis in something approaching a timely manner; for example MLS teams this season.
You can reasonably and sensibly rank this season’s MLS teams against each other.
The list you put out, a lot of those teams don’t play each other; some maybe never do or at best meet every couple of years. If and when they do meet it often is a friendly where each team may have a very different motivation for the game,
Which means the comparisons start to be based on indirect measurement;
Team A beats Team G.
Since Team G beats Team M ,
Team A MUST be better than team M.
But what if Team A beat Team G 5 years ago?
And what if Team G beat Team M 2 years ago?
And what if Team A never plays Team M?
Now you’re headed down the rabbit hole if you want to rank those three teams relative to each other..