The U.S. men’s national team has entered the Top 15 of FIFA’s men’s rankings.
Mauricio Pochettino’s squad moved up one place to No. 15 in July’s rankings, FIFA announced Thursday. It is the USMNT’s highest rank since being No. 11 in June 2024.
The USMNT played eight games during the June-July windows, winning four of those in regulation. They also defeated Costa Rica in a penalty shootout at the CONCACAF Gold Cup but eventually suffered a 2-1 loss to rivals Mexico in the tournament final.
Prior to the Gold Cup, the Americans suffered home friendly defeats to Turkey and Switzerland.
Malik Tillman, Diego Luna, and Chris Richards were the standout performers in the Gold Cup, all earning tournament Best XI honors.
Mexico leapfrogged the USMNT into the No. 13 spot while Canada (No. 28), Panama (No. 30), Costa Rica (No. 40) and Honduras (No. 66) were also along CONCACAF’s movers this summer.
The top five in the rankings did not change with Argentina, Spain, France, England, and Brazil staying in their respective spots. Portugal jumped to No. 6, the Netherlands fell to No. 7, and Belgium stayed in the No. 8 spot, while Germany and Croatia both cracked the Top 10.
It is now a two-month break for the USMNT before they return to action in September with home friendlies against South Korea and Japan.
Any team after the top 10 is pointless any way. Seeding only matters come WC. The US is already seeded as a home country. I mean somehow Belgium is in the top 10 having won nothing for the past 10 years.
I know these matter in seeding us in CONCACAF competition. But man–seema so bogus to me. Just in this last set of games, we were played off the park by current #19 Switzerland, and beaten by #27 Turkiye.
Concacaf uses its own rankings for seeding that just uses Concacaf competition performances. We’re 4th currently in Concacaf rankings. That might change after Canada and Panama losing in the quarters.
Concacaf has been using its own rankings since 2021, but since the US has always been in the top 4 it isn’t really talked about because we’re always top seed in our group.