The U.S. women’s national team have stayed in FIFA’s Top Two following their third window of 2026.
Emma Hayes’ squad remained No. 2 in April’s FIFA Rankings, the federation announced Tuesday. The Americans just recently concluded their third slate of matches, a trio of friendlies against Japan.
Goals from Rose Lavelle and Lindsey Heaps propelled the USWNT past Japan 2-1 on April 11 before Japan exacted revenge three days later with a 1-0 road triumph.
The three-match schedule concluded on April 17 with the Americans breezing to a 3-0 win in Commerce City, Colorado.
The USWNT have now won seven of their eight matches this year and 11 of their last 12 dating back last fall. In total, the Americans have only lost four matches since January 2025.
Spain remained in the top spot while England leapfrogged Germany into the No. 3 place. The Germans dropped to No. 4 while Japan moved up to No. 5.
Brazil, France, Sweden, Canada and the Netherlands rounded out the Top-10.
The USWNT will begin World Cup Qualifying later this fall, but are expected to have their latest slate of friendlies in the summer.
Are the Spanish women ranked no.1 off the strength of winning the WC in 2023, and the UEFA Nations League over a year ago?
It’s all computer driven, so yes they are still getting some bump from the WC. From just looking at the description of how the rankings are compiled Spain also gets a lot more competitive matches whereas the US is playing friendlies (She Believes counts as friendlies). The US also plays almost every match at home which lowers their computer points. Spain has also started WC qualifiers which count more. Spain gets more rankings points for beating Ukraine 5-0 than USA beating Japan 3-0 because of the importance of the match, even though Japan is much better. Japan jumps up because they won Asian Cup and beat USA on the road and aren’t hurt much by the 2 losses because they weren’t supposed to win. Germany drops because they drew with 22nd ranked Austria while England beat Spain but at home. Sweden took a big hit for losing to Denmark at home and drawing Serbia on the road.