USMNT approaching Top 10 after climbing the FIFA world ranking

Following the games that took place during last month’s international break and as a great preview for this summer’s tournaments: Euro 2024 and the Copa América, FIFA have published an update of their world ranking.

Argentina top of the pile

The changes correspond to all of the international games played the first quarter of 2024. While current world champions Argentina remain in pole position following their friendly wins over El Salvador and Costa Rica, there were some important changes further down the order. For example Belgium move up a place to third despite drawing both of their friendly games in March.

As far as the CONCACAF zone is concerned, and specifically the USMNT, the Stars and Stripes led by Gregg Berhalter also made an important leap in this update of the FIFA world ranking.

Last month victory in the CONCACAF Nations League semi-final against Jamaica and then the win over Mexico in the final allowed Team USA to move up couple of positions, from ninth to 11th on 1661.7 points -a position they maintain as the best team in the CONCACAF region.

Croatia is the team that is blocking the USMNT’s entry into the top 10 - as runner-up at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, they added points to their tally with victories in the recent friendlies against Tunisia (0-0 - [4-5]) and Egypt (2-4), respectively.

FIFA world ranking Top 10

Elsewhere in the top 10, England dropped down a place to fourth (1795 points) and the Netherlands also descend a position, slipping from sixth to seventh after being leapfrogged by Portugal.

The biggest climber after the latest update was Indonesia who scurry up eight places to 134th with 1102.7 points while Vietnam plummeted 10 places in the biggest drop.

A new method of calculating the FIFA world ranking was introduced in 2018 after approval by the FIFA Council. It relies on adding/subtracting points won or lost for a game to/from the previous point totals rather than averaging game points over a given time period as in the previous version of the world ranking.

The points which are added or subtracted are partially determined by the relative strength of the two opponents, including the logical expectation that teams higher in the ranking should fare better against teams lower in the ranking.