News

USMNT’s 'Dominant' Performance Vs. Canada Wins No Bonus Points, FIFA Ranks Mexico Above U.S.

Despite USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter claiming that his team was “dominant” in its 2-0 defeat vs. Canada, FIFA didn’t see it that way. This was evident in the latest FIFA Rankings where Mexico leapfrogged the U.S. 

The teams around the U.S. in the world rankings now look like this.

Latest USMNT FIFA Rankings

11. Germany

12. Mexico

13. U.S.

14. Switzerland

15. Croatia

FIFA has these weird, arbitrary and mystical points it gives out for an international team’s results. The USMNT’s last three results, including the loss to Canada, saw Berhlater’s side lose 5.17 of these points. This dropped the team from 11th to 13th with Germany and Mexico passing the Americans.

Mexico’s victories against Panama and Jamaica, along with a 0-0 draw to Costa Rica, saw El Tri gain 9.6 of FIFA’s magical brownie points. This honestly sounds like Hogwarts and FIFA just says “9 points to Mexico.”

The USMNT had sat behind Mexico in the rankings for six years until Nov. 2021, when the Americans took the Concacaf lead. The U.S. was only in charge for about three months before Mexico regained control.

Canada

What about Canada though? The Canucks are top of the Concacaf World Cup qualifying table and have beat both the U.S. and Mexico. Shouldn’t they be ranked higher? You would think, but this isn’t a college AP top 25 or College Football Playoff ranking where it actually makes some semblance of sense.

Canada continues its climb. With each new FIFA ranking the neighbors from the north set a record for highest ever position. 

In the Feb. 2021 rankings Canada was 73rd in the world and seventh in Concacaf. Fast forward one year and Canada is now 33rd in the world, sitting between Nigeria and Egypt. The Canadians hope they can keep climbing the rankings to avoid being too low of a seed during the World Cup draw.

While these rankings are insignificant in some critic’s eyes, the World Cup draw is based on FIFA’s rankings. The top seven teams in the world and Qatar will be the “one seed” of their respective World Cup groups.

The stronger Canada finishes World Cup qualifying, the better shot it has at getting a more favorable group in the World Cup.

Videos you might like