The FIFA rankings may not reflect well the USA’s global competitiveness. At #11 for the USA, only Argentina and Brazil in the COPA competition are ranked higher. Good teams like Uruguay, Venezuela and Colombia are ranked lower by FIFA but may be better than the USA.
Canada is ranked #48 which makes it one of the lowest ranked teams in the COPA competition but a ranking in the 40s seems reasonable for it.
I generally like the ELO ratings more than FIFA
Agreed. No idea how FIFA does ranking. Guessing it includes older data.
ELO might also have less bias toward whatever FIFA might need to be biased toward.
Elo, not ELO. It’s named for a person, not an acronym.
Jeff Lynne is not orchestrating these rankings?
Thanks SAMANTHA
Thanks for sharing. I was not familiar with Elo ratings but they are more in line with my impressions.
Marsch gunning for USA job?
In the unlikely event his team wins another game at COPA, he will be a hot commodity. I did prefer his predecessor though.
USA should not be 11 right now. Brazil is not as good as Columbia or Uruguay but all are better than US. We need a coach and a plan. Would move Weah to bench and Reyna up. Musah needs to start.
This is my wish
I have been saying this for some time and the FIFA rankings have real world impacts.
The USA benefited from its high ranking by having favourable bucket/group placements in the 2022 World Cup. In contrast, Canada was slotted in a group with three better teams which hobbled its ability to advance.
Not sure how FIFA rankings will affect bucket/group assignments for the 2026 World Cup since the USA and Canada are host countries but the USA will still be highly ranked and Canada low-ranked because the rankings change at a glacial pace. Canada may see an uptick in its ranking from COPA 2024 success but it will be small.
As there are 12 Groups, the three hosts have already been placed in Groups. The top nine teams will be drawn to the other Groups first. Highest-possible-ranked team (FIFA’s ranking) in the hosts’ Groups will be #10, assuming all 10 qualify.
Thanks. That was how I hoped it might work as it would be consistent with the treatment given to Qatar in 2022. However I thought with three host countries they might do something else. Canada might get to the second round with that approach. Has to be better odds than 2022 when their Group consisted of #2 ranked Belgium and two teams (Morocco and Croatia) who made it to the Semi-Finals.
As long as they use FIFA rankings instead of ELO (which, in reality, is a Livin’ Thing – yes I will be working on more puns like this; might need some Strange Magic to help conjur them up).
Coincidentally, I did my morning workout to a “Best of ELO” album yesterday. Great sound
This one doesn’t even note Marsch, but I guess they didn’t want to include those with jobs?
Marsch is just getting started where he is so is still having fun. I imagine he would make a whole lot more money almost anywhere else though! If he does well in 2026 he will have offers galore.
Just hoping Canada Soccer doesn’t mess things up as they have been dysfunctional the last few years and have been counterproductive to both the men’s and women’s teams.
I don’t think I even need this inside scoop, but:
Short answer: No.
Klopp would have to find players equal to the rest of the world, for starters.
He could do this by scouting the local fields all over the country, kidnaping the best children (say, 1000 or so), and training them all his own way. Since that sort of thing is discouraged and illegal here, he might have better luck in China or Saudi Arabia.
Or he can do it the other Jurgen way: Scout the rest of the soccer world for USA-eligible talent, find the players already trained properly from birth, then convince them to play for him and the USA. That works when you’re a club coach with a name like Klopp, but this is a lifetime choice for the player. If the player is good enough to play for a top-notch country team, why waste potential glory in the USA? This sales pitch works better on lesser talent, ones that will not make a top nation’s team.
So, he can try to steal top (potential) talent from lesser nations, like in CONCACAF. Find talent at 8-13 years old, move their family to the USA, train them, convince them to play for USA – better chance for World Cup play and Gold Cup wins, etc.
Last thing he can try is to ban the USA sports that attract the top athletes, so they have no other choice but to train for soccer. Uh-huh. See if that flies. No progress for about 15 years, though.