u.s. finally ahead of mexico in fifa standings

[luvdagame]

for those who take this kind of thing seriously (i do not):

the new rankings are out, and the u.s. has moved up to 9th, whereas mexico is down to 11th, tied with ITALY!!

how could the u.s. be ahead of italy????

like i said, this stuff is sometimes rather confusing.

thoughts.

[Juan Luis Guerra]

yeah, here is the link

http://www.fifa.com/en/rank/index.html?ttl=480

[dabes2]

USA ranking ahead of Mexico reflects performance reality.

The formulas break down when you try and combine confederations because the schedules are very different and they have devised arbitrary rules to try and merge them.

But within each confederation, the schedules played are fairly similar. Look at the lists for each continent. You can argue around the edges, but these lists look pretty fair to me given a tradition, talent, and recent form.

Conmebol: Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, Uruguay.
Africa: Camaroon, Senegal, Nigeria, SAfrica, Morocco
Asia: Korea, Japan, Iran, SArabia
Europe: France, Spain, Holland, Germany, Turkey, England, CRep, Italy, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden,...
Concacaf: USA, Mexico, CR, Honduras, Jam, T&T.

[galaxyfan03]

I find it VERY ironic that, after such a disppointing Confed Cup, we're FINALLY ahead of the mexicans in the FIFA rankings!!

I was prepared to see us fall (maybe, significantly) in the rankings, much like everyone else IMHO.

However, now we have a chance to "verify" and "redeem" our FIFA rankings & our "soccer reputation" with a Gold Cup Championship, nothing less will do!!

And to "add insult to injury," how about beating the tri, in Azteca, to WIN the whole damn thing??!!

How SWEET would that be??!!

[Various Styles]

Originally posted by galaxyfan03

I find it VERY ironic that, after such a disppointing Confed Cup, we're FINALLY ahead of the mexicans in the FIFA rankings!!


I dont think the results of the Confed Cup have been added to this ranking. The U.S has been winning many games against Canada, El Salvador New Zealand, Wales ect While Mexico has been playing South American teams and getting mostly ties against Paraguay, Colombia and Brazil..

[PaulGascoigne]

Originally posted by galaxyfan03
I find it VERY ironic that, after such a disppointing Confed Cup, we're FINALLY ahead of the mexicans in the FIFA rankings!!

I was prepared to see us fall (maybe, significantly) in the rankings, much like everyone else IMHO.

However, now we have a chance to "verify" and "redeem" our FIFA rankings & our "soccer reputation" with a Gold Cup Championship, nothing less will do!!

And to "add insult to injury," how about beating the tri, in Azteca, to WIN the whole damn thing??!!

How SWEET would that be??!!

The rankings don't mean beans. Beating El Tri in Azteca would. They have only lost there once in a VEEERYYY long time.

My guess is the rise is due to the fact that they have dropped some of our performances from 4-5 years ago out of the calculations for the rankings--as opposed to our recent performance.

[luvdagame]

from vs:
"I dont think the results of the Confed Cup have been added to this ranking."

the commentary at the fifa site does suggest that this confed. cup is factored in. turkey moving on and leaving brazil behind is mentioned.

from galaxyfan03:
"I find it VERY ironic that, after such a disppointing Confed Cup, we're FINALLY ahead of the mexicans in the FIFA rankings!!"

losing to the team that won the world cup and the team that came in third should not drop our rankings. that wouldn't make sense.

[voros]

Originally posted by Various Styles
I dont think the results of the Confed Cup have been added to this ranking.
Yes they have definitely, 100%, have been added to the rankings, they just don't matter very much. Basically the way they worked for the USA was:

Any games they lose: won't affect their rankings much
Any games they draw: won't affect their rankings much (but a little)
Any games they win: can gain substantial gorund.

Since we didn't win any, the net result was wash in the rankings. It's just the way the system is setup. Really, only a team's best results in a year count toward the rankings.

The advantage the USA has over Mexico is that the USA tends to play more games than Mexico and that helps with the FIFA rankings. The advantage Mexico has is that they play home games even in another country and we play road games in our country. :)

[GRUNT]

Rankings are also affected by older results being dropped from consideration.

Regardless, we don' need no stinking rankings. That's because 4 out of 5 dentists agree, in head-to-head competition the USNT is better than the Tri.

[Serie Zed]

Originally posted by dabes2
Look at the lists for each continent. You can argue around the edges, but these lists look pretty fair to me given a tradition, talent, and recent form.

Conmebol: Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Colombia, Uruguay.
Africa: Camaroon, Senegal, Nigeria, SAfrica, Morocco
Asia: Korea, Japan, Iran, SArabia
Europe: France, Spain, Holland, Germany, Turkey, England, CRep, Italy, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden,...
Concacaf: USA, Mexico, CR, Honduras, Jam, T&T.

Thanks for pointing this out -- you're right.

[luvdagame]

still, no one has answered my question.

by what set of reasoning and by what stretching of the imagination can an argument be made for the u.s. being ahead of ITALY in the fifa rankings?

[kal-el]

Originally posted by Serie Zed
Thanks for pointing this out -- you're right.

I agree. Thanks.

[Snuffles]

by what set of reasoning and by what stretching of the imagination can an argument be made for the u.s. being ahead of ITALY in the fifa rankings?
USA beat Wales beat Italy? :) ;)

[Raider Red]

Originally posted by luvdagame
still, no one has answered my question.

by what set of reasoning and by what stretching of the imagination can an argument be made for the u.s. being ahead of ITALY in the fifa rankings?

Maybe this set of reasoning?

http://www.fifa.com/en/rank/procedures.html

Aside from the number crunching, I'd say it's because we did better than they did in the World Cup:

US beat Portugal (15th in latest rankings) and Mexico (11th).

The only team Italy beat was Ecuador (36th).

[voros]

Originally posted by Raider Red
Maybe this set of reasoning?

http://www.fifa.com/en/rank/procedures.html

Aside from the number crunching, I'd say it's because we did better than they did in the World Cup:

US beat Portugal (15th in latest rankings) and Mexico (11th).

The only team Italy beat was Ecuador (36th).
Their performances in Euro 2004 qualifying have been okay but not spectacular either, with a loss to Wales and a draw to a S&M side that is looking more and more suspect by the hour.

[goussoccer]

The Confederations Cup not hurting us, made sense to me because we lost by one goal to teams ranked higher than us and tied the one team that was ranked lower than us.

The Gold Cup will be more telling. In that competition, if we don't win then we will "lose" in the fifa rankings. All of our opponents will be ranked below us.