The following is a list of the toughest opponents that the USA have ever played according to Elo ratings for our opponents (which are included in parentheses) immediately prior to each match. The catch is I only included matches in which our opponents fielded representative sides. My criterion for what was representative was that the majority of our opponents' starting lineup (i.e. 6 out of 11 players) must have started at least one of their two most recent competitive matches before or after the game against us. And by competitive matches I meant the World Cup, World Cup Qualifiers, Copa America, the European Cup, or European Cup Qualifiers. Which means my thread title isn't completely accurate, because it's very likely that Brazil's or Germany's or Argentina's B teams (all of which I had to exclude here and there) were superior to some of the teams near the bottom of this list. And of course Elo can sometimes be off -- it significantly underrated Italy's chances going into the 2006 World Cup. I included 40 teams because that's the number of opponents (fielding representative sides) that we've played against that at the time had a higher rating than we've ever been able to achieve. I've also included Germany's and Portugal's current ratings to give our upcoming World Cup group some context. 1. Spain (2105) -- 2009 Confederations Cup Semi-Finals 2-1 Win 2. Spain (2099) -- 2011 Friendly 4-0 Loss 3. Brazil (2090) -- 2009 Confederations Cup Final 3-2 Loss 4. Brazil (2073) -- 2010 Friendly 2-0 Loss 5. Brazil (2069) -- 1995 Copa America 1-0 Loss -- Current Germany Rating (2060) 6. Brazil (2056) -- 2007 Friendly 4-2 Loss 7. Brazil (2041) -- 2009 Confederations Cup Group Stage 3-0 Loss 8. Germany (2021) -- 1998 World Cup Group Stage 2-0 Loss 9. Argentina (2016) -- 1930 World Cup Semi-finals 6-1 Loss 10. Argentina (2014) -- 2008 Friendly 0-0 Draw 11. Netherlands (2003) -- 2010 Friendly 2-1 Loss 12. Brazil (1999) -- 2001 Friendly 2-1 Loss 13. England (1997) -- 1950 World Cup Group Stage 1-0 Win 14. Poland (1994) -- 1975 Friendly 7-0 Loss 15. Argentina (1980) -- 2011 Friendly 1-1 Draw 16. England (1975) -- 2010 World Cup Group Stage 1-1 Draw 17. Germany (1969) -- 1993 Friendly 3-0 Loss 18. Brazil (1968) -- 1994 World Cup 2nd Round 1-0 Loss 19. Argentina (1963) -- 2007 Copa America 4-1 Loss 20. Italy (1962) -- 2009 Confederations Cup 3-1 Loss 20. Netherlands (1962) -- 2002 Friendly 2-0 Loss 22. Netherlands (1955) -- 2004 Friendly 1-0 Loss 22. Spain (1955) -- 2008 Friendly 1-0 Loss 24. Yugoslavia (1951) -- 1998 World Cup 1-0 Loss 25. Portugal (1946) - 2002 World Cup Group Stage 3-2 Win 26. Czech Republic (1939) - 2006 World Cup Group Stage 3-0 Loss 27. Poland (1939) - 1973 Friendly 1-0 Win 28. Italy (1933) - 1990 World Cup Group Stage 1-0 Loss 29. Poland (1932) - 1973 Friendly 4-0 Loss 30. Germany (1929) -- 2002 World Cup Quarter-finals 1-0 Loss 31. Italy (1927) - 2006 World Cup Group Stage 1-1 Draw 32. England (1909) - 1985 Friendly 5-0 Loss 33. Italy (1906) - 1934 World Cup 7-1 Loss --Current Portugal Rating (1905) 34. Netherlands (1904) - 1998 Friendly 2-0 Loss 35. Mexico (1902) - 2011 Gold Cup Final 4-2 Loss 36. C.I.S. (1890) -- 1992 Friendly 2-1 Win* 37. England (1881) -- 2008 Friendly 2-0 Loss 37. C.I.S. (1881) -- 1992 Friendly 1-0 Loss* 39. Mexico (1879) -- 2012 Friendly 1-0 Win 40. Mexico (1876) -- 2005 World Cup Qualifier 2-1 Loss --Highest Ever USA Rating (1871) Record: 6-30-4 Final note: It was sometimes hard finding lineups and in some cases I might have wrongly excluded teams for not fielding representative sides because I missed a recent competitive match, so this might not be 100% accurate. Furthermore I couldn't find opposition lineups for the two starred matches (both against the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1992). And finally, I excluded Olympics matches because I wasn't certain how representative any of those sides were. But overall I think this is pretty close to accurate.
Colombia's Elo rating heading into that 1994 World Cup game was 1851. Prior to our last match this year, the USA had an Elo rating of 1855. It appears that Colombia lost a ton of points from their first Group Stage loss in that tournament against Romania. Prior to that match, they had an Elo rating of 1912. Which would have put them just below Italy in 2006 in the list above.
I knew I wouldn't get through that post without a typo. I was just hoping it wouldn't be in the first match.
That Brazilian side -- I'm guessing you meant 1998 -- would have been the best side we've ever faced, except their lineup wasn't deemed representative enough according to the criteria I'd set. Their lineup in that match was: Taffarel, Junior, Junior Baiano, Ze Maria, Goncalves, Sergio Manoel, Flavio Conceicao, Zinho, Mauro Silva, Edmundo, Romario The two competitive matches closest to that one were the first two games of the World Cup four months later. In those matches only Taffarel and Junior Baiano from the above lineup started.
Okay, I need to make a couple corrections. I completely failed to factor in the 1999 Copa America, which meant I accidentally left out two matches of ours from 1999 that we played against representative top tier opposition: Brazil and Argentina. We ended up losing against Brazil in the Confederations Cup and winning against Argentina in a home friendly. I've also managed to track down the two CIS lineups from the matches I'd included, and there don't appear to be enough regular starters to keep them on this list, so I'm getting rid of them. The additions and removals together leave our record unchanged. 1. Brazil (2108) -- 1999 Confederations Cup Group Stage 1-0 Loss 2. Spain (2105) -- 2009 Confederations Cup Semi-Finals 2-0 Win 3. Spain (2099) -- 2011 Friendly 4-0 Loss 4. Brazil (2090) -- 2009 Confederations Cup Final 3-2 Loss 5. Brazil (2073) -- 2010 Friendly 2-0 Loss 6. Brazil (2069) -- 1995 Copa America 1-0 Loss -- Current Germany Rating (2060) 7. Brazil (2056) -- 2007 Friendly 4-2 Loss 8. Brazil (2041) -- 2009 Confederations Cup Group Stage 3-0 Loss 9. Germany (2021) -- 1998 World Cup Group Stage 2-0 Loss 10. Argentina (2016) -- 1930 World Cup Semi-finals 6-1 Loss 11. Argentina (2014) -- 2008 Friendly 0-0 Draw 12. Netherlands (2003) -- 2010 Friendly 2-1 Loss 13. Brazil (1999) -- 2001 Friendly 2-1 Loss 14. England (1997) -- 1950 World Cup Group Stage 1-0 Win 15. Poland (1994) -- 1975 Friendly 7-0 Loss 16. Argentina (1980) -- 2011 Friendly 1-1 Draw 17. England (1975) -- 2010 World Cup Group Stage 1-1 Draw 18. Germany (1969) -- 1993 Friendly 3-0 Loss 19. Brazil (1968) -- 1994 World Cup 2nd Round 1-0 Loss 20. Argentina (1963) -- 2007 Copa America 4-1 Loss 21. Italy (1962) -- 2009 Confederations Cup 3-1 Loss 22. Netherlands (1962) -- 2002 Friendly 2-0 Loss 23. Netherlands (1955) -- 2004 Friendly 1-0 Loss 23. Spain (1955) -- 2008 Friendly 1-0 Loss 25. Yugoslavia (1951) -- 1998 World Cup 1-0 Loss 26. Portugal (1946) - 2002 World Cup Group Stage 3-2 Win 27. Czech Republic (1939) - 2006 World Cup Group Stage 3-0 Loss 28. Poland (1939) - 1973 Friendly 1-0 Win 29. Italy (1933) - 1990 World Cup Group Stage 1-0 Loss 30. Poland (1932) - 1973 Friendly 4-0 Loss 31. Germany (1929) -- 2002 World Cup Quarter-finals 1-0 Loss 32. Italy (1927) - 2006 World Cup Group Stage 1-1 Draw 33. Argentina (1920) -- 1999 Friendly 1-0 Win 34. England (1909) - 1985 Friendly 5-0 Loss 35. Italy (1906) - 1934 World Cup 7-1 Loss --Current Portugal Rating (1905) 36. Netherlands (1904) - 1998 Friendly 2-0 Loss 37. Mexico (1902) - 2011 Gold Cup Final 4-2 Loss 38. England (1881) -- 2008 Friendly 2-0 Loss 39. Mexico (1879) -- 2012 Friendly 1-0 Win 40. Mexico (1876) -- 2005 World Cup Qualifier 2-1 Loss --Highest Ever USA Rating (1871)