not sure what everyones issues is ranking seem ok to me I mean its impossible to pick teams when you dont know who is even in the squad but it seems about right.
There's so much negative emotion about the USMNT that they can't really think rationally. Both of these can be facts at the same time: The USMNT is the 2nd ranked team in CONCACAF and the USMNT is missing the World Cup. There are quite a number of teams ranked higher than the USMNT in the FIFA rankings that are missing the Cup. Chief among them is the back-to-back Copa America Champions, Chile. They're ranked 10th.
There are 6 CONMEBOL and 16 UEFA teams ahead of us in the FIFA Rankings. That means that at least 1 CONMEBOL and at least 3 UEFA teams ahead of us now (not using the FIFA Rankings used for the WCQ draw) couldn't have qualified, and possibly more depending on the UEFA groups. The 16 UEFA teams ahead of us do not include Russia, so all of them had to qualify. We didn't need to finish ahead of any higher ranked teams to qualify.