USMNT moves up to No. 29 in FIFA World Rankings, but trail Mexico

The United States' Gold Cup helped their FIFA World Ranking, even if the tournament didn't go as planned. The Americans are up to 29th in August's rankings, five places higher than they were a month ago.

FIFA's World Rankings puts extra weight on continental championship matches, which is the Gold Cup in CONCACAF's case. Winning matches there, even against Haiti and Cuba, help the Americans' ranking more than beating Germany in a friendly. So while the U.S. didn't have a particularly good tournament -- their draws with Panama were their best results -- it still moved them up because they got to add continental championship matches to the equation.

The Gold Cup helped out the rest of CONCACAF too. Mexico jumped 14 places to No. 26 and are the top ranked team from the region now. Costa Rica checks in after the U.S. at No. 38, moving up three spots despite and underwhelming showing. Jamaica's run to the final sent them up 21 places to No. 55, and Trinidad and Tobago are one spot behind them at No. 56 after an eight spot leap.

The top of the rankings is the same with Argentina checking in at No. 1. After that, Belgium leaped Germany for No. 2, with Colombia and Brazil rounding out the top five. Portugal, Romania, England, Wales and Chile make up the rest of the top 10.