USMNT rises 3 spots in FIFA World Rankings

Today, FIFA released the November 2017 FIFA Coca-Cola World Rankings, and while they clearly decided they don’t really care about Thanksgiving here, they decided to give us a gift. The United States rose 3 spots in the latest poll to 24th in the world. They edged ahead of Costa Rica to the 2nd-highest ranked CONCACAF team. Mexico, at 16th, remains unchanged and is the highest ranked CONCACAF team.

In a month where the USMNT drew Portugal on the road, it’s always interesting to see that lead to a nice rise in the rankings. But, this just means that match results on the back end have dropped off the rankings metric. In the case of the USMNT, that was a 0-0 draw in Scotland and a 1-0 loss at Austria back in November 2013. Having those points drop off the metric coupled with adding a draw against the 3rd-ranked team in the world is likely what caused the jump.

The top 5 spots in the rankings remains the same: Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina and Belgium.

North Korea highest mover, raising 18 spots to 114th. Laos was the worst mover, dropping 22 spots to 184th. Finally, the World Cup pots and the rankings of the team as they head towards the Final Draw on December 1st:

Pot 1: Russia (65), Germany (1), Brazil (2), Portugal (3), Argentina (4), Belgium (5), Poland (7), France (9)

Pot 2: Spain (6), Peru (11), Switzerland (8), England (15), Colombia (13), Mexico (16), Uruguay (21), Croatia (17)

Pot 3: Denmark (12), Iceland (22), Costa Rica (26), Sweden (18), Tunisia (27), Egypt (31), Senegal (23), Iran (T-32)

Pot 4: Serbia (37), Nigeria (50), Australia (39), Japan (55), Morocco (40), Panama (56), South Korea (59), Saudi Arabia (63)

What teams should be higher? Which should be lower? Surprised at the USMNT bump? You know the drill...hit the comments and let us know!