It will be #23 versus #17 next Sunday when the United States walks onto the field in Estadio Azteca to take on Mexico. The USMNT remained at 23rd in the June 2017 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings. El Tri, who is set to compete in the Confederations Cup this month, fell one spot to 17th. They remain tops in CONCACAF, just two spots above Costa Rica (#19). The USMNT will also host Trinidad & Tobago (77th) in World Cup qualifying next week in Denver. Panama (59th) and Honduras (69th) rounds out the CONCACAF Hexagonal participants.
Brazil, Argentina and Germany continue to hold the top 3 spots in the rankings, and the top 10 remains almost entirely unchanged, Poland joining the ranks at 10th alongside Spain. Venezuela, who the USMNT will play Saturday night in Salt Lake City, is at 58th.
As always, the FIFA World Rankings are never anything that’s particularly important from month to month. For example, the USMNT didn’t have any matches in May and with FIFA rarely having an international window that begins in May, remaining level makes some sense. Still, because FIFA continues to utilize the rankings in some capacity for World Cup seeding purposes, fans will continue to scrutinize them on a monthly basis. With World Cup qualifiers this month and the Gold Cup next month, there is plenty of opportunity for the USMNT to move up into the teens. Going 3-0 in June and then winning the Gold Cup in July should help Bruce Arena’s squad do just that.
Thoughts on the rankings and where the United States sit?