It’s weird seeing the U.S. as 4th in the world at soccer/football. Is that a legitimate ranking? Is it based on solid info, or mostly on speculation?
Might we see – within the next two decades, say – the U.S. do in soccer what the European countries have done to the U.S. in basketball? I thought we’d be half a century down the road before European hoopsters closed the gap … it took them about a decade (from the 1992 Olympic Games to the 2002 World Champioships).
The Fifa ranking always do seem to be plucked out of a hat. And I’m fairly sure that the USA and Mexico benefit greatly, simply because their matches tend to be against lesser North or Central American opponents. However, the Americans were a surprise dark-horse in Japan, and everyone will be taking them seriously this year. Of course they won’t win, but you don’t have to get that far to prove you’re serious about football.
Yeah, but in the U.S. … people really care about winning much more than showing well.
It’s almost as if it would hurt the national team’s domestic reputation to become a consistent quarterfinals-level squad, but then to advance no further for a long while. Most Americans figure if they’re going to compete, they should be true contenders for the championship … and that anything less is shameful. We used to have a built-in excuse: "Ha ha! We don’t do soccer … come play us in basketball ( :smack: ) … "
What I’m trying to get at – clumsily – is that there is a possibility of a nasty (if childish) domestic backlash if expectations get raised to a high level, and then the team doesn’t deliver. Especially if it keeps happening over and over again … in 2010, 2014, 2018, etc.
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Interested in the flip side, too: would many of the world’s soccer/football fans feel somehow “shamed” if the U.S. did ever happen to win the World Cup? Does anyone think of it as an eventuality … a thing to happen “someday”?
American, soccer fan here.
Nobody I know is taking that too seriously. You’d think we would be celebrating, but we’re mostly just trying to politely stifle our giggles.
I suspect that most fans worldwide are having a similar reaction.
I’m all for settling this on the field. If we can make the quarterfinals this year, that would be fan-fricking-tastic (because it will probably mean that we had to beat Brazil). But we tend to suck in Europe generally, and we have a tough group.
I certainly see it as a possibility within a couple of decades. Not an inevitability though - such things don’t exist in football, which maybe is the difficulty with the American expectation.
Yes, if a country expects to win everything they try to win, then they deserve to be disappointed 
(Note: since 1966, England has only reached the last four in the world cup once.)
I always had the impression that many Brazilians (and perhaps Argentinians) had similar attitudes towards their footballers … with higher expectations, of course.
Tell that to Mexico. They managed to get to the world cup ever since 1930 on 12 cups and never managed to get in a better position than the Quarter finals on two different occasions (and that was by being the home team) and yet soccer remains popular as ever.
Even if I’m not from Mexico I can say this year the Mexican team can make it further than the first round as I see it finally(!) as a better team now.
El Salvador made it 2 times to the world cup and the only thing it has to show for is the record of more goals scored against in world cup history, we were buried 10-1 by Hungary 
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Hungarians love to do blowouts.
We still love soccer anyhow.
The US is nowhere near #4. We’re probably 10-15 spots too high. Mexico too.
It’ll be a bear getting out of the first round. And I think we’re looking at Brazil of we do. But I’m excited nonetheless (I still have Holland to root for).
I’m a HUGE fan of the USA Men’s team.
The FIFA ranking is a joke. Nobody truly takes it seriously… obviously the process is flawed.
That said, if the USA get to the semi-finals in Germany this summer we can revisit the point.
Brazil is the clear #1.
After that, there’s not a great difference between #2 and #15 in my opinion.
The U.S. team remains mostly anonymous in this country and it’s still seen as a minor power in Europe. You can be sure that Italy and the Czech Republic are looking at each other as the primary competition in the group.
In soccer tradition is a very important factor. This can even be seen in the seedings. The U.S. and the Czechs are ranked ahead of Italy, but they are the top seed in that group. Similarly, Mexico gets the top seed over the U.S. despite the U.S. dominating them in recent years and qualifying ahead of them. Mexico’s fluffy-soft draw this year makes it very likely that they will be in the second round again this time and will probably be seeded ahead of the U.S. in the next World Cup as well. Ukraine was dominant in qualifying while Spain barely made the field. Guess who got the #1?
A link to the rankings: http://www.soccerphile.com/soccerphile/news/fifa.html
I can’t believe they have Botswana at 103! I have them at 114.
You’re crazy. They’re no better than 121st on a good day.
This seems to be a good crowd to ask: How does MLS compare with the European Leagues? Say in terms of English football, what division would you put a good MLS team in? Maybe division two? Anybody seen enough games to compare? And anybody know how this fact plays into the FIFA ranking?
MLS comes in around the Championship, which is the division below the Premiership, in terms of English Football. I think they’d be competitive towards the upper middle of that league, and the better MLS teams would be looking at promotion, but not Europe.
MLS is not as good, on average, as the Bundesliga or the top flight teams in the Eridivisie (sp?).
FWIW, Bruce Arena, the USMNT coach, ranks the World Leagues as:
I’d agree with ShibbOleth’s assessment of MLS. Although not with anyone who puts Serie A above the Premiership!
That’s interesting that both of you rank MLS that highly. Makes me feel better, for no perfectly good reason! I have to say, though, that sometimes I feel like I’m the only one watching.
Since MLS is not on FSC anymore, and ESPN shows one or two games a week, at sporadic times, you may well be the only one watching.
MLS gets better with time. Part of this is that American players are just now starting to really fill the pipeline. But a big problem, imo, is that the identification and grooming of young talent is pretty much hit or miss. Europe is well advanced of us in terms of young player development. I’d be surprised if we come close anytime soon, mainly because of a lack of resources, but also because our population is spread out over such a vast geography. Also there is really no (direct) economic incentive right now for development of young American players.
I’d have to say that I would not put the MLS at the Cahmpionship level. I think it is closer to the First Division. Maybe a bit of a bridge, the top MLS teams in the lower half of the Championship, the lesser MLS teams maybe near the top of the First Division.
I hope he’s joking.
Plus, European scouts are fully aware of the huge number of kids playing the game in America, and are very willing to recruit for their academies from there. If a soccer-mad American teenager has the choice of training with a MLS club, or with a European one, I’m guessing there’s a distinct advantage for the status quo.