USA USA USA!!! ZURICH, Switzerland - The United States advanced to an all-time high No. 7 in FIFA's rankings Wednesday while Greece jumped 21 spots to No. 14 after its dazzling run to the European Championship title. Brazil remained No. 1 for the 25th straight month, and France and Spain stayed at second and third. The United States twice had climbed as high as eighth — in September 2002 and again in May. The Americans beat Grenada in a home-and-home series in June to reach the semifinals of World Cup qualifying in its region of North and Central America and the Caribbean. Greece was ranked as low as 59th as recently as March 2002. It climbed "possibly the greatest ever number of places in the upper reaches of the ranking," soccer's governing body said. Its 1-0 victory over Portugal on Sunday in the Euro 2004 final gave Greece its first major title. The rankings are a computer calculation of the relative strength of national teams based on results the previous eight years. The Czech Republic, which lost to Greece in the Euro 2004 semifinals, advanced seven spots to fourth. Germany, which did not win a game at Euro 2004, dropped to 12th, tied with Portugal. The Netherlands, which reached the Euro semis, remained fifth while Mexico dropped two places to sixth. England, beaten by Portugal in the Euro quarters, returned to the top 10 after a two-month absence. The English moved up five places to eighth and were followed by Italy and Turkey. Argentina, which had gone winless in three games before a 2-1 victory over Peru on July 1, dropped six places to 11th. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040707/ap_on_sp_so_ne/soc_fifa_rankings_2
That's kind of surprising. Seems like American soccer is still kind of bad-mouthed. #8 seems pretty damn good to me!
Yea, the one thing they have on us in us NOT being #1 will be going down in flames if this happens! emits evil laughMuahahahahahahahahaha!
woooO!!!! I don't watch soccer (football, futbol whatever the hell you wanna call it) but I think I'm going to start watching if they have more coverage.. anyone know when they play?
well the rank actually doesn't mean that much... and the main reason USA went up was because EURO 2004 has cause several countries ranking to plunge (namely Germany, Argentina, Turkey). Anyway the rankings will probably change pretty significantly again after Copa America.. US will probably find themselves to be deservingly behind Argentina after Copa. USA over Portugal and Argentina?...mm I dont think so
We'll just see about that buddy! I think the world cup is starting to rank up there with the Olympics for me! I can't wait for 2006! The last world cup just sucked me in! I was getting up at 4 in the morning for matches. Skipping out of work for the quarters! Liebe Deutschland!
http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,2548,102068,00.html?articleid=102068 USA ranked No. 7 in the world in soccer?
Scoreboard, baby. 5 June 2002, 19:05 Seoul - Tokyo UNITED STATES 3 : 2 PORTUGAL And I think Jackie will admit we gave Germany a good run as well.
i want to win the world cup to stick it to those euros. we b**** slap you at basketball, and we b****slap you at "football."
We DOMINATED the match against Germany...we controlled the ball almost the entire game. And we almost tied it up late in the game on a header that went just wide. Germany was VERY lucky to get past us in the quarters at the world cup. I am going to the cup in 2006.....Germany baby !! Soccer, beer...and well beer !! DD
Argentina hasn't got enough chances to play that much this year...while the EURO countries who did well like Czech, England, Italy (didn't pass group stages but unbeaten) go up in the ranks. In related news, the Argentines have just beaten Ecuador 5-1 in Copa America earlier today. Germany has not been playing well for the last 5 years, but tends to get the result...so it happens to everyone
FIFA rankings aren't worth much. Do you think this will last if the US doesn't get past the next round of qualifiers.Do you think our opponents are shaking in their shoes because we're number 7 in the rankings? the US gained some measure of respect in Korea/Japan but not enough for the euro snobs to take us too seriously? Maybe if Hugh Dallas was south american and not a Scot he would have called the penalty that the US deserved against Germany in the quarter finals. And don't forget the US sucks in European World cups. That doesn't mean they won't win in Germany, but I believe they have to get tougher to win Europe. The US will win a World Cup in the next 14 years. Not a friggin doubt in my mind!!
