U.S. gets highest FIFA ranking ever: 5th

MSNBC ^ | March 15, 2006

[onja]

ZURICH, Switzerland - The U.S. national team improved to fifth in FIFA’s monthly rankings — the highest it’s ever been placed by world soccer’s governing body.

The Americans, who broke out of a three-way tie for sixth with Spain and Mexico despite dropping a point to 764 in Wednesday’s latest poll, also moved ahead of France, which dropped to eighth. ...

[onja]

Yeah! We're the fifth best in the world! Sorry for this being pretty late but I just found it and no one had posted it. For once, please don't bash soccer. This is a great accomplishment for the United States whether or not you enjoy the game. We're now higher than the Mexicans, French, Germans, English, Portugal, etc.

[onja]

BTW- The link to the rankings is http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,2548,All-Mar-2006,00.html .

[Dog Gone]

For once, please don't bash soccer.

You asked nicely, so okay.

[idrop4u]

And a great accomplishment it is.

Football: the only sport that makes no use of hands, except for the goalie, of course.

[elc]

I suspect there might be some changes when the rankings are done again next - after last weeks' loss to Germany. How often are they updated?

[onja]

Every month so I assume it will be updated this week. Hope we haven't fallen too far.

BTW- I heard part of the reason we lost so badly is because we only had part of the team. Is that true?

[elc]

I actually don't know. I'm sure there were some who are playing in the Premiership that were not released for the friendly. But I would also assume the same applied to Germany.

As Mr. elc, a British footy fanatic, told me though - at least Germany's 4 goals weren't at the beginning of the game. That would have been embarassing. The fact is they happened toward the end of the game when the boys were tiring and after the 2nd goal, it didn't much matter anymore.

The rankings are interesting. But to me, a novice, but very interested spectator - they will mean nothing once the World Cup starts. No one will really remember that this is our highest ranking ever. What will be remembered is how we perform. And with Czech Republic (ranked 2nd) and Italy (11th) in our bracket, no one can claim we had it easy (like many did after the last World Cup).

[MinorityRepublican]

We crashed and burned in Olympic Basketball where Italy, Puerto Rico, and Argentina all beat us in international competition. This year, USA hockey team failed to bring home a medal and USA baseball team (We had Roger Clemens, A-Rod, Derek Jeter on our team) were defeated by Canada in the World Baseball Classic.

And Soccer might be our best sport?

Funny how things have changed in the past few years.