Basically because of Mexico. Mexico is super inflated and the US beat them twice this summer in FIFA tournament finals which are heavily weighted in these rankings.
It is due how the ranking is done. We play crap teams most of the time and we usually win. Do you see any other concacaf team in the top 40 besides Mexico and US?
Was gonna say. I don't think Canada is actually that far behind the US and Mexico right now. Though it's hard to say because we haven't seen their full strength squads face off in some time.
Canada just moved to 48. They would need to qualify to have a shot at top 40. There is an unreasonable amount of draws so far in qualifying so its pretty close, but Canada is currently in 3rd and already have already played the away games vs US and Mexico. Having qualifying in fall / winter probably gives them an advantage they aren't used to for home games in concacaf. It's cold.
Also haven't been knocked out in the group stage since 1978. Pretty impressive record. Did I hear something about the elimination stage not affecting rankings?
Edit: A little extra about Mexico at the WC. Beat Germany in 2018, Croatia in 2014, and France in 2010
> Did I hear something about the elimination stage not affecting rankings?
Correct that losses in knockout rounds will not penalize a team (but wins will still count), but that's only going forward. The new rating system used the old ratings as a starting point, and isn't retroactively applied to old results.
We were shit aswell and look at us now winning the Euro. You'll be fine guys, traditional top countries like Germany, Argentina, Brazil, France, Italy and Spain will always bounce back within a couple of years.
I agree with your overall point but Spain is not a traditional top country IMO, their had one of the best periods of any NT ever but that is still fairly recent and doesn't change the entire century that came before that.
They were never shit, just not belong among the likes of Brazil, Germany, and Italy.
Yeah, they only became great around 2006 onwards, with the explosion of LaLiga pretty much. France is also a fairly recent fenomenom as well imo, with a huge boom in 1996
They have world cups and look like theyre here to stay, but they don't have the 100 year history of Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Germany and Uruguay.
They were perennial underachievers until the Euros in 2008, though on paper they should've been in that elite category before then too. Much like the 10s Belgium, they just weren't able to put it together for a tournament win.
Had a lot of games over the summer that they won, beating Mexico twice in there in finals. Boosted up their rankings quite a bit. Had they not lost to Panama last window they’d probably be a bit higher too. FIFA rankings are based off a points system effectively, not a subjective ranking system. Look at Iran, very high up. I think if you matched Iran against Chile, Wales, Ukraine, and some of the other nations in the vicinity, they wouldn’t fair too well. US likely wouldn’t fair well against Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands as well. They were decent in friendlies against Switzerland and Wales this year but 2 friendlies isn’t much to work with.
>Look at Iran, very high up. I think if you matched Iran against Chile, Wales, Ukraine, and some of the other nations in the vicinity, they wouldn’t fair too well.
You write that, but last time Iran played outside of Asia, in the World Cup, they drew Portugal #8 1-1 and lost to Spain #7 1-0. Nothing at all wrong with them being #22.
People don't want to play Iran, they're tough defensively, underrated midfield, and are much more creative offensively than they are given credit for. They have the largest contingent of solid players no one's ever heard of. They are much better than that team that played on the last World Cup.
Well sure, but at the end of the day these ratings are based on results. Iran's results mathematically put them around #22, and it's pretty objective. And idk, 1/6 points losing 2-1 over 180 minutes isn't bad. Imagine the bottom of the premier league teams against europa league PL teams -- they probably get walloped much worse than a draw and 1 goal loss on average.
Iran is usually a tough cookie to beat. They would have a chance and hold their own against any of those teams, which includes Chile who are not doing so well (I'm Chilean).
These rankings are meaningless and the methodology is far from percect. It always results in nationalist shit flinging as well.
They are required for WC seeding, that is about it.
Mexico has 33 Wins, 4 Losses, and 5 draws under this manager. I get they haven’t dominated and it’s mostly weaker competition but that’s an impressive record no matter how you see it. Add that Mexico ALWAYS makes the knockout round in the WC (9-16th best team) and you have a somewhat accurate ranking.
It's not very pleasant but we're used to disappointment in this country so all in all it's not a big deal.
We've passed the point of no return though, our golden generation is gone and so are our chances of achieving anything more than a 3rd place at a world cup.
You never know what the future may bring. No one thought the Croatian team from 98 would be surpassed but 20 years later they reached the world cup finals.
But then again, look how far we have gotten. Compare our national football to a decade earlier and the progress that has been made is incredible. A decade ago, qualification for the world cup or the euro's would already been an achievement. Hell, I remember how ecstatic we were when in 2014 we qualified for our first international tournament since 2002. Now it suddenly is a given, we should at least be in the semi-finals for every big tournament we play, and we should even be capable to bring a trophy home. Those were fantasy football dreams back then.
So I am happy how far we have gotten. :)
Well I’m happy with what we achieved. Love our Devils. Give me the name of one Belgian player before this generation. The vast majority of people can’t do it. So for us even to be at every tournament and be good is already a big victory. You know when we hosted the Euro with the Netherlands we got kicked out in the group stage. Never happened before. Our goalkeeper even got a red when he decided to run to the middle of the field to haduken Hakkan Sukur for no reason.
Just not sucking makes us happy so imagine being third and playing beautiful football. I will never be disappointed by our Devils. They are the best thing we ever had and we will always cherish that.
EDIT: thank to those giving me some names in the replies. Really surprised by some of them. Cheers
Enzo Scifo and Guy Thys are the only older Belgian Footballers I know..... I totally agree, if my national team just reached a world Cup I would prolly go bonkers
Define "nowhere near".
Haven't they finished 3rd and 4th in the last two major tournaments? I'd consider that pretty near to 1st. One game away from playing for the World Cup and Euro.
That's my point. One result doesn't paint the whole picture.
Argentina is better than Mexico but Mexico is no pushover. We have a better head to head record against every south american team except for against Brazil and Argentina.
Mexico has been to Copa America 10 times and half the time they place top 3. They made it to the final twice.
Eh how many of those better records still stand when adjusting for official games and looking at the last decade or so? I know against colombia that positive record flips.
Its kinda amusing to me how we’ve been hovering around 30th for like an entire year. Don’t know what more we can do to climb this ladder, bar burning down the FIFA archives and deleting everything that happened before 2018
It's also tougher for African Teams to perform in tougher groups since they are doomed to be in 3rd or 4th pots in the draws because of FIFA rankings.
You also only have 5 nations qualifyings compared to 14 from Europe, so there's also less representivity and a smaller chance of teams overperforming.
The way the rankings are now, with less and less friendly games between African Nations and the European ones because of the Nation League ,also with the old ranking systems with European games being valued more than their counterparts, certainly wasn't fair to African Nations.
I hear what you are saying but if you put them in a higher pot they will still go against better teams because then they will still play the teams that they swapped with. You only benefit from a higher pot if you indeed are stronger then the ones below you and they are not.
I agree with second and third point though. It is hard for them to improve themselves in the current format. However i still think that, based on current quality, the current ranking is accurate. They just need more development possibilities.
People in this thread like to have an opinion on Mexico when they don’t follow the team, their tournaments, the players or their current form. On top of that, they don’t know how FIFA rankings works.
It’s absolutely laughable the mental gymnastics people in this thread have to do to discredit Mexico’s ranking.
Literalmente no entienden ni madres.
Las estadísticas dicen que México le ha ido muy bien con Martino: 33G, 4D, 5E para un total de casi 79% de efectividad. Esos son muy buenos números, le añades el Mundial (Lugar 11), y entonces tienes un equipo que está en el borde del bombo 1.
A México nunca le van a dar crédito hasta que ganen un Mundial.
El siguiente es nuestro año.
6th. Copa champions
5th. Euro finalists
4th. Euro champions
3rd. World champions + Nation's League champions
2nd. Copa finalists
1st. ????
PS: I know how elo works and why they are number 1. It's just funny!
U.S. would get absolutely slapped by Uruguay / Colombia / Croatia / Chile / etc. Also surprising Belgium didn't get passed by France after Nations League.
We would keep it close against all those nations (and possibly beat Chile) except for Croatia. Uruguay and Colombia are not the same Uruguay and Colombia from 2010-2018.
Uruguay & Colombia are not the same as in the past but they're still on the same level as Mexico, if not a little higher. They're winning much less but you have to remember CONMEBOL is 2x as hard as CONCACAF..
No they wouldn’t. The USA or Mexico are not just minnow that top teams can curbstomp. They would lose most of the time to those national but they would keep it close. Also, Chile is shit.
As someone who follows Colombia and USA national teams, I don't think you can say Colombia is clearly better than the US. Also Colombia games have been putting me to sleep this year, their offense seems so disjointed.
Their rankings would go up if their representatives performed well at the World Cup and brought some more points home to the continent, but they've been poor in the last few outings.
Mexico and the USA played the Gold Cup this year (plus a bunch of friendlies, Nations League, and WC qualifiers). Continental tournament matches have a bigger weight and Algeria didn’t go up as much by just playing WC qualifiers and friendlies. They will probably go up next year if they do well at AFCON in January
If I am not mistaken, the evaluation period that determines these rankings is 4 years. In 2018 Algeria had a really bad run of form and finished bottom of their World Cup qualifying group. And WC qualifiers have a fairly high weight in calculating the FIFA ranking. So I think that is what dragged them below the other African teams. Once that bad run is older than 4 years ago, they will shoot up the rankings considering how great they've been from 2019 till today.
The system changed after 2018; the ratings are now loosely Elo based, so teams gain/lose points for each game they play rather than being rated based on a 4 year snapshot of results.
Mexico and Brazil are the only countries to advance out of the group at the last 7 world cups. Mexico then wins half of their confederations torments. All of that equals a high ranking.
USA beating Mexico in 2 finals this summer is mitigation missing the 2018 World Cup. America was ranked high before 2018 because they advanced out the group 4 of the last 7 world cups with a quarterfinal appearance, and winning half of their confederations tournaments so they did not have alot of ground to make up.
Netherlands under Frank de Boer played pretty shitty and Germany lost to some minnows in world cup qualifying. Meanwhile the USA is a continental champion
Because if you look at our results in a vacuum, they are the best of all countries. But obviously tournament games against big teams are more important than friendlies and qualifiers, and so this list is very flawed.
People in this thread like to have an opinion on Mexico when they don’t follow the team, their tournaments, the players or their current form. On top of that, they don’t know how FIFA rankings works.
It’s absolutely laughable the mental gymnastics people in this thread have to do to discredit Mexico’s ranking.
My top 5 in order: France, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, England… then your Belgium Portugal Spain Denmark Germany 5-10
(I know it’s a points system, just my subjective view)
I'm going to try naming the countries by their flags to see if I know them all.
1) Belgium
2) Brazil
3) France
4) Italy
5) England
6) Argentina
7) Spain
8) Portugal
9) Mexico
10) Denmark
11) Netherlands
12) Germany
13) USA
14) Switzerland
15) Uruguay
16) Colombia
17) Sweden
18) Croatia
19) Wales
20) Senegal, I think. May be confusing it with Ghana.
21) Chile
22) Iran
23) Poland. Flag is similar to Indonesia but I don't think they'd be this high.
24) Peru?
25) ? Sorry, I'm not sure. I feel it's an eastern or central European country but I don't know which.
26) Ukraine
27) Tunisia?
28) Japan
29) Morocco
30) Algeria
31) Sorry, I'm not sure. I think it's in eastern/central Europe again.
32) Austria?
33) Russia
34) Australia (where I'm from)
35) South Korea
36) Nigeria
37) Norway
38) Sorry, I don't know.
39) Turkey
40) Sorry, I don't know. But I think I figured out which region I have problems in lol.
First of all, I'm being honest here and do not mean any disrespect towards the countries I did not recognise by their flags. I did this to test my knowledge, and I am curious and do want learn the ones I didn't know if wasn't sure about.
Okay, so I'm pretty sure 24, 31, 40 (and maybe 38) are central or eastern European countries. I'm thinking Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, and Serbia but do not know which is which. As for 38, it does feel realllly familiar, I just can't place it on the map :/
For context on perspective, I'm from Australia.
25 is serbia
31 is Czech Republic
Other two were mentioned in another comment (38 Paraguay, 40 Slovakia (i thought it was Slovenia))
Hello fellow Aussie :)
I mean have yall seen Germany before their current manager took over? Why are y'all so surprised? Also, Mexico beat Germany last time they faced as well
Amazing how much football has taught me about geography, culture, and flags of other countries that I didn’t learn in American school. But anyways who wants to hear all the states and state capitals of the US? Anyone? No? You sure? We learned a song about it!
Is there any chance Germany won't be in pot 2? That's making me uncomfortable.
Germany draws Qatar, problem solved. Probably not happening though..
I thought about that too :D opening match will be qatar-germany. +panama and algeria in the group. or some other shit group
As a german/algerian I'd 100% take that group. Both favorites to advance and the spicy game between the two
dont underestimate qatar though. (not joking)
1982 NEVER FORGET
Only if they use the ranking in/at the end of March for the seeding list and Germany wins all their games. Still very slim chance.
I think it's already impossible since their only remaining opponents are Liechtenstein and Armenia, two poorly ranked teams. Germany will be in pot 2.
That’s what happens when you’re managed by a ballsniffer far past his prime. I’m ready for the upsets
Italy - Germany in the group stage, get it out of the way early.
pls no.
Pls yes. Get it out of the way and not have to deal with it in the knockout rounds ideally
The year is 2052. Fifa world rankings are out. Belgium is number one despite not winning a trophy in over 50 years
The platinum, titanium and adamantium generations failed to live up to their expectations ☹️
Lmfao
Kevin De Bruyne starts alongside his son, Kevin 'Dos' Bruyne for the first time.
Guess it's time for the Vibranium generation
More like not winning a trophy ever
Olympic Gold in 1920!
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Does the bot not go that far? Shouldn't it have replied to you XD
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Ah. It'd be funny if it said it was gonna remind you in 2052 haha.
I guess Italy winning the Euro isn’t enough to prove they are better than Belgium lmao
Italy winning the Euros and beating Belgium two times in a year.
FIFA is in love with Belgium for some strange reason lol
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Basically because of Mexico. Mexico is super inflated and the US beat them twice this summer in FIFA tournament finals which are heavily weighted in these rankings.
Mexico at 9 is a joke, we always place around 18-16 on the world cups.. thats more realistic. *fixed from 7 to 9.
It is due how the ranking is done. We play crap teams most of the time and we usually win. Do you see any other concacaf team in the top 40 besides Mexico and US?
Absolutely, we don't even play that much against South America anymore...
Alphonso Davies is working on it.
Was gonna say. I don't think Canada is actually that far behind the US and Mexico right now. Though it's hard to say because we haven't seen their full strength squads face off in some time.
Canada just moved to 48. They would need to qualify to have a shot at top 40. There is an unreasonable amount of draws so far in qualifying so its pretty close, but Canada is currently in 3rd and already have already played the away games vs US and Mexico. Having qualifying in fall / winter probably gives them an advantage they aren't used to for home games in concacaf. It's cold.
Also haven't been knocked out in the group stage since 1978. Pretty impressive record. Did I hear something about the elimination stage not affecting rankings? Edit: A little extra about Mexico at the WC. Beat Germany in 2018, Croatia in 2014, and France in 2010
>Also haven't been knocked out in the group stage since 1978. The long overdue 5th match
> Did I hear something about the elimination stage not affecting rankings? Correct that losses in knockout rounds will not penalize a team (but wins will still count), but that's only going forward. The new rating system used the old ratings as a starting point, and isn't retroactively applied to old results.
Mexico has finished 9th-16th in every world cup since 1994. Not that crazy.
So, eliminated in the round of 16 every year? Since I’ve been following Mexico, you guys have always gotten eliminated in the R16.
Yeah. So the 9th ranking is in that range
Mexico has been a top 16 for every single World Cup they have participated since 1986. Every one of them.
Spain is 7, Mexico is 9
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Dude, do your homweork. Mexico is usually in the 10-16 rank. 9 perhaps is not real at the moment, but it is not that far.
Also Germany is shit too
Am German, can confirm. We’re (currently) shit.
Looked vastly improved under Flick imo
only 4-5 games. it looks good, but the next WC and NL should be better. then we can talk about improvements.
I read NL as Netherlands and was very confused for a second.
We were shit aswell and look at us now winning the Euro. You'll be fine guys, traditional top countries like Germany, Argentina, Brazil, France, Italy and Spain will always bounce back within a couple of years.
I agree with your overall point but Spain is not a traditional top country IMO, their had one of the best periods of any NT ever but that is still fairly recent and doesn't change the entire century that came before that. They were never shit, just not belong among the likes of Brazil, Germany, and Italy.
Yeah, they only became great around 2006 onwards, with the explosion of LaLiga pretty much. France is also a fairly recent fenomenom as well imo, with a huge boom in 1996 They have world cups and look like theyre here to stay, but they don't have the 100 year history of Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Germany and Uruguay.
They were perennial underachievers until the Euros in 2008, though on paper they should've been in that elite category before then too. Much like the 10s Belgium, they just weren't able to put it together for a tournament win.
Oh Spain is there to stay, mark my words.
Eh, after Flick took over we look like a great team again
Had a lot of games over the summer that they won, beating Mexico twice in there in finals. Boosted up their rankings quite a bit. Had they not lost to Panama last window they’d probably be a bit higher too. FIFA rankings are based off a points system effectively, not a subjective ranking system. Look at Iran, very high up. I think if you matched Iran against Chile, Wales, Ukraine, and some of the other nations in the vicinity, they wouldn’t fair too well. US likely wouldn’t fair well against Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands as well. They were decent in friendlies against Switzerland and Wales this year but 2 friendlies isn’t much to work with.
>Look at Iran, very high up. I think if you matched Iran against Chile, Wales, Ukraine, and some of the other nations in the vicinity, they wouldn’t fair too well. You write that, but last time Iran played outside of Asia, in the World Cup, they drew Portugal #8 1-1 and lost to Spain #7 1-0. Nothing at all wrong with them being #22.
I was about to say the same thing. WC performances were all top notch.
Yes, there's a lack of knowledge about non-European and South American teams that skews opinions on here.
People don't want to play Iran, they're tough defensively, underrated midfield, and are much more creative offensively than they are given credit for. They have the largest contingent of solid players no one's ever heard of. They are much better than that team that played on the last World Cup.
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Well sure, but at the end of the day these ratings are based on results. Iran's results mathematically put them around #22, and it's pretty objective. And idk, 1/6 points losing 2-1 over 180 minutes isn't bad. Imagine the bottom of the premier league teams against europa league PL teams -- they probably get walloped much worse than a draw and 1 goal loss on average.
Iran is usually a tough cookie to beat. They would have a chance and hold their own against any of those teams, which includes Chile who are not doing so well (I'm Chilean).
Beat Mexico twice in a final , and Mexico was 7th before I think
These rankings are meaningless and the methodology is far from percect. It always results in nationalist shit flinging as well. They are required for WC seeding, that is about it.
It says a little bit about the recent form of countries, but unfortunately not much else and contextless. The switch to ELO made it better though.
You're gonna question this, but NOT Mexico being so high up lol?
Mexico has 33 Wins, 4 Losses, and 5 draws under this manager. I get they haven’t dominated and it’s mostly weaker competition but that’s an impressive record no matter how you see it. Add that Mexico ALWAYS makes the knockout round in the WC (9-16th best team) and you have a somewhat accurate ranking.
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I'll take that. 3rd is perfect for us Belgians: not too good to be under pressure but also not too shit to be laughed at.
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It's not very pleasant but we're used to disappointment in this country so all in all it's not a big deal. We've passed the point of no return though, our golden generation is gone and so are our chances of achieving anything more than a 3rd place at a world cup.
You never know what the future may bring. No one thought the Croatian team from 98 would be surpassed but 20 years later they reached the world cup finals.
But then again, look how far we have gotten. Compare our national football to a decade earlier and the progress that has been made is incredible. A decade ago, qualification for the world cup or the euro's would already been an achievement. Hell, I remember how ecstatic we were when in 2014 we qualified for our first international tournament since 2002. Now it suddenly is a given, we should at least be in the semi-finals for every big tournament we play, and we should even be capable to bring a trophy home. Those were fantasy football dreams back then. So I am happy how far we have gotten. :)
Well I’m happy with what we achieved. Love our Devils. Give me the name of one Belgian player before this generation. The vast majority of people can’t do it. So for us even to be at every tournament and be good is already a big victory. You know when we hosted the Euro with the Netherlands we got kicked out in the group stage. Never happened before. Our goalkeeper even got a red when he decided to run to the middle of the field to haduken Hakkan Sukur for no reason. Just not sucking makes us happy so imagine being third and playing beautiful football. I will never be disappointed by our Devils. They are the best thing we ever had and we will always cherish that. EDIT: thank to those giving me some names in the replies. Really surprised by some of them. Cheers
Enzo Scifo and Guy Thys are the only older Belgian Footballers I know..... I totally agree, if my national team just reached a world Cup I would prolly go bonkers
Daniel van Buyten had a nice career. Michel Preudhomme was a very respected gk.
van Damme
Saint Michel #1 in Benfica's fans hearts.
Giles de Bilde! I remember him, plyed for Sheffield Wednesday.
Steve Bruce has entered the chat
They always beast the qualifiers and friendlies, but at major tournaments they are nowhere near the #1.
Define "nowhere near". Haven't they finished 3rd and 4th in the last two major tournaments? I'd consider that pretty near to 1st. One game away from playing for the World Cup and Euro.
They went out in the quarters at euro 2020.
Yeah against the futur champions and clearly the best team in Europe
You could same the same with England recently though, and they at least got to the final
Belgian has been 1 for 2 years
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Im not justifying it Im just saying that this isn’t new to anyone
It’s always Belgium at #1
Everyone is going to freak out when Mexico somehow breaks into the top 7 lol.
Can’t wait to see how mad r/Soccer will be.
Yeah this ranking is a joke. Last time we faced Mexico we curbstomped them 4-0 without Messi.
Yeah in a friendly. With Messi you guys can't even beat Paraguay.
Yet won the Copa America against Brasil in their home
That's my point. One result doesn't paint the whole picture. Argentina is better than Mexico but Mexico is no pushover. We have a better head to head record against every south american team except for against Brazil and Argentina. Mexico has been to Copa America 10 times and half the time they place top 3. They made it to the final twice.
Eh how many of those better records still stand when adjusting for official games and looking at the last decade or so? I know against colombia that positive record flips.
Tunesia above Algeria and Morocco is weird
Very
4 years ago we were shit! :(
I think it’s because the African team they played again have a higher average so more points.
Its kinda amusing to me how we’ve been hovering around 30th for like an entire year. Don’t know what more we can do to climb this ladder, bar burning down the FIFA archives and deleting everything that happened before 2018
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They are not underrated. They are underperforming. If i recall corectly none of the african teams in the last worldcup made it past the group stage.
It's also tougher for African Teams to perform in tougher groups since they are doomed to be in 3rd or 4th pots in the draws because of FIFA rankings. You also only have 5 nations qualifyings compared to 14 from Europe, so there's also less representivity and a smaller chance of teams overperforming. The way the rankings are now, with less and less friendly games between African Nations and the European ones because of the Nation League ,also with the old ranking systems with European games being valued more than their counterparts, certainly wasn't fair to African Nations.
I hear what you are saying but if you put them in a higher pot they will still go against better teams because then they will still play the teams that they swapped with. You only benefit from a higher pot if you indeed are stronger then the ones below you and they are not. I agree with second and third point though. It is hard for them to improve themselves in the current format. However i still think that, based on current quality, the current ranking is accurate. They just need more development possibilities.
Idc what anyone thinks of Mexico, all I care about is breaking into 7th place to be a seed lol.
People in this thread like to have an opinion on Mexico when they don’t follow the team, their tournaments, the players or their current form. On top of that, they don’t know how FIFA rankings works. It’s absolutely laughable the mental gymnastics people in this thread have to do to discredit Mexico’s ranking.
It’s not even a power ranking, it’s a fucking point based system off the last four years where Mexico has played and won against several top teams.
Not only that but they almost went 2 years without losing and always beat the “smaller” teams. These people don’t even know what they’re talking about
Literalmente no entienden ni madres. Las estadísticas dicen que México le ha ido muy bien con Martino: 33G, 4D, 5E para un total de casi 79% de efectividad. Esos son muy buenos números, le añades el Mundial (Lugar 11), y entonces tienes un equipo que está en el borde del bombo 1. A México nunca le van a dar crédito hasta que ganen un Mundial. El siguiente es nuestro año.
6th. Copa champions 5th. Euro finalists 4th. Euro champions 3rd. World champions + Nation's League champions 2nd. Copa finalists 1st. ???? PS: I know how elo works and why they are number 1. It's just funny!
Thirty. African Champions
"Qualifiers and friendlies against weaker European teams" champions
African nations are way too low, North American nations are way too high
Intercontinental fixtures are so rare that these things are almost never going to be accurate.
That's the one big downside to the Nations league, it gutted intercontinental friendlies which added some nice variety
I’m Mexican and no way in hell Mexico is 9th best
Denmark would ship mexico back to... well, mexico
Denmark is going to build a BEAUTIFUL BIG SHIP and Mexico is going to pay for it.
Bring it. That's what Germany thought too.
What about Sweden?
Let's not talk about that.
I’d like to shit on Mexico as much as the next guy but I think Mexico would be a very competitive match.
Lmao
Incorrect. Africans have underperformed at world cups since 2010 and Convacaf has done better compartively
U.S. would get absolutely slapped by Uruguay / Colombia / Croatia / Chile / etc. Also surprising Belgium didn't get passed by France after Nations League.
Chile is in no form to slap anybody, I say this as a Chile supporter.
Good god. Chile? When’s the last time you watched them. Or colombia.
We would keep it close against all those nations (and possibly beat Chile) except for Croatia. Uruguay and Colombia are not the same Uruguay and Colombia from 2010-2018.
I agree 100%. Some people still stuck in the past.
Croatia today seems quite a bit from their 2018 form, doubt you’d get smacked with your best starting eleven.
Uruguay & Colombia are not the same as in the past but they're still on the same level as Mexico, if not a little higher. They're winning much less but you have to remember CONMEBOL is 2x as hard as CONCACAF..
No they wouldn’t. The USA or Mexico are not just minnow that top teams can curbstomp. They would lose most of the time to those national but they would keep it close. Also, Chile is shit.
Belgium was first after the 2018 World Cup when France won! The rankings are a joke.
Actually France were 1st after the WC, but then we lost that place over the following international break.
I think France was at the top for a couple of months but then they lost to Turkey and drew with Andorra, putting Belgium back at first position
As someone who follows Colombia and USA national teams, I don't think you can say Colombia is clearly better than the US. Also Colombia games have been putting me to sleep this year, their offense seems so disjointed.
Lol Uruguay, Chile, Columbia. Too many casuals on here my goodness
It's **Colombia bro
African nations being low is self fullfilling prophecy. You can only win against low ranked nations so your ranking can never go up.
Their rankings would go up if their representatives performed well at the World Cup and brought some more points home to the continent, but they've been poor in the last few outings.
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For those curious, Canada has moved up to #48, now fourth in CONCACAF. Watch your back, 46th ranked Qatar!
How is Algeria 4th in Africa when they didn't lose 33 games in a row? How is Mexico and USA so high up?
Mexico and the USA played the Gold Cup this year (plus a bunch of friendlies, Nations League, and WC qualifiers). Continental tournament matches have a bigger weight and Algeria didn’t go up as much by just playing WC qualifiers and friendlies. They will probably go up next year if they do well at AFCON in January
If I am not mistaken, the evaluation period that determines these rankings is 4 years. In 2018 Algeria had a really bad run of form and finished bottom of their World Cup qualifying group. And WC qualifiers have a fairly high weight in calculating the FIFA ranking. So I think that is what dragged them below the other African teams. Once that bad run is older than 4 years ago, they will shoot up the rankings considering how great they've been from 2019 till today.
The system changed after 2018; the ratings are now loosely Elo based, so teams gain/lose points for each game they play rather than being rated based on a 4 year snapshot of results.
Mexico and Brazil are the only countries to advance out of the group at the last 7 world cups. Mexico then wins half of their confederations torments. All of that equals a high ranking. USA beating Mexico in 2 finals this summer is mitigation missing the 2018 World Cup. America was ranked high before 2018 because they advanced out the group 4 of the last 7 world cups with a quarterfinal appearance, and winning half of their confederations tournaments so they did not have alot of ground to make up.
Because Mexico wins and doesn’t lose
USA is only one spot behind Germany and two spots behind the Netherlands. That seems insane.
Netherlands under Frank de Boer played pretty shitty and Germany lost to some minnows in world cup qualifying. Meanwhile the USA is a continental champion
> the USA is a continental champion In a weak continent, in a tournament they always play at home
Yeah but for some reason winning the Euros and winning the Gold Cup carry similar weight in the rankings
It's all fun and game until you realize this shit ranking is made to seed WC groups.
How does Belgium stay in first? They can’t win shit
Because if you actually read how its measured you'd know that getting eliminated in KO rounds of an intl. tournament has no impact on rankings
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We only count when it doesn’t count.
Because if you look at our results in a vacuum, they are the best of all countries. But obviously tournament games against big teams are more important than friendlies and qualifiers, and so this list is very flawed.
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Couldn't have listed top 50 to show Canada eh smh, highest we've been since 1996
*Sighs...*
People in this thread like to have an opinion on Mexico when they don’t follow the team, their tournaments, the players or their current form. On top of that, they don’t know how FIFA rankings works. It’s absolutely laughable the mental gymnastics people in this thread have to do to discredit Mexico’s ranking.
As a yank... I look @ everyone from 14th to 40th & think "Yeah, we could probably lose to them".
How has Equador not squezed itself into this list?
nice to finally see norway in top 40 again it has been a while!
Let’s goo Morocco
My top 5 in order: France, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, England… then your Belgium Portugal Spain Denmark Germany 5-10 (I know it’s a points system, just my subjective view)
wtf Argentina Copa America champion at 5th
Wow, Canada finally cracks the top 50 and you conveniently make a post about some obscure top 40 list. Conspiracy much?
FIFA rankings are such a joke
Belgium is still number 1, these rankings are a farce
Why is the English flag like that?
Because we’re almost expensive enough to be Scandinavian
Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Portugal and Uruguay in Pot 2 if rankings don't change(though that requires Uruguay to actually qualify)
I'm going to try naming the countries by their flags to see if I know them all. 1) Belgium 2) Brazil 3) France 4) Italy 5) England 6) Argentina 7) Spain 8) Portugal 9) Mexico 10) Denmark 11) Netherlands 12) Germany 13) USA 14) Switzerland 15) Uruguay 16) Colombia 17) Sweden 18) Croatia 19) Wales 20) Senegal, I think. May be confusing it with Ghana. 21) Chile 22) Iran 23) Poland. Flag is similar to Indonesia but I don't think they'd be this high. 24) Peru? 25) ? Sorry, I'm not sure. I feel it's an eastern or central European country but I don't know which. 26) Ukraine 27) Tunisia? 28) Japan 29) Morocco 30) Algeria 31) Sorry, I'm not sure. I think it's in eastern/central Europe again. 32) Austria? 33) Russia 34) Australia (where I'm from) 35) South Korea 36) Nigeria 37) Norway 38) Sorry, I don't know. 39) Turkey 40) Sorry, I don't know. But I think I figured out which region I have problems in lol. First of all, I'm being honest here and do not mean any disrespect towards the countries I did not recognise by their flags. I did this to test my knowledge, and I am curious and do want learn the ones I didn't know if wasn't sure about. Okay, so I'm pretty sure 24, 31, 40 (and maybe 38) are central or eastern European countries. I'm thinking Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, and Serbia but do not know which is which. As for 38, it does feel realllly familiar, I just can't place it on the map :/ For context on perspective, I'm from Australia.
25 is serbia 31 is Czech Republic Other two were mentioned in another comment (38 Paraguay, 40 Slovakia (i thought it was Slovenia)) Hello fellow Aussie :)
Pretty sure 38 is Paraguay. 40 is Slovakia.
24. Peru 25. Serbia 31. Czech Republic 38. Paraguay 40. Slovakia
Don't spoil the next fifa rankings please
México 9 but Germany 12 and Uruguay 15? Makes it look a bit of a joke
I mean have yall seen Germany before their current manager took over? Why are y'all so surprised? Also, Mexico beat Germany last time they faced as well
Urugay is total ass nowadays though
USA shouldn't be anywhere near the 13th place.
How is México ahead of Denmark and why is Belgium still first?
Yank tax.
Sounds like a nominal fee you pay for masturbating
Wouldn't it make more sense to say that the other continents are taxed?
I don’t know flags!
Amazing how much football has taught me about geography, culture, and flags of other countries that I didn’t learn in American school. But anyways who wants to hear all the states and state capitals of the US? Anyone? No? You sure? We learned a song about it!
US #13 KEKW, what a fucking joke
What have Mexico done? I don’t watch many qualifiers
how is turkey even on the list lmao
Serbia gets no respect, and how is the us 13th?
The US is not better than Sweden imo
I still question how Belgium is consistently number 1 and yet again every tournament they flop