The US national team defeated Mexico in their friendly meeting last month, but both sides still found themselves slipping down the charts in the May edition of the FIFA World Ranking released on Thursday.
That 2-0 USMNT win in San Antonio was one of only three matches worldwide that were added to the FIFA formula’s calculations since the last edition of the rankings, along with another all-CONCACAF friendly between Suriname and Guyana and a Euro 2016 qualifier between Russia and Montenegro which was abandoned due to crowd violence and ruled as a 3-0 Russia win.
But the intricacies of the World Ranking’s long-term algorithms mean that the US have dropped one place, to 28th in the world, while El Tri fell four slots to 22nd. Costa Rica remain CONCACAF’s highest-ranked side with an unchanged position of 15th.
Panama (No. 53), Trinidad & Tobago (No. 65), Jamaica (No. 74) and Honduras (No. 76) sit well back of CONCACAF’s dominant trio, while Canada lost one rung on the ladder as they came in 115th this month.
Suriname remain well off the confederation’s pace at 155th in the world, but their 1-0 win over neighboring Guyana makes them this month’s biggest upward mover, as they’ve gained 14 spots since the April rankings. Caribbean minnows St. Vincent and the Grenadines (110th), St. Lucia (131st) and Dominica (165th) have all climbed five or more places since last month. Canada and Dominica will square off in World Cup qualifying in June.
The top 17 positions remain unchanged, with Germany, Argentina and the USMNT’s World Cup vanquishers, Belgium, comprising the top three.
