I guess it'll be a while before football really gets good in the US. Not that these guys aren't good, but they need to consistently be able to find whatever it was they used to play so tough against Italy.
Trouble with the FIFA rankings is, a win over - say - El Salvador in a friendly counts for as much as beating Brazil in the World Cup final. The North America/Caribbean confederation really doesn't have many decent teams in it - USA and Mexico, maybe Costa Rica - so the US tend to win a lot of games against poor opposition. Japan and South Korea's rankings are artificially high for the same reason.
Europe and South America, in contrast, are full of good teams, so a team like Switzerland will have an artificially low ranking because they lose more often against good opposition - they were in the same qualifying group as France and Ireland, and had to beat Turkey (3rd place in 2002) in the playoffs.
Hell, the US can't even beat Scotland. That's shocking :o)
(Icon is inappropriate, but it's the only footy one I have handy.)
trinnidad & tobago thought that as well, as most of their players play for english or sctooish teams - totally forgetting that most of them struggle to get games at 2 & 3rd division clubs. not sure where the american players do club football, but could be a similar situation
Looks like they USA squad is based in mid-table Premiership and high-flying Championship sides - Reading, Leeds, Everton, Fulham. Same story with the Bundesliga. Ghana have many more Europe-based players, although Essien (Chelsea) is probably the only one in a very good side.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 05:51 pm (UTC)Ah well, Mexico's still in it. Go El Tri!!
no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 06:11 pm (UTC)Europe and South America, in contrast, are full of good teams, so a team like Switzerland will have an artificially low ranking because they lose more often against good opposition - they were in the same qualifying group as France and Ireland, and had to beat Turkey (3rd place in 2002) in the playoffs.
Hell, the US can't even beat Scotland. That's shocking :o)
(Icon is inappropriate, but it's the only footy one I have handy.)
no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 07:49 pm (UTC)not sure where the american players do club football, but could be a similar situation
no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-22 09:25 pm (UTC)