Commentary
FIFA's Odd Math...We're Number Four!
By Rich Huber
April 24, 2006
Believe it or not...Bruce Arena is in charge of the world's fourth best team.
FIFA announced their most recent set of world rankings and the good news is that some of the shenanigans that plague college football and basketball in this country are no longer just our national embarrassment. This month, FIFA has managed to have rankings that make even less sense than usual.
The evidence is pretty clear. Somehow, some way, the United States moved up from fifth to fourth in the world rankings. Now, understand, this should be reason for great celebration on these shores, and for some it probably is just that. For the rest of us who are sane and believe in fairness, this turn of events is laughable to the point of being absurd.
Let's review the facts. In the period between the last set of rankings and this past week's announcement, the US managed to get a sound 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Germany and followed that performance up with a lackluster 1-1 draw with Jamaica. While it is true that both games were played with less than stellar rosters (Tony Meola played in the second game for goodness sake), the results still stand. Yet somehow, some way the United States moved up in the rankings.
The move up in the rankings was paved by a significant drop by Argentina that moved the US, Spain, Mexico, France and Portugal up one slot. The convoluted process for determining the rankings as written on the FIFA website makes Figure Skating judging look sensible, even with a French judge. The bottom line is that none of this makes sense. Then again, it is FIFA.
Of course, why should we expect it to make sense. FIFA is the same group that somehow seeded Mexico ahead of the United States despite the fact that the Americans won the CONCACAF region. Just shut your eyes and imagine for a moment the mathematical miracles that were performed in Zurich to arrive at that result.
About the only result that provides evidence that the FIFA rankings are not a total bust is that Germany parlayed their decisive victory over Bruce Arena's squad into a three team leap to number nineteen. Balanced against that is this question...anyone, anywhere, really believe that the USA is the fourth best team in the world? All of this leaves us with just one conclusion...the FIFA rankings with a grain of salt, and a hefty one at that.