FIFA, Rankings and US Recent Cup History
FIFA is the Fédération Iternationale de Football Association which is the official French name for the International Football Federation Association. FIFA is the offical governing body for soccer (football) worldwide. FIFA maintains World Rankings of senior national teams, a tool used to compare teams based on their prior 8 year performance in various matches. Below I will quickly recap the US's performance at the last two Cups.
Leading up to the last world cup, USA entered 2002 ranked 24th in the world. Long considered an after thought on the world stage, and given their performance in the 1998 World Cup in France, their ranking was justified. In 1998 the USA failed to score a goal in all three games, finishing last out of the 32 teams.
While the 2002 team was better than the '98 squad, they still had to rally to qualify for the 2002 World Cup in Japan/Korea. Considered a long shot to advance from their group, they Yanks shocked the world by defeating heavily favored Portugal 3-2. Following a tie to Korea and a 3-1 loss to Poland, the US were on the verge of failing to move on, until Korea defeated Portugal 1-0. Korea's victory enabled the US to move on to the round of 16 were they faced their bitter rival, Mexico. The US continued their unexpected run in the '02 cup by defeating Mexico 2-0 to advance to the quarterfinals vs Germany. The US met their match against the Germans, losing 1-0. Dispite the loss, the US put the world on notice that they were going to be a force in future cups. Germany went on to reach the finals, where they lost to Brazil.
Concluding their run at the 'o2 cup, the US entered the top ten for the first time, moving into a 9th place tie with Italy. Today, the US remains tied for 10th with Italy, and they have all but already qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
John O'Brien scores the first goal in the US's 3-2 victory over Portugal
Leading up to the last world cup, USA entered 2002 ranked 24th in the world. Long considered an after thought on the world stage, and given their performance in the 1998 World Cup in France, their ranking was justified. In 1998 the USA failed to score a goal in all three games, finishing last out of the 32 teams.
While the 2002 team was better than the '98 squad, they still had to rally to qualify for the 2002 World Cup in Japan/Korea. Considered a long shot to advance from their group, they Yanks shocked the world by defeating heavily favored Portugal 3-2. Following a tie to Korea and a 3-1 loss to Poland, the US were on the verge of failing to move on, until Korea defeated Portugal 1-0. Korea's victory enabled the US to move on to the round of 16 were they faced their bitter rival, Mexico. The US continued their unexpected run in the '02 cup by defeating Mexico 2-0 to advance to the quarterfinals vs Germany. The US met their match against the Germans, losing 1-0. Dispite the loss, the US put the world on notice that they were going to be a force in future cups. Germany went on to reach the finals, where they lost to Brazil.
Concluding their run at the 'o2 cup, the US entered the top ten for the first time, moving into a 9th place tie with Italy. Today, the US remains tied for 10th with Italy, and they have all but already qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
John O'Brien scores the first goal in the US's 3-2 victory over Portugal
posted by nhw at 5:46 PM
2 Comments:
The next cup fixture is August 17th vs T&T (Trinidad & Tobago) at Foxboro. The US opened their qualifiers by defeating T&T in Port of Spain last February, 2-1.
The next time to see the US MNT (Men's National Team) will be July 7th at Safeco!
Josh - Consider it done
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