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Posted

we have 5 games left best-on-best 

fifa international match windows remaining, 2 matches allowed in each window (except africa tournament)

10–18 November 2025     2 
21 December 2025 – 18 January 2026   2025 Africa Cup of Nations - play until elimnated
23–31 March 2026     2
1–9 June 2026     2
11 June – 19 July 2026     2026 FIFA World Cup

us matches:

10 oct ecuador - not fifa window = all mls

14 oct australia - not fifa window = all mls

15 nov paraguay - fifa window = euros available

18 nov uruguay - fifa window = euros available

jan 26 - camp cupcake friendlies tbd = all mls

23-31 march - belgium/portugal = euros available

1-9 june - mundial warmups = euros available

12 june - LA

19 june - Seattle

25 june - LA

Posted
Spoiler

 si.com
USMNT Hits Historic Low in ELO World Rankings Amid Rapid Fall
Ben Steiner
3–4 minutes

When the U.S. men’s national team hired head coach Mauricio Pochettino, the hope was that he would be able to turn the team into a bona fide challenger at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 

With nine months to go until the tournament, that idea has fallen well short so far, and the team is amid one of its worst spells in recent history, losing seven of 17 matches since he entered the fold. At the same time, the USMNT have lost seven of their last eight matches against teams ranked within the top 30. 

Following a 2–0 loss to South Korea on the weekend, the USMNT reached another low point—49th in the world, according to the ELO rankings, the lowest since the turn of the century. 

The ELO rankings are an alternative ranking to the official FIFA men’s World Ranking and are regularly updated. The system was invented by Hungarian-American statistician Arpad Elo as a way to assess chess players, and has been introduced to several sports including soccer. 

It takes into consideration more recent results and matchups based statistics, and is often lauded as a more accurate representation of current status than the official rankings. 

When Pochettino took over, the U.S. ranked 37th in the world, following a loss to Canada. When the USMNT last lifted a trophy at the 2023 Concacaf Nations League, they saw their rating climb as high as 18. 

The U.S. also cracked the top 15 after beating Portugal in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea, and rose to ninth in 2009 after beating Spain at the 2009 Confederations Cup. Under previous head coach Gregg Berhalter, the USMNT topped out at 15th.

The rankings have also seen the U.S. drop to low points after some significant losses, such as falling to 32nd after failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and dropping to 37th after a group stage exit at the 2024 Copa América, which led to Berhalter’s dismissal.

The drop under Pochettino though, has been rapid, and sees the U.S. on the fringes of the top 50, a rank they have not dropped below since May 28, 1995 when they lost 2–1 to Costa Rica in an international friendly. 

In comparison to other Concacaf nationals, the U.S. sits fifth in ELO rating, behind Mexico in 16th, Canada in 29th, Panama in 35th and Costa Rica in 48th. 

Meanwhile, the official FIFA rankings currently place the U.S. at 15th, but are projected to fall to at least 16th after the loss to South Korea. 

Yet, that won’t matter too much to Pochettino and the USMNT as they look to the future with hopes of grabbing a much-needed win when they take on Japan, ranked 13th in the ELO ratings, in Columbus on Tuesday. 

“We need to start to win when the World Cup starts,” Pochettino said after losing to South Korea.

“[There are] too many examples of teams that win during five years [before the tournament] and then arrive at the World Cup and they don’t arrive in the best condition. I was involved in 2002 with Argentina, we were winning [for] years and then at the World Cup, and we were out in the group stage.”

 

Posted
28 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

scratch that we have 7 best-on-best (including tonight) if you count the warmups

regardless poch needs a result tonight

badly


I don’t think he does. 

Which is a good thing, because I don’t think that he’s getting one. 

We’re going to keep on losing while further solidifying which players are not up to World Cup standards. 

We will likely make the round of 16 due to being in Pot 1 and then it is a coin flip from there, but I don’t expect us to go further. 

I think that the round of 16 is the 2nd knockout round this tournament, so we will advance one round before being eliminated. 
 

¡Yeah! (?)

Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Hagbard Celine said:

we have 5 games left best-on-best 

fifa international match windows remaining, 2 matches allowed in each window (except africa tournament)

10–18 November 2025     2 
21 December 2025 – 18 January 2026   2025 Africa Cup of Nations - play until elimnated
23–31 March 2026     2
1–9 June 2026     2
11 June – 19 July 2026     2026 FIFA World Cup

us matches:

10 oct ecuador - not fifa window = all mls

14 oct australia - not fifa window = all mls

15 nov paraguay - fifa window = euros available

18 nov uruguay - fifa window = euros available

jan 26 - camp cupcake friendlies tbd = all mls

23-31 march - belgium/portugal = euros available

1-9 june - mundial warmups = euros available

12 june - LA

19 june - Seattle

25 june - LA

 

1 hour ago, Hagbard Celine said:

scratch that we have 7 best-on-best (including tonight) if you count the warmups

regardless poch needs a result tonight

badly

 

Actually I'm looking at this - dont we have 8 Best v Best games? 9 if you count tonight?

We have full windows in Oct, Nov, March and June - 2 matches each. Again, it depends on how you view those 2 warm up matches for the World Cup in June.

Edited by Captain Ron
Posted
1 hour ago, Captain Ron said:

Actually I'm looking at this - dont we have 8 Best v Best games? 9 if you count tonight?

We have full windows in Oct, Nov, March and June - 2 matches each. Again, it depends on how you view those 2 warm up matches for the World Cup in June.

i took the google ai result at it's word - and it was wrong - you are correct - so 9 including tonight

Posted
21 hours ago, Ted Lange said:

I really mis the Ocho or whatever we deemed concacaf qualification since they changed it from the Hex.    No WCQ sucks 

Yeah but... I'm not so sure we wanted to see a WQ cycle this time - even w/ the added teams.

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