United States Women’s National Soccer Team must work harder than ever if they want to remain successful, given Megan Rapinoe and Julie Ertz will not be participating in the next World Cup and Tobin Heath and Alex Morgan are approaching retirement age. In this article, we will discuss about united states women’s national soccer team standings.
However, this does not imply that American policy is in crisis.
1. FIFA World Rankings
The FIFA World Rankings provide a comprehensive system that measures the relative strength of national teams around the world. Rankings are calculated using a points system based on results of full international matches recognized by FIFA; there have been various changes over time; most recently in 2018, when its structure was modified based on Elo rating system used in chess. FIFA publishes these world rankings four times annually.
The United States women’s national soccer team currently occupies the number-one ranking worldwide. Since 2017, they have held onto this position – an incredible 17 year reign, surpassing Germany who spent 13 years at the top.
Teams should strive to remain at the top of the ranking system as this can influence how they are seeded for major tournaments, such as World Cups or continental championships. Seeding decisions largely rely on rankings; as a result, lower-ranked teams may find it more difficult than expected to advance out of their groups when up against higher-ranked opponents.
Although their national team lost to Sweden in the round of 16 at sheBelieves Cup, the U.S. still rose two spots and now rank No. 2, just behind Spain, Sweden, and England.
The rankings will also help shape seeding for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, unlike past editions which divided teams by confederation. Instead, 2023 tournament will employ a round-robin format in which all teams play each other once; top ranked teams will be placed into groups together while lower-rated ones may be separated into different sections.
The United States must do everything possible to avoid falling to the bottom of its group and having difficulty emerging from tournament. This will be especially challenging should they find themselves up against one of the top teams early on as winning can become even more difficult and move them up the standings.
2. Women’s World Cup Rankings
The USWNT dropped to fourth in FIFA rankings for women’s teams since 2003 when women’s rankings began being tracked by FIFA. This decline can be attributed to several factors, including their loss against Mexico in the W Gold Cup final and draw with Iceland during this international window.
Though their FIFA ranking has declined slightly, the USWNT will still remain as one of the highest-rated teams at the 2024 Olympic tournament. FIFA rankings often serve as a factor when seeding or pots are allocated and remains considered one of the world’s premier squads.
As for the rest of the top 10, no significant change took place at the top. Spain, England and France remained at the top, but there were some fluctuations midtable; Ireland dropped four spots to sixth after two draws and one defeat; Argentina rose six spots to seventh with their win against New Zealand and draw with Switzerland.
Australia made a notable leap outside the top 10, rising five positions to 13th. This can likely be attributed to them hosting the 2022 Women’s World Cup, which could propel them further up into the top 10.
Canada made an impressive climb outside the top 15, rising 18 spots to 85th overall and earning top scores at both of the W Gold Cup matches they competed in. Although qualifying for 2026 FIFA Women’s World Cup will prove challenging, this early ranking indicates they could reach their goal of breaking into the top 15.
3. Women’s Gold Cup Rankings
Even with Alex Morgan’s return and solid work from several players, this team doesn’t exude contender status. Not to say there’s any lack of talent or ability among this group of women but perhaps this 2024 Gold Cup could provide the chance to experiment more extensively.
This tournament will include eight of CONCACAF’s best women’s soccer nations as well as four guest teams from CONMEBOL region. The United States will play against Mexico, Canada and Chile – three teams currently ranked higher than them – so will have plenty of big matchups ahead.
Twila Kilgore can use this tournament as an opportunity to assess her younger players, including Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman who both performed admirably during opening matches of this tournament.
On February 17, the USWNT will make their group stage debut against the winner of a Preliminary Round match between Guyana and Dominican Republic, whom they lost against during their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign final match – making this matchup likely an even tougher test for American team.
As of this writing, the United States Women’s National Team is in fourth place – their lowest rank since FIFA began ranking women’s teams back in 2003. While not a massive drop off from where they used to be, this new reality for American fans may require them to adjust quickly; April and May will provide ample opportunity to test this theory as the SheBelieves Cup matches will provide another big test as Japan, Canada and Brazil come calling. If they can prove their dominance again during these matches then quarterfinals at World Cup will likely go much easier.
4. SheBelieves Cup Rankings
Even after falling to Canada in the sheBelieves Cup semifinals, the United Soccer Women National Team still found plenty of positives from this tournament despite losing. Notable among these positives were forwards Mallory Swanson and Catarina Macario’s returns after missing the World Cup due to major knee injuries.
Unfortunately, injuries are likely behind the USWNT dropping two spots to #4 in FIFA rankings released today. While it might come as a shock following their triumphant W Gold Cup title win, their underperformance in group stage competition could well have contributed.
The USWNT have an opportunity to return to #1 with a win against Japan in the semifinals of SheBelieves Cup this Saturday. This will be their fourth meeting, with USA winning each previous matchup (in February 2023 at GEODIS Park Nashville by 1-0 with Mallory Swanson scoring the only goal).
Brazil will seek to defend their title against the winner of USA vs Japan matchup in the other semifinal, hoping to beat off Japan again and repeat as champions like they did back in 2021 when they defeated Canada and Argentina; furthermore they took home both SheBelieves Cup wins that year as well!
Twila Kilgore, interim USWNT head coach, confirmed on Friday that midfielder Korbin Albert would be available for their SheBelieves Cup game against Canada despite recent criticism over her social media activity.
The SheBelieves Cup features four top women’s national teams playing two fixtures each in a round-robin format, with the winner receiving a trophy and earning their place in the SheBelieves Cup final. This year’s tournament is taking place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia featuring an artificial FieldTurf CORE surface which seats 73,019 fans; Mercedes-Benz Stadium marks the inaugural SheBelieves Cup event to take place within a stadium since it first launched back in 2012.
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