Soca Warriors climb two spots to 101st in FIFA rankings

Despite being inactive during the last Fifa international Match Day window, the
T&T Soca Warriors have managed to climb two spots at 103rd in the latest FIFA
World Rankings, released by FIFA on Thursday last.
The ranking for T&T, which had the highest ever ranking of 29th in the world in
2000 and the worse at 104th in 2019 represent a move from being 103rd at the
start of 2021 which was maintained until last month.
The T&T Football Association (T&TFA) which is currently under the supervision
of a FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee did not play any matches during
the last international window after a fairly decent display at the 2021 CONCACAF
Gold Cup in the USA in July/August, coupled with the results in the Gold Cup
preliminary round qualifiers.
Needing to win to advance to the Gold Cup’s group stage, the Soca Warriors
under new coach Angus Eve, hammered Montserrat 6-0 before pulling off an 8-7
penalty kicks victory over French Guiana, following a 1-1 tie in the qualifiers.
In group A of the Gold Cup, the Soca Warriors also featured in a 0-2 loss to El
Salvador as well as two drawn encounters- (0-0) with CONCACAF giants Mexico
and 1-1 with Guatemala.
Overall, in the CONCACAF region, there was also no change for the twin-island
Republic at 11th, despite their obvious improvements from the World Cup
Qualifiers from March to June this year, where they thrashed Guyana 3-0, shut-
out St Kitts/Nevis 2-0, but were held 1-1 by Puerto Rico and goalless by minnows
Bahamas which prevented them from advancing from Group F of the qualifiers.
Following the start of the Final Round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers,
Mexico still controls the top spot with the USA in second, followed by Costa Rica,
Canada and Jamaica while T&T remains in 11th spot.
In the most significant move at the top of the world rankings, England is up to
third spot, equalling their highest ever position.

Top 20 FIFA men’s world rankings (August 12, 2021)
1. Belgium
2. Brazil
3. England
4. France
5. Italy
6. Argentina
7. Portugal
8. Spain
9. Mexico
10. Denmark
11. Holland
12. Uruguay
13. USA
14. Germany
15. Switzerland
16. Colombia
17. Croatia
18. Sweden

19. Wales
20. Senegal
Top 20 Concacaf rankings:
1. Mexico (9th)
2. USA (13th)
3. Costa Rica (44th)
4. Canada (51st)
5. Jamaica (59th)
6. Honduras (63rd)
7. El Salvador (65th)
8. Panama (68th)
9. Curacao (79th)
10. Haiti (87th)
11. T&T (101st)
12. Guatemala (123rd)
13. Antigua & Barbuda (126th)
14. St Kitts & Nevis (138th)
15. Suriname (139th)