Trinidad and Tobago moved nine places up in the latest FIFA World Rankings, jumping to 78th spot according to FIFA latest ratings released today.
Prior to the CONCACAF Gold Cup, T&T were in 88th spot but after its performance at the Confederation’s showcase event, the “Soca Warriors” made the leap and currently stand in 8th place in CONCACAF.
In addition to the 22 Gold Cup matches played over the last month, 53 friendlies were played in the past five weeks, including 46 in Africa alone, bringing the number of internationals played so far this year to 515.
The top 12 of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking remains unchanged, with Spain still leading the way ahead of Germany, Colombia, Argentina and the Netherlands.
Movement on the global ladder has nevertheless been provided by the CONCACAF Gold Cup – the continental showdown of teams in North and Central America and the Caribbean – which took place in the USA last month. The Americans, who won their fifth title, have risen three places to 19th on the back of their flawless performance, returning to the top 20 after an absence of two-and-a-half years as the best-placed CONCACAF team at the expense of Mexico (20th, unchanged). The Mexicans lost in the semi-finals of the Gold Cup to Panama, who have climbed 11 places to 40th as a result of their exploits.
TTFA President Raymond Tim Kee commented on the country’s jump in the rankings saying “It’s quite pleasing for us as a country to have made the progress we did over the past month which attests to the fact that the Senior men’s team performed creditably at the CONCACAF Gold Cup and while we would have aspired to reach further in the tournament, a qualification for the quarter final stage certainly was recognized with our leap in the rankings.
“Of course we will continue to strive for higher heights which means the business of football run by the TTFA continues at a pace not just at the senior level but with our various national youth teams, our women teams and our respective development programs,” Tim Kee said.
T&T’s National Under 15 team will enter the CONCACAF Under 15 Championships in the Cayman Islands from August 14-25. The T&T Women’s Under 17 and Under 20 teams are also engaged in World Cup qualifying action at the CFU level while the Senior Men’s team departs for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the first week of September for an invitational tournament as well as a friendly away to Qatar.