Front Row Soccer
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The United States has some work to do in international futsal.
The United States has some work to do in international futsal.
The American men were ranked 78th overall and eighth in Concacaf, in the latest FIFA rankings that were released on Friday morning.
Ranked above the USA in the confederation were Costa Rica (29th overall), Panama (38th), Guatemala (44th), El Salvador (56th), Honduras (61st) Canada (69th) and Curaçao (70th). Mexico is ninth in Concacaf and 89th overall.
The second edition of the rankings revealed some significant changes – in both tables – on the back of 65 women’s matches and 179 in the men’s game.
The most important event in recent months was the FIFA Futsal World Cup Uzbekistan 2024 (52 matches).
Recently crowned world champions Brazil (1st, unchanged) held on to top spot and extended its lead over Portugal (2nd, unchanged), whose defense of their FIFA Futsal World Cup title came to a halt in the round of 16. Three teams made significant progress in the top 10 – runners-up Argentina (3rd, up 2), quarter-finalists Kazakhstan (5th, up 3) and bronze medalists Ukraine (9th, up 3), the latter leapfrogging France (10th, unchanged) after overcoming Les Bleus in the match for third place.
The biggest movers, however, were the teams that have climbed five or more places, namely Futsal World Cup participants Venezuela (15th, up 6; quarterfinalists), the Netherlands (26th, up 10; Tound of 16) and Panama (38th, up 6; group stage), as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina (48th, up 6), Chile (60th, up 31), Latvia (71st, up 16), Denmark (77th, up 5) and Montenegro (86th, up 6).
Although fewer games have been played in women’s futsal since May, there are still a number of notable changes in their ranking too, primarily due to the staging of the OFC qualifiers for the inaugural FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup in 2025, with a total of 12 matches having been played in the OFC Futsal Women’s Nations Cup. The remaining fixtures were all friendlies.
The teams that have made the most progress within the women’s top 20 are Italy (8th, up 2), Vietnam (11th, up 2), New Zealand (14th, up 12) and Uzbekistan (18th, up 6). The strides taken by Saudi Arabia (46th, up 5) are also worthy of note.
There are five newcomers in this edition of the FIFA Futsal Women’s World Ranking, namely Fiji (62nd), Tahiti (66th), Norway (68th), the Solomon Islands (73rd) and Tonga (74th).
All of these teams – with the exception of Norway – took part in the OFC qualifiers for the FIFA Women’s Futsal World Cup in 2025.
Highest-placed teams by confederation:
Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.
