U.S. men's soccer team slips to 28th place in FIFA rankings

By Kevin Baxter - Los Angeles Times (TNS)

U.S. men's soccer Coach Juergen Klinsmann's team has dropped to 28th place in the FIFA rankings.

(Credit: Philipp Schmidli / Getty Images)

The United States dropped one spot, to 28th place, in the FIFA world rankings released Thursday.

The fall comes despite a 2-0 win over Mexico in the U.S. team's last game, largely because Russia picked up 47 points in the poll, jumping up five spots and elbowing its way past the Americans and into 27th place in the standings.

The top 17 spots in the rankings remained unchanged with World Cup winner Germany at No. 1 followed by Argentina, the team it beat in last summer's final.

Belgium, Colombia, Brazil, the Netherlands, Portugal, Uruguay, Switzerland and Spain round out the top 10.

Costa Rica, at No. 15, is the highest-ranked CONCACAF team, seven spots ahead of Mexico, which fell four places to No. 22 -- the most dramatic fall among the top 74 teams

At 21st place, Wales achieved its highest ranking ever.

The rankings are determined by a mathematical formula with points being awarded based on the results of all FIFA-recognized matches during the last four years, with more recent results and more significant matches being more heavily weighted to help reflect the current competitive state of a team.

The top 30:

Germany

Argentina

Belgium

Colombia

Brazil

The Netherlands

Portugal

Uruguay

Switzerland

Spain

France