World Football Elo Ratings

[Max]

I don't know where to place this site, but I found this very interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Football_Elo_Ratings

[Red and White]

Personally, I don't usually give our Elo ranking much thought. I know its supposed to be more accurate, because the FIFA ranking suffers from mathematical inconsistencies. They're both mostly nothing more than an interesting stat, with the exception of the odd time when they're used to rank us for draws. Either way, its extremely difficult to truly quantify world rankings without errors of about +/- 20 or so.

Even though its almost worthless, I do have a strange interest in our FIFA rank. I want to see it as high as possible, despite the fact that its artificial.

I believe our current Elo ranking is 68, which, give or take, is around where we float in the FIFA rankings.

[Tuscan]

Only real weight the FIFA ranking has is where we are drawn when drawing spots for WCQ and the Gold Cup, etc... It is important that we remain high in the FIFA ranking, so we don't get stuck in groups of death. We were lucky this last draw, ending up with the group we did. Just need a win on the 7th and at least one more win and we should be home free.

[madmonte]

Only real weight the FIFA ranking has is where we are drawn when drawing spots for WCQ and the Gold Cup, etc... It is important that we remain high in the FIFA ranking, so we don't get stuck in groups of death. We were lucky this last draw, ending up with the group we did. Just need a win on the 7th and at least one more win and we should be home free.

Know what's weird and oddly contrary to this? The fact that not being ranked in the top 6 this go around gave us more time to gel as a team against minnows in the opening round against St. K&N, Puerto Rico, and St. Lucia. Considering (not to be a redundant, as I said this in another thread), but considering how few friendlies we generally play, those 6 games were 6 games that allowed us to become a lot more tightknit. (again oddly) especially when we ended up fighting against other teams like St. Lucia, and everyone came to everyone's aid.

[Keegan]

Know what's weird and oddly contrary to this? The fact that not being ranked in the top 6 this go around gave us more time to gel as a team against minnows in the opening round against St. K&N, Puerto Rico, and St. Lucia. Considering (not to be a redundant, as I said this in another thread), but considering how few friendlies we generally play, those 6 games were 6 games that allowed us to become a lot more tightknit. (again oddly) especially when we ended up fighting against other teams like St. Lucia, and everyone came to everyone's aid.

More than anything it was just good for the players to win a few pressure matches after that disaster of a Gold Cup. If we didn't have those matches I'm sure that we would have started off as we did in 2008 in this round.

[Addona]

Only real weight the FIFA ranking has is where we are drawn when drawing spots for WCQ and the Gold Cup, etc... It is important that we remain high in the FIFA ranking, so we don't get stuck in groups of death. We were lucky this last draw, ending up with the group we did. Just need a win on the 7th and at least one more win and we should be home free.

I agree regarding the FIFA ranking, although I would add one more point of value: even though it shouldn't, it's perceived as important by many casual soccer fans. If Canada's ranking were in the top 50, say, many more casual fans would feel much more positive about our program. It's true that advancing in WCQ will naturally bring up our ranking, but so will playing more in general.

Which brings me to my question: Will this friendly against T&T even count for FIFA points?

I see it listed on FIFA's site, but not on their ranking page where you can see all matches that will factor into the next release of the rankings. If we are going to go to the trouble of getting even a B squad together, shouldn't we make the effort to earn some ranking points!?

[madmonte]

Yeah it bugged out today. It was definitely listed yesterday. It does count as an international friendly, and will bring our points up. Also, some important losses will be dropping off the radar from 2008 at the same time, so despite their calculator (which was buggy this evening, I just went and checked)...despite what it says now, expect us to have roughly 480 points for Sept if my calc is correct, which should take them from 79th in the rankings to about 70th.

[Edgar]

This friendly doesn't count. Possible reasons: number of substitutions, non-FIFA referee etc.

Canada will have 454 points - 73rd.

FIFA Ranking: September 2012 preview (II).

[jpg75]

This friendly doesn't count. Possible reasons: number of substitutions, non-FIFA referee etc.

Canada will have 454 points - 73rd.

FIFA Ranking: September 2012 preview (II).

Well, i counted 6 subs by Canada...maybe T&T decided to **** things up and made an extra sub or something? or could have been a non-FIFA ref?