The July 2025 FIFA World Rankings have landed, and they’ve stirred a storm. The U.S. men’s national team climbed to 15th, its highest placement since June 2024, thanks to a 22.23‑point boost from a strong Gold Cup run, which included all wins until falling 2–1 to Mexico in the final. But the celebration was muted: Mexico surged to 13th, seizing the top CONCACAF spot after clinching their 10th Gold Cup title. That ranking shift might seem small, but to many, it’s a sign the system has lost its way.
One of the loudest critics of the latest FIFA rankings is Herculez Gomez, a former U.S. international soccer player, who didn’t hold back in a recent YouTube video on his channel. Reacting to Mexico being ranked 13th, just ahead of the United States at 15th, Gomez called the system “a joke,” adding, “They always have been.” He was visibly frustrated by what he views as a flawed formula that rewards quantity over quality of matches. As we know, the July 2025 FIFA World Rankings also saw Canada move up to 28th, Panama rise to 30th, with Honduras at 66 and Jamaica at 70, reinforcing CONCACAF’s presence but doing little to convince Gomez that the rankings reflect true footballing strength. Gomez’s gripe?
The formula rewards quantity over quality: “You can potentially play 13 games in a calendar year, and another team plays four games. They can play better competition, beat better competition, and the team that played more games can go up. So this, to me, is… is… There is… There is no balance.” Despite mixed results, including friendly losses to Türkiye and Switzerland, the USMNT’s Gold Cup run propelled them to the Top 15. But Mexico’s title gave them the edge.
July 13, 2025, East Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S: Left, Chelsea FC s 20FW JOAO PEDRO battles against Paris Saint-German s 4 BERALDO LUCAS during the championship match of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Chelsea defeated Paris 3-0 East Rutherford USA – ZUMAp140 20250713_zap_p140_046 Copyright: xBrianxBranchxPricex
That sparked Gomez, who challenged: “Are we really going to believe that they’re better than Colombia? Uruguay… Japan, Senegal, Switzerland, Denmark, and Korea? Then Ecuador? I don’t. I don’t think either of these two teams is better than those teams.” He added that neither Mexico nor the U.S. deserves a top-15 ranking. “It’s like deciding which Smurf is the tallest.” It’s not just the U.S. and Mexico in focus; CONCACAF is rising: Canada is 28th, Panama 30th, and Costa Rica rocketed 14 spots to 40th, giving the region five teams inside the global Top 40 in the latest FIFA rankings.
That regional strength is real, but Gomez argues that the FIFA rankings still fail to reflect true team quality. For Gomez and many fans, numbers on paper don’t tell the story fans care about. “So these rankings, to me, are a joke…I don’t think anybody really believes Mexico and the United States are in the top 15 best teams in the world. I really don’t believe this.” True validation, he argues, comes on the pitch, not in spreadsheets. But rankings and Herculez Gomez have never quite seen eye to eye, just look back at his reaction in April for proof.
April rankings reignite Gomez’s long-standing grievance with the FIFA system
Herculez Gomez has been a consistent critic of FIFA’s ranking system, especially when it comes to how Mexico and the U.S. are evaluated. Back in April 2025, when the U.S. was ranked 16th, just one spot ahead of Mexico despite the latter winning the CONCACAF Nations League, Gomez didn’t back down. On the Futbol Americas podcast, he said he was “absolutely fine with it,” adding, “It’s such a sliding scale when it comes to these rankings. It’s by the number of games you play and the level of competition.”
He pointed out that Mexico plays more games in the U.S. against weaker teams, which can unfairly inflate their ranking. “Sometimes they send the U23 team to Chicago to play against Bolivia and that’s going to count toward the rankings, so it doesn’t matter,” he noted, emphasizing how the system is gamed more than earned. Gomez also defended the U.S. team’s overall performance over recent years compared to Mexico. “If you’re asking me if I think rankings-wise they [USMNT] should be ahead of Mexico? I do,” he said. “ They (Mexico) didn’t win CONCACAF World Cup qualifying that was Canada. They didn’t make it out of the Group stages in the World Cup. They lost a Gold Cup before that, I believe, to the U.S..”
His message was clear: Mexico’s single Nations League win doesn’t erase a string of underwhelming performances. Despite Mexico jumping to 17th in those FIFA April rankings and the U.S. staying at 16th, Gomez believes rankings should reflect consistency and true competition, not just recent tournament wins or inflated match counts.
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