Cuba bump TT off second rung

ZURICH: Cuba displaced Trinidad and Tobago as the number two team in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) when FIFA’s world ranking were released yesterday. Jamaica retained their spot as the CFU’s top team after moving up two places to 46th on the world list, while Cuba jumped 10 places to 53rd in the world and number two in the region, ahead of Trinidad and Tobago, who remained steady at 54th. Cuba earned their jump following their Gold Cup quarter-final showing where they lost 5-0 to the United States. Their first round run included a 2-0 upset win over Canada. Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean Cup giants with eight titles in 11 years of competition, had led the CFU rankings for over three years from February 2000, until they were overtaken by Jamaica three months ago, following their failure to qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Haiti, 88th in the world, and Barbados (95th) are the only other CFU teams in FIFA’s top-100. There is no other positional change in the CFU’s top-10. St Lucia, 116th in the world, are sixth in the CFU, followed by Kitts and Nevis (124th), Grenada (143rd) and Suriname (148th), and St Vincent and the Grenadines (154th). Five-time world champions Brazil remain world number one, ahead of France, with Spain third. The Netherlands are fourth and Mexico fifth, jumping six places up after their CONCACAF Gold Cup triumph last weekend.

RANKING OF CFU TEAMS (World ranking in bracket)
1 Jamaica (46th); 2 Cuba (53); 3 Trinidad and Tobago (54); 4 Haiti (88); 5 Barbados (95); 6 St Lucia (116); 7 St. Kitts and Nevis (124); 8 Grenada (143); 9 Suriname (148); 10 St Vincent and  the Grenadines (154); 11 Dominican Republic (157); 12 Antigua and Barbuda (160); 13 British Virgin Islands (168); 14 Cayman Islands (174); 15 Guyana (178); 16 Bermuda (181); 17 Dominica (183); 18 Netherlands Antilles (184); 19 Bahamas (190); 20 Aruba (195); 21 Anguilla (197); 22 US Virgin Islands (198); 23 Puerto Rico (200); 24 Turks and Caicos Islands (203); 25 Montserrat (204).