Soca Warriors jump three spots to 96th in Fifa rankings

Trinidad and Tobago's men's football team have moved up three spots from 99th to 96th in November's Fifa rankings update.

Under the leadership of coach Angus Eve, the Soca Warriors qualified for the quarter-finals of the 2023/24 edition of the Concacaf Nations League A tournament – TT's first appearance at the knockout stages of the competition. TT played defending champions USA in their quarter-final tie and succumbed to a 4-2 aggregate loss after putting up a commendable fight across the two legs. TT got a riveting 2-1 win over the US in the second leg at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo on November 20, with both Alvin Jones and forward Reon Moore scoring thunderous goals to the delight of thousands of home supporters.

Eve, Jones and team captain Aubrey David all viewed the second-leg win as a catalyst for greater things to come for the Warriors.

TT will play the 48th-ranked Canada – Concacaf's fourth-best team – in a one-off 2024 Conmebol Copa America playoff match on March 23 in Texas. With a victory in the playoff match, TT can make their first-ever appearance in the prestigious Copa tournament – South America's marquee international competition.

The 2024 Copa America will be the 48th edition of the tournament and will see six Concacaf teams competing alongside ten South American nations. Jamaica, Mexico, Panama and the US are the four Concacaf teams already confirmed for Copa 2024 which runs from June 20 to July 14. Costa Rica and Honduras will meet in the other Copa 2024 playoff on March 23.

TT ended 2022 ranked 104th by Fifa. Eve's charges were promoted to Nations League A for the 2023/24 cycle after a second-place finish in their League B group behind Nicaragua, who were eventually stripped of their Nations League A status by Concacaf for their use of an ineligible player in the preceding 2022/23 Nations League B campaign. TT were ousted at the group stage of the June-July 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup where they got the solitary win over St Kitts and Nevis.

The 2023/24 Nations League A campaign brought a change in fortune and form for the TT team, as they won their first three group matches against Curacao, El Salvador and Guatemala in the September and October Fifa windows en route to a second-place finish behind group winners Panama. TT moved to 98th in the Fifa rankings in September, before sliding to 99th in the October rankings. TT's current ranking of 96 places them as the 11th-best team in the Concacaf region.