PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Trinidad and Tobago’s Soca Warriors have shot back to the top of the Caribbean Football Union after a healthy leap in the latest FIFA rankings released on Wednesday.
T&T jumped 19 places in the overall rankings to climb back to number one in CFU ahead of Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz who dropped to second.
Following the May rankings, T&T were second in CFU with Jamaica on top. No rankings were released in June because of the staging of the World Cup in South Africa.
David Muhammad, T&T’s manager welcomed the news of the twin-island republic’s strong movement.
“It’s welcoming news for us at this stage because we are heading into a series of friendly matches and also competitive ones where we believe our chances of an unbeaten streak are very good,” Muhammad told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper.
“The move up the rankings is also positive news for our players … we should now aspire to become champions of the Caribbean and subsequently move on to making a strong challenge to be among the top teams in CONCACAF.”
T&T are now ranked 76th in FIFA while Jamaica are 83rd. Cuba, seventh in the May release, have jumped four spots to be third in the CFU rankings after moving 12 places to 114th overall.
Guyana rose one place to fourth after jumping three spots overall while Suriname jumped five places to fifth place with a solid move of 14 spots in the FIFA rankings.
Barbados leapt three spots to sixth after moving seven places overall but Antigua and Barbuda dropped 10 places in FIFA to be seventh in CFU, losing three places in the regional zone.
Haiti, ravaged by a massive earthquake earlier this year, were the biggest losers in CFU as they crashed from second to eighth after plunging 39 places overall.