Lady Jags drop to 90th in FIFA rankings
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The Lady Jaguars, the Guyana national senior women’s football team, have dropped three ranking positions to 90th following the official publication of the FIFA March standings.
Guyana was ranked 87th following the conclusion of 2023, following an impressive record of five wins and a loss in the CONCACAF W Gold Cup qualifiers. Guyana secured victories over Suriname [1-0, 1-0], Dominica [5-0, 9-0], and Antigua and Barbuda [3-0]. Their only loss occurred during this period against Antigua and Barbuda [1–2].
However, the Lady Jaguars, in their only international fixture thus far, lost 0-1 to the Dominican Republic in the CONCACAF W Gold Cup Preliminary Round Playoff at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California, United States, on February 17th. A win for the Lady Jaguars would have sealed their appearance in the tournament.
This contributed to the team losing three places in the standings. At the moment, the Lady Jaguars sit at 1238.46 points, which is a decrease of 13.1 points from their previous total of 1251.56.
Presently, they are sandwiched between 89th-ranked Montenegro and 91st-positioned Kosovo. The Lady Jaguars best ever ranking was 76th, achieved in March 2017. Conversely, their worst position was 142nd in July 2015. The team has also been unranked following a dormancy of two years.
The Women’s FIFA World Rankings, which currently comprise a total of 200 teams and are headed by Spain, were introduced in 2003.
A points system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of all FIFA-recognised full international matches. The ranking system has been revamped on several occasions, generally responding to criticism that the preceding calculation method did not effectively reflect the relative strengths of the national teams. The current version of the ranking structure was first used on August 16, 2018, adapted from the Elo rating system used in chess.