Will the United States have a shot at winning a major international trophy on home soil? Can Lionel Messi and Argentina follow up their World Cup win with another title? We break down all 16 teams, the key players to watch, and the best bets to make.
While the European Championships will attract plenty of attention across the globe over the next month, the United States will host the best footballing nations in North and South America for an expanded version of the Copa América. It sets up a bonanza of international games this summer, as many of the world’s great soccer powers are in action at the same time.
The Copa América is traditionally reserved for the 10 nations of South America (the CONMEBOL federation of FIFA), with the occasional guest or two invited to compete. Outside of the World Cup, it is the most prestigious trophy a South American nation can win. The most recent edition in 2021 featured just the South American teams, while the 2019 tournament included Qatar and Japan as special guests.
Six CONCACAF nations (of North and Central America, and the Caribbean) were invited to form a full 16-team tournament this summer as a prelude to the upcoming 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
Argentina and Brazil have won the last two Copas in 2021 and 2019, respectively. They are the favorites to win it again, but improvements from Colombia and Uruguay, plus the addition of Mexico and the U.S., should challenge the two international Goliaths.
To preview Copa América 2024, I ranked all 16 teams in the tournament, nominated a key player to watch for each, and shared some bets I’ve made.
Note: All CONMEBOL qualifying expected goals (xG) data is from FootyStats.
1. Argentina (Group A)
Argentina has the distinct advantage of not playing a single team ranked in the top five of these rankings during the group stage. Because of how the draw broke, and the fact that Lionel Messi still plays for the team, La Albiceleste are the favorites to win the tournament. Argentina is on top of the soccer world after beating Brazil in the 2021 Copa América final and following it up with a triumph at the World Cup a year later.
Even though the World Cup final ended on penalty kicks, Argentina’s out-of-possession work rate and defensive solidity enabled them to dominate France for the first hour of that match. The center back partnership of Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martínez is an excellent combination of aggression and passing range. Manager Lionel Scaloni has multiple options in midfield depending on the opponent. The deep-lying passing range of Leandro Paredes and Rodrigo De Paul, plus the work rate of Giovani Lo Celso, recently starred in a 1-0 tune-up win against Ecuador. Scaloni also has the younger, more all-around skilled Premier League midfielders Alexis Mac Allister and Enzo Fernández to turn to if needed.
Although Messi has been playing outside the elite European leagues for a year now, he is still one of the most creative players on the planet. Strikers Lautaro Martínez and Julián Álvarez had effective Inter Milan and Manchester City club seasons, respectively (the former winning Serie A’s golden boot), and Messi should be able to feed them. There are questions about the depth of this squad beyond the first 15 or so players, but Argentina isn’t likely to be tested too much in its group.
During the first six matches of CONMEBOL 2026 World Cup qualifying, Argentina had the best expected goal difference. When you add La Albiceleste’s ace in the hole—goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, who has an excellent penalty shootout record—Argentina has key advantages against the field. Martínez has won five consecutive penalty shootouts, with 10 penalties saved in 24 attempts, including two in the 2022 World Cup.
For what it’s worth: There is no extra time in the Copa América knockout rounds. It’s straight to penalties if teams are tied after 90 minutes.
Player to watch: Cristian Romero (Tottenham Hotspur)
2. Brazil (Group D)
Neymar was Brazil’s best player in their Copa América final loss to Argentina in 2021. For all of the depth and talent that the Seleção have, Neymar’s absence is a critical missing link as he continues to recover from an ACL injury. Still, Brazil has Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo, Gabriel Martinelli, Raphinha, and wunderkind Endrick, so they’re not exactly hurting for quality options going forward.
Vinicius is the second favorite to win the tournament’s Golden Boot, according to betting markets. He was arguably the best player in the world this season at Real Madrid, and he has attacking chemistry with club teammate Rodrygo. There’s no doubting the strength of this team, but the performances in recent World Cup qualifying matches do not suggest total dominance over the rest of CONMEBOL.
Brazil started that stretch of games well, running up the score on Bolivia with a 5-1 victory in the opening matchweek. Here are Brazil’s results since then: a 1-0 win against Peru (stoppage time goal), 1-1 draw with Venezuela, 2-0 defeat at Uruguay, 2-1 loss at Colombia, 1-0 loss against Argentina. Brazil is sixth in the table with a plus-1 goal difference.
Last week, the Seleção played their full-strength lineup in a friendly against a wounded United States and settled for a 1-1 draw. Brazil created more chances and forced Matt Turner into 11 saves, but it was notable how much the U.S. created in its attack as well. If not for the excellent goalkeeping of Alisson, the U.S. would have scored multiple times, too.
Brazil’s center back pairing of Lucas Beraldo and Marquinhos offers an excellent combination of aerial prowess and on-ball quality, but there are questions about the dominance of the Brazilian midfield. Lucas Paquetá is creative on the ball, and Bruno Guimarães loves to get forward, but the Brazil defense might be left vulnerable as a result.
Talent alone keeps Brazil in the second spot, but there are cracks in this team and real concerns they could go home earlier than expected.
Player to watch: Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid)
3. Colombia (Group D)
Argentina and Brazil have been the two best teams in South America for most of recent history, but the gap between them and the rest is as small as it’s ever been thanks to Colombia and Uruguay’s improvements in this current cycle. Colombia lost a penalty shootout in the 2021 Copa semifinal to Argentina and failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup after finishing one point behind Peru. Colombia has since not lost a match, dating back to February 1, 2022. That’s a 23-match unbeaten run.
Since that loss to Argentina, Colombia has beaten Mexico twice, shut out Spain and Germany in friendlies, and taken down Brazil in 2026 World Cup qualifying. The 5-1 demolition of the U.S. last week underlines how well Colombia are playing right now.
Colombia has a lot of continuity within its lineup. Luis Diaz is the superstar left winger through whom most of the attack is played, and James Rodriguez remains a very capable central creator even though he’s past his peak at 32. Luis Sinisterra, Jhon Durán, and Jhon Arias offer a ton of wide forward talent to surround Diaz.
The midfield pairing of Mateus Uribe and Jefferson Lerma isn’t flashy, but both have high work rates and make Colombia difficult to play through. Colombia is poised to give Brazil a real challenge when they meet in their final group match.
Player to watch: Luis Diaz (Liverpool)
Bets: Colombia to win Group D (+280), Colombia to make the semifinal (+160)
4. Uruguay (Group C)
This current version of Uruguay is almost unrecognizable from the team that played in Qatar in December 2022. The slow tempo and often dull soccer of their World Cup, combined with some bad finishing (insert your Darwin Núñez jokes here), led to a group-stage exit behind Portugal and South Korea. Now, with Argentine manager Marcelo Bielsa at the helm, Uruguay has turned up the tempo and is ready to challenge for a Copa América title.
Bielsa is known for his manic pressing structure and man-to-man marking. It’s a much better fit for the current personnel, because of the dynamic and athletic nature of its midfield and attacking talent. Uruguay did make the round of 16 of the 2018 World Cup, but the nation has experienced a real down period otherwise. The Uruguayans—who have won two World Cups, but none since 1950—failed to advance out of the group in the 2016 Copa América, then lost in the quarterfinals in 2019 and 2021. Now, as the third betting favorite in the whole tournament and favorite to win Group C, Bielsa’s squad has a good combination of system and talent to produce results.
Uruguay has played one of the toughest, if not the toughest, stretches of six matches in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying thus far. The nation sits in second in the qualifying standings, an impressive six points ahead of Brazil. La Celeste lost at Ecuador early in that run, but has since tied Colombia on the road and followed it up with consecutive 2-0 victories against Argentina and Brazil. Argentina has two losses in all of the 2020s: Saudi Arabia, in that shock 2022 World Cup opener, and the home defeat to Uruguay in November.
The strength of Uruguay is in the energetic midfield. The combination of Fede Valverde (Real Madrid) and Rodrigo Bentancur (Tottenham Hotspur) along with Manuel Ugarte (PSG) and Nicolas de la Cruz (Flamengo) gives Bielsa a ton of pressing options. Uruguay is also tough to play against because of star forward Darwin Núñez. As much as he may get meme’d for his finishing skills, Núñez grabbed a hat trick in a 4-0 demolition of Mexico in a pre-tournament friendly. He’s the third favorite behind Messi and Vinicius Junior to win the Golden Boot.
Player to watch: Fede Valverde (Real Madrid)
5. Ecuador (Group B)
Ecuador was unfortunate to get bounced from its 2022 World Cup group without advancing to the knockout stage. La Tri beat hosts Qatar and earned an impressive draw against the Netherlands, but lost 2-1 to Senegal after conceding from a set piece and a penalty. Regardless, Ecuador showed in that World Cup that it was solid defensively. The question then, as it remains now, was whether there was enough goal-scoring output in this team.
Ecuador enter this Copa América in the most wide-open of the four groups. Without any of this list’s top four teams in their group, Ecuador could be the best among Mexico, Jamaica, and Venezuela. In three high-profile World Cup qualifiers thus far, Ecuador lost 1-0 at Argentina on a Messi goal, tied Colombia 0-0, and beat Uruguay 2-1 in Quito.
The underlying statistics have shown Ecuador to be about average (minus-0.05 xG difference per match) in qualifying overall. Ecuador lacks offensive explosiveness but is resilient against teams with more talent because of the defensive solidity.
The strength of the Ecuador system is in the back four and defensive midfield. Left back Piero Hincapié and central midfielder Moisés Caicedo have impressed at top clubs in Europe, while the center back pairing of Félix Torres and William Pacho has been a reliable pair as of late. The question is whether 34-year-old striker Enner Valencia can find some form at his advanced age. They opted to start Ipswich Town winger Jeremy Sarmiento up front against Argentina in a friendly and were largely toothless going forward.
In six World Cup qualifying matches, Ecuador has scored five goals and conceded three. Given the relative strength of South American teams in recent friendlies against top CONCACAF squads, South America, rounded out by Ecuador, claims the top five spots in this ranking. That also puts Ecuador as the presumed winner of their Copa group, and +175 is a juicy price to back them to do just that. If things go their way, they could avoid Argentina until a potential semifinal matchup.
Player to watch: Piero Hincapié (Bayer Leverkusen)
Bet: Ecuador to win Group B (+160)
6. United States (Group C)
Most power rankings would have the United States higher, but it will be very difficult for the Americans to make a deep run in this tournament. Even when the U.S. is playing on home soil, we’ve seen opposing fans take over the stadium in pre-tournament friendlies against Colombia and Brazil. There was probably too much overreaction to the 5-1 Colombia defeat, where I thought the U.S. played pretty well for 65 minutes until individual errors in possession derailed the team. But on the whole, there are still doubts about this U.S. squad, especially on defense after Matt Turner was forced into 11 saves against Brazil.
The initial schedule favors the USMNT, because they’ll play highly winnable games against Bolivia and Panama. Anything short of six points from those two matches would be a major disappointment for Gregg Berhalter’s side. The biggest question for the USMNT entering this tournament is how they’ll replace the injured Sergiño Dest at right back. Dest is a talented attacker and provides key width for the team, and they don’t have a proper replacement for all of his skills. Joe Scally seems to have won the job, and he performed admirably well against Ballon d’Or favorite Vinicius Junior in the Brazil friendly.
There will always be plenty of hand-wringing about the United States from within, but this is definitely a talented group. All 11 starters against Colombia play in Europe’s top five leagues. Christian Pulisic enters this tournament in excellent form following a great club campaign with AC Milan. Tyler Adams isn’t fully fit because he’s barely played this year; that would be a major problem for the U.S. in past years, but the emergence of Johnny Cardoso as a deep lying midfielder and ball-winner has helped the Americans solve that issue.
This is the first major international tournament for sought-after striker Folarin Balogun, who opted to declare for the USMNT rather than England or Nigeria. He had an excellent assist against Colombia and will need to be effective in transition. The United States will be underdogs to Uruguay in the final group match, and then it will almost certainly face Colombia or Brazil in the quarterfinals. Even an upset win in the quarters would set them up to once again play Uruguay, or Brazil, or Colombia in the semifinals. The path is arduous, but the more games the Americans play against top CONMEBOL sides, the better.
Player to watch: Folarin Balogun (Monaco)
Bet: United States stage of elimination: Quarterfinals (-130)
7. Mexico (Group B)
Mexico is never really in serious danger of missing a World Cup because of how weak CONCACAF is (plus the newly expanded 48-team field), but the United States has dominated the North American rivalry under Gregg Berhalter. When you combine that dominance with Mexico’s poor showing in Qatar, this is certainly one of the low points for El Tri. Mexico is the favorite to win its group in the betting markets, but there’s major uncertainty beyond that.
El Tri played three friendlies to prepare for Copa América. They beat Bolivia 1-0 but were far from dominant in that match. Uruguay smoked them 4-0 in Denver, and Brazil’s B team beat them 3-2 in Texas. The U.S. beat them 3-0 in the 2023 Nations League semifinal and followed it up with a 2-0 win in March in the 2024 final.
Some familiar names who have donned the Mexican national team shirt for a decade now will not play for El Tri in this tournament. Mexico is trying to embrace its next generation of talent by leaving goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, striker Raúl Jiménez, and winger Hirving Lozano off the roster.
The spine of the 26-man roster is largely similar to the 2022 World Cup, anchored in the midfield by West Ham’s Edson Alvarez and in defense by Jorge Sánchez and César Montes, who play club soccer for Porto and Almeria, respectively. The key is whether Santiago Giménez can carry over his excellent club form to the national team. He scored 23 goals in 30 matches this season for Feyenoord in the Dutch Eredivisie, but he has only four goals in 27 caps for Mexico. He’s one of the better forwards in this tournament, and he’ll need to be at his best if Mexico has any chance of going deep.
Mexico is highly likely to advance to the knockout round given their weak group, but their struggles in and out of CONCACAF push them further down these rankings.
Player to watch: Santiago Giménez (Feyenoord)
8. Chile (Group A)
Scoring goals has been a major issue for Chile through its first six World Cup qualifying matches. Chile has averaged 1.24 xG per match but has scored just three goals thus far (0.5 per match). It’s still the no. 2 pick in Copa America’s Group A, behind Argentina, even though this version of Chile is nowhere near the peak golden generation of 2015 and 2016.
Chile won its first Copa América title on home soil in 2015, beating Argentina in a penalty shoot-out. La Roja followed that up with a repeat title in the Copa América Centenario in 2016, again taking down Argentina in a shoot-out. Alexis Sánchez is still one of the star men for Chile, even though he’s 35 and playing limited minutes at Inter Milan this season. Claudio Bravo, 41, is still in goal, and 34-year-old forward Eduardo Vargas remains one of the other key contributing goal scorers. In Darío Osorio, however, they do have an exciting young winger who can inject some pace into the team.
The Chileans played a highly competitive friendly with France that ended in a 3-2 loss and comfortably beat Albania and Paraguay in their other matches. La Roja may be far from one of the tournament favorites, but a second-place finish in Group A would very much leave them alive to make a semifinal run. None of the teams in Group B that they’d face in a quarterfinal are in top form right now.
Player to watch: Darío Osorio (Midtjylland)
9. Paraguay (Group D)
No stat better summarizes the current iteration of Paraguay than this one: Throughout its first six World Cup qualifying matches, four goals have been scored in total. Paraguay scored only one of those and conceded the other three. Its performances in recent friendlies haven’t been convincing, either. The team lost 3-0 to Chile and tied Peru 0-0. Paraguay finally nabbed a goal in its 1-0 friendly victory against Panama on Sunday, its final warm-up match before the tournament.
The overall lack of goal scoring is a bit surprising, given some of Paraguay’s attacking options. Miguel Almirón has found success in the Premier League at Newcastle, while Julio Enciso has impressed in limited minutes at Brighton. Torino’s Antonio Sanabria scored Paraguay’s only goal in qualifying, but he’s not on the Copa América roster.
Paraguay would have a good chance of getting out of any other group in this competition, but trying to escape from Group D will be difficult. La Albirroja will open the tournament against Colombia, then face Brazil and Costa Rica. Paraguay will be a solid favorite in that final match, but it’ll need to surprise one of the top contenders to have a chance of reaching the knockouts.
Player to watch: Julio Enciso (Brighton)
10. Venezuela (Group B)
Venezuela has started World Cup qualifying with impressive results—nine points from six matches have it fourth in the 10-team table. A look at the baseline expected goals metrics would suggest that it’s benefited from good fortune defensively, but we shouldn’t completely change what we think of Venezuela based on those six matches. xG isn’t the be-all, end-all soccer statistic, but it can be helpful to explain such a low-scoring sport. Venezuela has allowed 1.29 xG per match, or 7.74 total, the third worst in the confederation during qualifying. Yet it’s conceded only three actual goals.
The attack still runs through former Premier League striker Salomón Rondón, a target man at the top of the pitch. At 34, he doesn’t offer much out of possession, where Venezuela aims to deny access to the center of the pitch and force teams to rely on crossing. Given Venezuela’s solid aerial ability, the defense is at its best when teams are forced to swing balls in from wide into the penalty area.
All three of Venezuela’s expected starting center backs—Jhon Chancellor, Wilker Angel, and Yordan Osorio—have at least 29 caps for the national team and valuable experience playing together. The team has also had some young talent come through the pipeline, namely wing back Jon Aramburu. Based on their form, Venezuela is likely to be a trendy dark horse pick in an open Group B, but it still has a clear talent deficit against Ecuador and Mexico.
Player to watch: Salomón Rondón (Pachuca)
11. Canada (Group A)
Many American soccer fans thought that Jesse Marsch was destined to coach the USMNT one day. As of May, the Wisconsin native and former Bundesliga and Premier League manager is managing the Canadian national team. He’s signed on to do so through the 2026 World Cup, which Canada is joint host of.
Former manager John Herdman brought Canada to soaring heights in 2022, when the men’s team qualified for the World Cup for the second time (the last time was in 1986). He left the national team for an MLS job in 2023, and it has struggled mightily since its group stage exit in Qatar.
Marsch has been tested immediately in the new job, as the Canadians played away friendlies against the Netherlands and France to prepare for this tournament. Canada lost 4-0 against the Dutch because of a disastrous second half but then held France to a very respectable scoreless draw.
Marsch’s tactics are notorious for pressing intensity and quick, direct passing once the ball is won in midfield or the final third. This seems to suit the skill set of goal scorer Jonathan David, who is excellent at running in behind defenses. This season David also excelled under the more possession-based Paulo Fonseca at Lille, scoring 19 goals in Ligue 1. Alphonso Davies of Bayern Munich is the star midfielder and wing back for the national team and was recently named captain at just 23.
It’s unclear whether Marsch has had enough time on the training ground with this crew to implement his ideas and plans, making Canada an interesting unknown headed into this tournament. It’ll open against Argentina in the tournament’s first match on June 20.
Player to watch: Jonathan David (Lille)
12. Peru (Group A)
In the past two years, Peru’s stock has dropped more than that of any other nation in this competition. It lost a penalty shoot-out to Australia for the 32nd and final 2022 World Cup spot and has not won a competitive match since. Peru would have fancied its chances of qualifying for the expanded World Cup in 2026, but so far it’s scored only one goal in six qualifying matches. We’re now one-third of the way through the qualifying process, and Peru is dead last of the 10 CONMEBOL teams, with zero wins, two draws, and four defeats.
Losses to Argentina, Brazil, and an in-form Chile aren’t terrible, but Peru’s 2-0 defeat to Bolivia has raised alarm bells and led to changes. Juan Reynoso is out as manager, and the Uruguayan Jorge Fossati has been named as his successor. He’ll coach his first competitive match at Copa América. He has his work cut out for him: The Peruvians have created the fewest expected goals in attack during World Cup qualifying and allowed the second most defensively, so this isn’t a matter of variance. It’s played like the joint-worst team (sharing that honor with Bolivia) in CONMEBOL over the past 18 months.
Fossati has set up Peru in a back three/back five system defensively. The team relies almost exclusively on the wing backs to provide width, with the front two strikers often alternating between coming short and running in behind opposition defenses on the break. Most of the attack, along with the chance creation of 22-year-old playmaker Piero Quispe in the middle, will come through the wide areas.
The battle for second place behind Argentina in Group A will surely be highly competitive, but it’s tough to see Peru advance over Chile or even Canada without a significant turnaround in form.
Player to watch: Piero Quispe (UNAM)
Bet: Peru to finish last in Group A (+150)
13. Jamaica (Group B)
Two of Jamaica’s key players enter this tournament with major doubts about whether they can even play. Both wide forward Leon Bailey and goalkeeper Andre Blake are included in the squad, but Bailey insists he’s not playing in the tournament and wants to take a break from the national team. Blake, meanwhile, recently underwent meniscus surgery, and the Philadelphia Union, his club team, released a statement on May 28 saying he was expected to miss four to six weeks.
Jamaica still has Michail Antonio, Ethan Pinnock, and Bobby Decordova-Reid, active Premier League talents; former Premier League forward Demarai Gray is also included in the squad. Jamaica has improved defensively in the past few years under Icelandic manager Heimir Hallgrimsson, which showed when the Reggae Boyz nearly blanked the United States in the March Nations League semifinal. The Americans scored a deflected stoppage time goal to level the match and won in extra time, but the improved organization under Hallgrimsson gives Jamaica a chance to outperform its talent levels.
Jamaica isn’t considered a top-four CONCACAF team, but the Reggae Boyz finished third in the Nations League by beating Canada in the quarterfinal and Panama in the third-place match.
Tactically, Jamaica uses a back three that morphs into a back five out of possession. Jamaica relies on Antonio’s skilled holdup play to get in behind. With Antonio up top and Bailey and Gray playing off him, Jamaica impressed at the Gold Cup last summer. Without Bailey and likely without Blake in goal, though, the Reggae Boyz seem destined to finish fourth in this group.
Player to watch: Michail Antonio (West Ham)
14. Panama (Group C)
Few teams in the world stand to benefit more from the expanded World Cup field than Panama. It made the World Cup for the first time in 2018—essentially in place of the United States, which shockingly failed to qualify—but lost all three matches with a minus-9 goal difference. CONCACAF expanded from 3.5 to six full bids, which means Panama will likely qualify for the World Cup in 2026. This tournament is a chance for the team to prove it belongs.
Panama made a run to the Gold Cup final in 2023, beating the United States B team in a penalty shootout in the semifinal before losing 1-0 to Mexico in the final. Panama also thrashed Costa Rica 6-1 on aggregate over two legs to book its spot in the Nations League semifinal this March.
The team is still a tier below the top squads in CONCACAF and at least two tiers below the major CONMEBOL powers, but the United States and Uruguay cannot overlook Panama as a tricky match in this group.
Player to watch: Aníbal Godoy (Nashville)
15. Bolivia (Group C)
Bolivia has sat at the bottom of South American soccer for multiple cycles. It failed to get a single point in 10 matches across the last three Copa Américas in 2016, 2019, and 2021. Bolivia also finished ninth in the 10-team CONMEBOL qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup.
Bolivia did beat Peru 2-0 in its home stadium in La Paz (with an elevation of 12,000 feet) during this qualifying cycle, but it’s had almost no success playing away from home. Through the first six matches of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, Bolivia has the worst xG difference, at minus-0.92 per match. It did keep 59 percent of the ball and managed 10 shots in a recent 1-0 friendly defeat to Mexico on May 31. But none of the players on its Copa América roster have more than seven goals scored in their international careers.
Bolivia will open with the United States and then play Group C favorite Uruguay, which likely means its final group match against Panama will be for nothing but pride. Third place isn’t out of the question, but Bolivia is the fourth-best team in this group.
Player to watch: Luis Haquin (Ponte Preta)
Bet: Bolivia to finish last in Group C (-120)
16. Costa Rica (Group D)
It’s easy to forget that Costa Rica is the last CONCACAF team to win a knockout match at the World Cup. Los Ticos beat Greece in the round of 16 in 2014 and nearly made the semifinal, but they lost to the Netherlands in a penalty shootout. Costa Rica consistently competed at or near the top of the confederation throughout most of the 2010s, but with this version of the team, that is no longer the case.
Placed into the most challenging group—with Brazil, Colombia, and Paraguay—Costa Rica will need multiple surprise upsets to advance to the knockouts.
Costa Rica will always have those two minutes at the 2022 World Cup in which it led Germany during the last game of group matches and was about to make it out of their group in Qatar, but no team at that World Cup conceded more expected goals (10.1 in just three matches) than Costa Rica. It’s up for debate whether Los Ticos are indeed the worst team in this field, but escaping their Copa group is near impossible.
There are some names to know for Los Ticos, as PSG goalkeeper Keylor Navas is expected in goal, legendary goal scorer Joel Campbell remains in the squad, and striker Manfred Ugalde has found success playing for Spartak Moscow in Russia.
Given the recent struggles of CONCACAF teams when facing nations outside the confederation, Costa Rica claims the last spot in the power rankings.
Player to watch: Manfred Ugalde (Spartak Moscow)