national teams than us:

Canada
Iran
Turkey
Slovenia
Serbia
Senegal
Venezuela
Japan
Croatia

Though they aren't higher in the Elo rankings, maybe even Georgia and Slovakia are better squads too. We live in a fake fantasy-land of the seemingly impossible. Blows my mind.

It would be one thing if this was just an off down year, but the struggle is eternal. You could make a list like this every year. Player and coaching development are so poorly managed in this country.