RPI at the PQC

You may have noticed that the USA's Group B at the Peace Queen Cup is a tad bit more difficult than Group A, to say the least. The combined FIFA rankings for Group A equals 83 and the combined rankings of Group B is 30. That would have been different had North Korea not pulled out of the tournament (after doing the same in 2006) to be replaced by New Zealand. Had North Korea competed, that would have lowered Group A's combined FIFA ranking to 65. Give credit to the Kiwis for coming in as a last minute replacement and picking up a win over Argentina today, which apparently was New Zealand's first victory over Argentina in soccer at any level. The USA will head into the Olympics having played matches against eight of the top-15 teams in the world according to the FIFA rankings, including multiple games against Brazil, Norway, Italy, China and Canada.