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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

This Just In: Spain Is Good At Soccer

When you get down to it, what is the purpose of the monthly FIFA rankings? It has to be more than just to tease and remind U.S. soccer fans how far our team has to go before anybody really respects it. Sadly, that seems to be all I think about when I view the latest depressing rankings.

The top five is predictable: Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Uruguay and Brazil. 6-10 are more surprising: Italy, England, Greece and Portugal are tied for eighth, Argentina and Denmark are tied for tenth. The Greeks and Danes were propelled by winning their group stages in Euro 2012 qualifying.

Mexico is the top CONCACAF squad at No. 22 while the U.S. slots in at 34. Ugh terrible but totally deserved. Former U.S. head coach Bob Bradley and his new team Egypt are up seven places to No. 29.

Japan leads all Asian countries (17) while Ivory Coast is the top African squad (19).

Other notable teams include Montenegro (39), who reached the Euro 2012 playoffs, and Estonia (59) which is the lowest ranked of the eight playoff teams.

Wales won two Euro 2012 matches and had the biggest jump, 45 places up to No. 45. Iraq moved up to No. 91 (16 spots higher) after a win in World Cup qualifying over China. Qatar, the controversial 2022 World Cup host moved up to 92 while Oceania's best team-New Zealand-fell to No. 104 (dropping 16 spots) despite not playing last month.




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