New FIFA World Rankings

[Polaroid]

After winning their first World Cup two years after winning the 2008 European Championship, it was no surprise to see that Spain usurped Brazil to take the #1 spot in the latest FIFA World Rankings which were released Wednesday. Brazil were the previous holders of the top spot and they fall to #3 following their South African exit at the hands of the Netherlands who also slip past them to claim the #2 slot.

England didn't have the best World Cup experience but still managed to climb one place to #7. Italy and France, both finalists in the 2006 World Cup, had even worse experiences and fell to #11 and #21 respectively. Portugal, after being knocked out by eventual winners Spain, slip 5 places to #8. And Egypt are at #9. Yes - Egypt, who have only been to the World Cup twice and have never won a single game, are the ninth best team in the world.

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[durito]

Egypt looks like they are 9th from here. How is that possible?

[Bread]

Apparently they are so good, they overtook Chile since Polaroid posted this piece!!!

[tullamore]

Egypt is currently the African champs.

That counts in the ranking I think.

[Daft]

Polaroid do you have a link? Just curious about the article.

[Polaroid]

How is that possible?

Ever considered that I'm unable to read a simple table?

[Polaroid]

Polaroid do you have a link? Just curious about the article.

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ra...llranking.html

[Daft]

Thanks

You go Uruaguey!

Paraguey too!

[durito]

Ever considered that I'm unable to read a simple table?

Sure, I was more referring to how someone can be 9th when they didn't even play in the world cup.

[kato]

fuck egypt

[Daft]

In fairness to Egypt, there were some food teams that didn't qualify for the WC Finals

[RogueJuror]

what's a food team daffy

kato, lol


chilly soccer i miss dundy

[Polaroid]

Sure, I was more referring to how someone can be 9th when they didn't even play in the world cup.

The oddity of the FIFA rankings often brings up oddities like this (it wasn't so long ago that the USA were the 4th rated side in the world).

The rankings are determined from head to head fixtures between teams with one variable being the strength of the side (i.e. their ranking rather than the strength of the side that particular day) and the type of competition (with friendlies having the lowest rank and world cup finals the highest). So beating Brazil in the 3rd game of the first round of the World Cup in a meaningless game when Brazil have already qualified in 1st place still ranks the same as knocking them out later in the tournament.

Anyway, with Egypt - the rankings take into account the last 4 years of competition and although they haven't been in the World Cup Finals, they have won the Africa Cup of Nations in both 2006 and 2010.

[Polaroid]

what's a food team daffy

http://gamelive.com/forum/showthread...wins-this-easy

[fiveteamer]

Holy shit did Canada drop 37 spots?

[Acid Joe]

Egypt looks like they are 9th from here. How is that possible?

Gay bread had a hand in this....../

[esssam]

The oddity of the FIFA rankings often brings up oddities like this (it wasn't so long ago that the USA were the 4th rated side in the world).

The rankings are determined from head to head fixtures between teams with one variable being the strength of the side (i.e. their ranking rather than the strength of the side that particular day) and the type of competition (with friendlies having the lowest rank and world cup finals the highest). So beating Brazil in the 3rd game of the first round of the World Cup in a meaningless game when Brazil have already qualified in 1st place still ranks the same as knocking them out later in the tournament.

Anyway, with Egypt - the rankings take into account the last 4 years of competition and although they haven't been in the World Cup Finals, they have won the Africa Cup of Nations in both 2006 and 2010.

You forgot that Egypt have actually won the african cup the last 3 times in a row (2006 2008 2010) beating teams that went to the world cup like algeria 4-0, cameroon 4-2, nigeria 3-1, and ghana 1-0 along the way. Also, since ghana did great in the world cup and egypt beat it in the 2010 CAF final we got even more points. So yeah, we deserve to be 9th, not to mention that we beat Italy in the last confederation cup and brazil barely won against us 4-3 by a penalty in the last minutes.

[Bread]

You tell him Essam!