Italy returns to top of monthy FIFA Rankings

FIFA, the governing body for international soccer, has released its official world rankings for September today, and unlike August's rankings, there was a lot of movement this month. As always, the top ten national teams are dominated by European teams with the exception of South American sides Argentina and Brazil. Here is how the top ten looks this month:

1. Italy (1488 points, up 2)
2. Argentina (1451 points, no change in points)
3. Brazil (1444 points, down 2)
4. Germany (1330, up 1)
5. Netherlands (1246, up 2)
6. France (1220, down 2)
7. Spain (1178, up 1)
8. Portugal (1169, up 2)
9. England (1165, up 3)
10. Croatia (1151, down 4)

The most interesting thing about the new rankings is the fact that the 2006 World Cup champions Italy has returned to the top from #3 which was their position in August. According to FIFA.com, Italy has played three matches since the August rankings were released. This included a 3-1 loss against Hungary in a friendly on August 22nd as well as two Euro 2008 qualifying matches against France and Ukraine on September 8th and 12th. even though a a big loss to Hungary may be an embarrassing defeat to a team like Italy, it does not affect them since it is only a friendly match, however, France (ranked 6) and Ukraine (ranked 17) are both top 20 teams so a tie or a win would still be a good result for the Italians, especially since continental qualifiers are worth much more than a friendly. (check out this article for more info). Brazil slipping down two spots to number 3 is also an unexpected result. Winning three friendlies in a row since the August rankings (2-0 vs Angola, 4-2 vs the United States,and 3-1 vs Mexico) was apparently not enough for the Brazilians to top the Italians being that Brazil does not have any major competitions scheduled while Italins are currently competing for a spot in next summer's Euro 2008. This is expected to change however as the Brazilians open their South American 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign against Colombia on October 13th.

As discussed in an earlier post in this blog, Croatia is beating England in the standings in its quest to qualifying for next summer's Euro Cup, but this has not remained true for the world rankings as you can see from the top ten. England has faced much tougher opponents since the last edition of the rankings were released (a 2-1 freidnly loss against Germany, a 3-0 win against Israel for Euro qualifying, and another Euro qualifying match against Russia which also ended in a 3-0 win for England). All three of England's recent opponents are ranked in the top 35). Croatia, on the other won their last three matches against weaker teams. This included a 5-3 win against 39 ranked Balkan rival Bosnia and Herzegovina (a team that has went down 14 spots in this edition of the rankings due to some major failures in Euro Cup qualifying) as well as 2-0 win against 127th ranked Estonia in Euro qualifying and a 6-0 win against 169 ranked Andorra also in Euro qualifying. Since England and Croatia are only 14 points apart in the rankings, this can easily change as Croatia completes their last three matches in Euro 2008 qualifying: a home match against Israel on October 17th and an away match against Macedonia on November 17th, culminating in a much anticipated match in London's Wembley Stadium on November 21st between these two European rivals.

When analyzing FIFA's rankings, it is also important to look at each continental zone seperately :

Africa: The sport of soccer on this continent is growing as South Africa prepares to host the 2010 World Cup. The South African national team itself is ranked 15th in Africa and 73rd in the world but has failed to make any big effect on the rankings going down 12 spots and losing a qualifying match for the African Cup of Nations 3-1 against Zambia (ranked 61st in the world). The best African team, according to this month's rankings, is Nigeria. Even though Africa is one of the most overlooked confederations in the world of soccer, the world looks to its teams as it becomes home to the next world cup.

North America, Central America, and the Carribean: The biggest rivarly in this continetal zone is between 18th ranked United States (a team with a lot of potential that could quite a bit of damage in major competitions) and Mexico who is currently the best team in the confederation. Another team to look at in this confederation is the Canadian national team which has made several leaps in the rankings since the 2007 Gold Cup that took place in June and caused Canada to become the best mover in the rankings as it went up 38 spots in June's rankings. Canada is currently ranked 3 in the confederation and #54 in the world. As a result, Canada's national team is defintely strong enough to do some major damage in this confederation World Cup qualifying competition which starst later this month.

South America: This 10 team confederation is the second strongest in the world after Europe with two teams (#2 Argentina and #3 Brazil) in the top 5. These two teams make up one of the fiercest rivalries in the sport. While Brazil (discussed earlier in the post) has went down in this month's rankings, Argentina has remained in the same spot due to mediocre scores against Australia (1-0 win) and a 2-1 loss to Norway. This is most likely due to very little competiton goign on in this confederation which will change as World Cup qualifying starts in South America. While Brazil plays Colombia in Bogota in its qualifying opener, Argentina will play Chile at home.

Oceania: The weakest of all of the continental zones, Oceania is made up of 11 nations which are all ranked between 119 and 200. However, this confederation has shown quite a bit of movement this month after the conclusion of the South Pacific Games Soccer tournament which serve as a preliminary competition to its official World Cup qualifying tournament in which only four teams compete (the top three finishers in the South Pacific games as well as New Zealand). However, New Zealand, who has been the most dominate since Australia moved to the Asian confederation following the 2006 World Cup, has suprinsingly lost its number one spot to Fiji (previously #5) and is currently number 6 behind Fiji, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and Samoa. All of these countries except for Samoa will compete alongside New Zealand for a chance to qualify for the World Cup. Oceania is not gauranteed a spot in the World Cup and could lose it to an Asian team.

Asia: The Iraqi national team has proven that they should not be taken lightly after defeating fellow Middle Eastern nation Saudi Arabia 1-0 to win its first Asia Cup title this summer. However, this was not enough for the Iraqis to make a fast break to the top of Asia's rankings and is currently #7 in Asia (65 in the world). Iraq's recent success means very little since their likelihood in qualifying for the World Cup is very low due to low player morale and the fact that many Iraqis fans are afraid to celebrate after an incident where a suidice bomber killed several fans who were watching Iraq beat South Korea in the semifinal match that qualified them for the final. More regarding this incident and the Asia Cup final can be read in this article from msnbc.com. Iraq has not played a match since the Asia Cup final and does not yet have any scheduled for the future making this a sad end to such a triumphant victory. Below is a youtube video of Iraq's winning goal against Saudi Arabia:



Japan (ranked 34 in the world) currently tops the rankings in Asia after a 4-3 win over Switzerland on September 11th. The Australian national team (ranked 3 in the zone and 48 internationally), which has been a member of the Asian Conederation for a little over a year, has accliamted rather quckly in its new continental zone.

Europe: With European teams being the most dominant and Euro 2008 qualifiers in full swing, member nations of this continental zone have shown the most movement. UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) have also proven that they are the most competetive continental zone in world soccer as well as the strongest. While Italy is obviously the current leader in Europe, teams like Germany, Netherlands, France, and Spain have also proven to be strong teams. As a matter of fact, it is Germany that can currently boast best record in Euro 2008 qualifying so far. The newest member of UEFA is Montenegro, which is probably one of the youngest national teams in the world right now being that its soccer federation was established about a year ago, has finally acquired some points in this month's ranking after playing fellow Balkan nation Slovenia to a 1-1 draw as well as a 2-1 loss to Sweden. These results were obviosuly not enough to catapult Montenegro to a much higher position, but these matches were still significant because they gave the young Montenegrin players their first goals since their federation was established following last year's independence from their union with Serbia. In August's ranking, Montenegro was ranked last in Europe with no points at all. This month they aqcuired 21 points putting them passed Faroe Islands (ranked 193 in the world) and San Marino (ranked 196) to #186.

For complete rankings and other information regarding FIFA's offical world ranking including ranking procedure, click here.