Argentina’s victory in Germany does not score in rankings
ZURICH: World Cup finalists Germany and Argentina have slightly extended their lead over the chasing pack and remain unchallenged at the top of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
Germany remain top despite their home defeat by Argentina, beaten finalists in Brazil.
They are followed in third position by Colombia, who have swapped places with Holland. The Oranje have paid dearly for their 2-1 defeat at the hands of Czech Republic in their opening qualifying match for Euro 2016.
For their part, Colombia have equalled their highest-ever position, the Cafeteros having previously achieved third in July and August 2013.
In the top 10, meanwhile, Brazil (sixth, up one) and France (ninth, up one) have gained ground, while Uruguay (seventh, down one), Spain (eighth, down one) and Switzerland (10th, down one) have each dropped a place.
However, this month’s biggest winners are Guatemala, whose three wins in four matches in the qualifiers for the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2015 have seen the team led by coach Victor Monzon leap by 77 places to 57th in the table.
The win against World Cup participants Honduras yielded many of those points. With Iceland (34th, up 12), Congo (48th, up 30) and Antigua and Barbuda (80th, up 69), September 2014 saw three teams reaching their highest-ever position since the world ranking was introduced in 1993.
Of the 141 international A matches taken into account for this month’s ranking, over half of them (80) were continental qualifiers in Europe, Africa and CONCACAF, the other 61 fixtures being friendlies.
This takes the total number of international “A” matches played in 2014 so far to 526.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 23 October 2014.
Summary
Leader Germany (unchanged)
Moves into top ten none
Moves out of top ten none
Matches played 141
Most matches Guatemala (6 matches)
Biggest move by points Guatemala (up 331 points)
Biggest move by ranks Guatemala (up 77 ranks)
Biggest drop by points Venezuela (down 248 points)
Biggest drop by ranks Togo (down 38 ranks)
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