The Germans gain 24 points because the friendly draw against Italy (9 Feb 2011) will drop from the most recent time frame and the defeat against Norway (11 Feb 2009) will drop to the oldest time frame.
The Dutch lose 6 points mainly because their extraordinary 2010 results will be divided by 18 instead of 17, because the friendly win against Austria (9 Feb 2011) will drop to that interval.
Uruguay will also close in on the Dutch and will be only 42 points behind in February (14 points closer than in the January ranking).
Here's the February 2012 top 20 - only African teams could change it.
| 1 | Spain | 1566 |
| 2 | Germany | 1369 |
| 3 | Netherlands | 1359 |
| 4 | Uruguay | 1317 |
| 5 | England | 1179 |
| 6 | Portugal | 1155 |
| 7 | Brazil | 1152 |
| 8 | Italy | 1115 |
| 9 | Croatia | 1101 |
| 10 | Denmark | 1090 |
| 11 | Argentina | 1081 |
| 12 | Chile | 996 |
| 13 | Russia | 989 |
| 14 | Greece | 979 |
| 15 | Sweden | 951 |
| 16 | Switzerland | 950 |
| 17 | France | 930 |
| 18 | Bosnia-Herzegovina | 920 |
| 19 | Republic of Ireland | 893 |
| 20 | Côte d'Ivoire | 888 |
I must say I'm honoured and pleasantly suprised to be quoted in this way. I didn't expect a full article on Edgars blog. As I said, it's a bit of a shock for some of the Dutch, although most people expected this already after the 3-0 thrashing in November. It's up to the Dutch to regain 2nd spot and maybe even challenge for 1st again with the European Championships in June glooming on the horizon.
ReplyDeleteBut to be honest I think Holland will have problems to stay in the top 5 after EURO12.
I see the Mexicans whining about their ranking every time the new ranking is released on FIFA's site. I guess there'll be more whining next month too with Mexico still out of the top 20. But I am curious though, if you took away their Copa America, where would they be ranked?
ReplyDelete@Lorric
ReplyDeleteWithout their 'C-performance' in the Copa America last year Mexico would have had around 979 pts in february, so ex aequo with Greece on 14th.
Thanks Ed!
ReplyDeleteYes, thanks Ed!
ReplyDelete