The latest edition of the FIFA world rankings was released yesterday and has a new team at the top. The Netherlands moved in front of the team they fell to in the World Cup final, Spain, to take the top spot for the first time in history. Germany remained third while England moved up two spots to fourth and Brazil fell two spots to sixth. Uruguay stayed steady at fifth and Italy and Portugal swapped seventh and eighth while Argentina and Croatia traded places at ninth and 10th.
Mexico is 20th to lead CONCACAF with the USA moving up two spots to 28th. In Asia, Japan and Australia each moved up one spot, to 15th and 22nd respectively, and South Korea fell back five to 33rd. The Chinese continued its recent resurgence in the rankings, climbing five spots to 69th and were featured by FIFA. Ivory Coast leads the African teams, tied with Japan at 15, with Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria at 34th, 36th and 38th respectively. Finally in Oceania, New Zealand is still 94th and Fiji a ways back at 141st, but did rise 15 places.
Two friendly also took place yesterday, one in Asia and one in the Caribbean. In Thailand, the national side took on Singapore. The two sides fought out a 0-0 draw in a game where each side had chances to take the lead. Group A's Singapore is prepping for its opening qualifying match at China while group D's Thailand prepares for its qualifying match at Australia. Highlights below, Thailand are in yellow and Singapore in red.
India wrapped up its Caribbean tour with a 2-1 defeat at Guyana. Vurlon Mills and Walter Moore were the two scorers for Guyana, a group B side for the second round of CONCACAF qualifying. Guyana hosts Barbados in its opening group match on Sept. 2nd.
More friendlies are scheduled over the next few days. Later today, U.A.E. hosts Qatar. Tomorrow Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines play the first of two friendlies while in Asia, Bahrain hosts Sudan and Iraq hosts an Ugandan under-23 side.
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