It's hard to believe that the Socceroos would suddenly leap 13 spots in the FIFA world rankings, but they've done that on the back of their World Cup qualifying campaign. Yes, they're now ranked No.16. Even if it is just for this month, this is a tremendous outcome. I'm sure it's raised a few eyebrows in Europe and South America.
You can just see the eyeballs popping out of the Uruguayans and Portuguese fans as they open the sports sections. like, "What? Australia are ahead of our guys?"
Watch out for falling Uruguayans.
I love it when the rest of the world underestimate how insane we are about our sport. I hate soccer intensely and I still follow it. That just shows you how nutso we are here. Anyway... here's the ranking down to 20, and then some other nations of interest.
1. Brazil (+4)
2. Spain (-1)
3. Netherlands (-1)
4. Italy (0)
5. Germany (-2)
6. Russia (+3)
7. England (-1)
8. Argentina (-1)
9. France (+1)
10. Croatia (-2)
11. Greece (+6)
12. USA (+2)
13. Switzerland (+3)
14. Serbia (+6)
15. Denmark (+9)
16. Australia (+13)
17. Portugal (-6)
18. Cote d'Ivoire (+20)
19. Ukraine (0)
20. Uruguay (-3)
Selected
28. Turkey (-16)
30. Gabon (+18)
33. Mexico (-7)
37. Ireland (-3)
38. Egypt (+2)
40. Japan (-9)
48. South Korea (-2)
100. New Zealand (-18)
I don't know if it kills Japan to drop 9 places to 40, or South Korea to drop 2 and still be 8 behind of Japan. :)
God only knows how they come up with these rankings. It must be a combination of how they scored and gave up goals versus a weighted comparison of competition faced. Still, placing 16th in this context is a huge breakthrough for soccer in Australia. It means that these players can finally make their home country understand just what it is that they do that is so damned important for Australia. We can cue the band-wagon fans to jump aboard about now.
100 for NZ seems like a nice round number, and thanklessly, they've dropped 18 places even though they came top in Oceania. How a nation can win their zone and still drop 18 spots must drive the Kiwis mad - if only they valued it as highly as they value Rugby.That being said, the Oceania portion of the World Cup qualifications is like the boonie-town tour for football.
Remember those horror days for Australia? Well, now they're the top team in Asia. Weird.
The Socceroos are now ranked ahead of a host of nations with rich football histories, notably one place ahead of European powerhouses Portugal, who boast arguably the world's best player Cristiano Ronaldo.
They have also overtaken European big guns Czech Republic and Turkey, South American giants Paraguay and Uruguay, plus every team in Africa.
"We are delighted at this news," Football Federation Australia chief executive Ben Buckley said.
"Rankings are not the be all and end all of football but they are certainly an indicator of our progress.
"The more competitive games we play, the greater the opportunity to improve our position in the world rankings and the more match hardened the team becomes.
"This is a great reward for the Socceroos' form in the qualifying rounds for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
"Once again, we congratulate coach Pim Verbeek and the players for their efforts."
Australia's cause was helped by a string of impressive results in June in the final stages of their successful qualification campaign.
A scoreless draw with Qatar in Doha, which sealed their spot for South Africa 2010, was followed by wins against Bahrain and Japan in Australia.
Socceroos players spoke last month about their disappointment at the lack of credit they had been given for their emphatic qualification, but they will take solace in Wednesday's official FIFA recognition.
I dunno if that's so great. Australia as a baseball nation is actually ranked higher than No.16... :) Jokes aside, maybe it's the case that soccer has finally arrived in Australia when the Socceroos are considered in the company of Denmark and Portugal.
Be that as it may... I still hate soccer, but this is a very good day for Australian Soccer.
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