Top 10 nations that should have a better women's team

If these nations, along with many others, take note from Japan that putting money into their women's teams can actually produce a World Cup victory. It may not happen in 2015, but if these nations up their spending to develop their women's team, results will follow.

 

It's interesting to see which countries have teams ranked in the top 10 in both the Men's and Women's rankings.

Germany is #2 in both lists.
England is #6 in the men's and #8 in the women's ranking.
And Italy is #5 in the men's and #10 in the women's ranking.

 

?
MWC 1958
and
WWC 2003
We did it before Brazil they didn't have their women in a World Cup Final until 2007

 

You can Spain and Belgium because knowing their youth team they will be european and world recognize strenght soon very soon ...... Belgium because of Cayman , Aga ,Biesmans and above all Tessa Wullaert remember the name!....and Spain because from what they showed in the last euro u19 , the female version of the tiki~taka , I consider them as good as France or Germany in 2~3 years.
The only nation who MUST increase is women football because is a top nation on the men's side is Argentina , the rest African nations and East european nations are not so strong on the men's side and they are not the most "culturally" advanced to promote female football.....

 

It is a certainty unless women’s football (soccer) in Europe regress or stagnates there are no chance that Sweden can keep up with the big countries in the long run. With a fifth of the population worse weather and longer distances it is just a question of how long we can keep up (I give it decade or in best case two). After that we should be able to keep up at a level just behind the big five but we can’t really compete with them when they got their programs and leagues fully on track.

 

I'm not sure why anyone would expect Uruguay to be all that good. It is a quite small country without significant resources. The recent success of their men's team looks more like an aberration than something enduring. Before the most recent men's World Cup, they had won only one match in the previous nine competitions, and failed even to qualify for about half of those.

Spain has to be pretty near the top of any list, because their women have achieved the least of any of the big six European football nations (in which I also include England, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands), while the men dominate the world.

South Korea have become very solid performers in men's competitions. While they have teased us with age group success in women's play, they still haven't made a real mark in senior competitions.

Turkey and Greece are so woeful in women's football that they have to be on the list.

Next to Argentina, Paraguay stand out as a CONMEBOL disappointment. They are consistent World Cup qualifiers on the men's side while they have never even reached the semifinals of the CONMEBOL women's championship.

1. Spain
2. South Korea
3. Argentina
4. Turkey
5. Belgium
6. Netherlands
7. Greece
8. Mexico
9. Paraguay
10. Ecuador
11. Portugal

ETA. I just realized that I really should have put Portugal in here somewhere, too. So my list goes to 11!

 

I think Russia deserves some honorable mention. They have a huge population, have a history of supporting women's sport, the men's side is in the top 10, but the women's side is ranked 20 and hasn't qualified for the WWC since 2003. They really should do better.

 

But even before the last MWC they had won it Twice! that is more than England, and by custom and curtesy every country that ever won the MWC in Soccer is considered as potentially great and should only be replaced by team with actuall achivments.
So while more than half the conutries on the list have good reasons to be on it before Uruguy and three (Tureky, Greece and Belgium) have some reason to be on it before Uruguay why is Paraguay and Ecuador on it and not Uruguay?

 

Because on the men's side Ecuador are much better now that they were in the distant past. Both of the competitions they qualified for were among the last three. The one that they missed, in 2010, they were the best finisher in the South American group not to qualify, trailing Uruguay by just a point. In the current qualification (for 2014) they are comfortably in second place. They have reached a new plateau of achievement, and their consistency leads me to believe that they will be able to stay there.

Uruguay, on the other hand, had a magical run in 2010 and 2011, but there is good reason to think that they can't maintain that level. They are barely hanging on to the last qualifying slot from CONMEBOL right now.

So I think the overall football potential of Ecuador is as good as or slightly better than Uruguay's.

In any case, it's not that I expect a great deal Ecuador's women, just something more than what they have achieved. I would at least expect them to have reached the semifinals of one of the last three South American championships, a mark that even Uruguay reached.

 

In reference to your first paragraph ... you are too funny

In reference to the second, it is because 1. over the last decade and a half Ecuador and especially Paraguay have been good somewhat more consistently that Uruguay on the men's side, and 2. I attribute Uruguay's relative unreliability to a fundamental factor that will also affect the women's side, which is that the population pool is too small for sustained excellence at the international level.

 

Sorry, but outside of Brazil's and Argentina's rather recent WC timeline, Uruguay are easily one of South Americas best footballing nations.

Their continental list of achievements, their global achievements, and considering their elite player production with such a tiny population, you have to acknowledge the fact that Uruguay demonstrate all the significant qualities that come together to make an unlikely elite footballing nation, a great footballing nation, don't you..?

I mean, can you imagine a similar nations like Wales being UEFA's most decorated national team within their Euro championships, or T&T being remotely competitive on any global level if the game, lol.

 

Personally I thought the growth of the female game within South America would have been boosted by the rise of the '04 to '07/'08 Brazilian teams, but cultural factors have seriously stunted the evolution of that region, to the point now where they look to be another two decades from realistic recovery.

So factoring the only two regions with serious potential for growth, my tip for a WNT side to next best reflect the relative strength of their men would be the South Korean's, as they have all the early signs of a France like break through come 2015.

On the U-17/19 levels, with the increased involvement of strong male clubs, a few nations like Spain have the potential to create strong WNT's by 2019, but seeing Spain as anybody's #1 in here is rather unfair too, when their men have been relentless underachievers for a lot longer than they have been pre-eminent winners.

 

shouldn't china be on the list somewhere? especially considering their history in the women's game? their current rank of 17 is way below their own top shelf accomplishments.

 

No, China women have had support and performing above their men. Now when the rest of the Worlds (or at least significant parts of it) starts to give support to Women Soccer China WNT is on it's way down to the position their mens team have and there are no real reason to belive that developmnet will stop.

 

however, if we use some of the same arguments other posters have used:
huge population.
history of supporting women's sport.
and add to that the advantage they had as early leaders in the game.
it can be argued that all they had to do was keep up their support (which they have not) and they would have a top team still - unlike norway and sweden where demographics are against them.

 

But no soccer culture and history and that tend to count for much more than puolation when it comes to Soccer result.
Given enough support the WNT will raise to the same level internationally as their MNT (but above the countries that are not supporting their women) China MNT is currently ranked 88.

So yes China have the future before them, but I doubt their WNT will raise to prominece again before their MNT do rank at least in the top 20, that will probably happen but then we are talking long timenot anyware in the short or mid term future.

 

And I'd make another observation: even if the title of the thread can be a little misleading about that, I guess that the spirit of it was, give or take, "nations-who-should-have-a-better-women's-team-BECAUSE-THEY-ACTUALLY-NEVER-HAD-IT". I guess it was all about nations that never ever had a WNT up to what could be reasonably expected.
Or, if we'd take the sentence literally, we could maybe argue that other WNTs, who had ups and downs in their history, "should have a better team" right now, for some reason. And i don't think comparison with MNT should be the only factor (although it tells a lot about football culture for sure).

Anyway, I guess the thread keeps being more interesting if we wonder "where the heck Russia is on the women's football map right now?" or "Why Argentina was never competitive at the female level", than if we start asking "Why England was never really a tier-1 team?" or "Will ever Norway get back to its old standards?"
So I guess China doesn't belong to this debate, because it's not like it was always deceiving; it was one of the "big teams" in the past, instead. So it's not really in the "original spirit" of the thread (if I got it right , but here I have to ask WPS_Movement, who started it ).
And don't get me wrong: I guess the decline of China WNT is a really interesting topic indeed! It's only I don't think it belongs here: it deserves its own thread (or some other thread about Asian women's football).

 

Why aren't Italy, Spain, and Argentina highly ranked on their women's sides? Easy answer... those countries are sexist.