Re: Australia > France Thats how the rankings work. After the last world cup Guinea was a top ranked nation. A good run in a continental championship will get you more points than an average showing in the World Cup.
Re: Australia > France Yeah, but just think... if Egypt had the run of Ghana (who they've repeatedly pwned, so it's not that unreasonable) where would they be? They had no points to defend from WC2006 so it would be all win.
Re: Australia > France What do you mean with "points to defend"? I don't think you know how the ranking works. E.g. the world cup 2006 now doesn't play a role anymore for the points in July 2010, only the last 4 years count.
Re: Australia > France Exactly. The points from WC2006 drop off and are replaced with the points from the 2010 World Cup. Hence a team drops points if they do not perform as well as their last outing (i.e. 'defend' what they earned previously). e.g. France lost the benefit of their points from making the final in 2006, and as they did far worse this time their net points result was a big 'ole negative. The concept/terminology of 'defending' ranking points is common in tennis. I am not sure if it used much in football but it is basically the same thing, just that instead of working on the annual tennis calendar you are working on the quadrennial WC cycle.
But even if they had lost all matches during the world cup 2006, they would now still have the same number of points.
You're missing the point. 'Defending' points means protecting your overall points total as your old points expire (i.e. slip out of the 4 year time bracket). Hypothetically, say that pre-tournament France had 1,000 points with 500 of those coming from making the 2006 Final. In order to remain at 1,000 points, France needs another 500 from WC2010 to replace the ones from 2006 that they're going to lose (because after the 2010 tournament, as you note, they no longer count). It's a bit more complicated than that because of the weightings applied to the recentness of matches etc., but that's the basic concept. It may just be a difference in terminology that you're not used to. Like I said, it's a phrase you mainly hear in tennis.
Re: Australia > France HOW is Egypty number 9 in the world??!? It's because they won the African Cup?? Then WHY weren't they at the World Cup?? If they were good enough to win the African Cup they were good enough to qualify for the WC in Africa.
Re: Australia > France They had a brutal one off playoff against Algeria after finishing equal top in their group - the team that almost did the same to the USA at the WC. This is why the rankings don't only use WC results, good teams can miss out, other confeds don't have the cakewalk for their top teams that C-Caf and to a slightly lesser extent AFC give their top teams, but CAF, UEFA and C-Bol are brutal comparitively.
Re: Australia > France Asian Cup will be a good opportunity to claw back a few places. We should be backing ourselves to improve on last time's result.
Re: Australia > France With a few Euro Qualifiers (bigger points than our Friendlies) also happening we will drop places.
Re: Australia Rankings Australia dropped six spots to No.26. FIFA world top 20 1. Spain 2. Netherlands 3. Germany (+1) 4. Brazil (-1) 5. Argentina 6. England 7. Uruguay 8. Portugal 9. Egypt (+1) 10. Croatia (-1) 11. Greece 12. Norway 13. Russia 14. Italy 15. Chile (+1). 16. Ghana (-1). 17. Slovenia (-2). 18. United States (+6). 18. France (+3). 20. Slovakia (-2) --------- 26. Australia (-6) http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/australia-tumble-down-world-rankings-20101216-18yh9.html
Re: Australia Rankings http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/japan-the-new-no1-football-team-in-asia-20110203-1ae8d.html FIFA rankings 1. Spain (1). 2. Netherlands (2). 3. Germany (3). 4. Brazil (4). 5. Argentina (5). 6. England (6). 7. Uruguay (7). 8. Portugal (8). 9. Croatia (9). 10. Greece (11). 11. Norway (12). 12. Russia (13). 13. Italy (14). 14. Chile (15). 15. Ghana (16). 16. Slovenia (17). 17. Japan (29). 18. United States (18). 19. France (18). 20. Slovakia (20). 21. Australia (26)
I really don't know how we can be ranked 40th best squad in the world. C'mon, surely we deserve to be put up a couple hahaha. And how is Russia 20th!? Good job though.
Hahaha miscalculated fail . Oh of course, who doesn't root for Nigeria? Hahah No, Aussies all the way mate
Socceroos into world top 20 1. Spain (1). 2. Netherlands (2). 3. Brazil (5). 4. Germany (3). 5. Argentina (4). 6. England (6). 7. Uruguay (7). 8. Portugal (9). 9. Italy (11). 10. Croatia (8). 11. Norway (11). 12. Greece (10). 13. Japan (15). 14. Chile (14). 15. Ghana (16). 16. Serbia (20). 17. Slovenia (17). 18. Russia (13). 19. France (18). 20. Australia (21).
Italy goes up a few places?? Greece and Croatia must have really did poorly. I am amazed that the Italians are still in the top ten, frankly.
Does it really matter? Anyone, sorry, everyone, knows world rankings are a crock of shit. Norway at 11. Lollezz