Cuz they’re a hermit state that doesn’t keep busy with much of anything. The quality of the women’s game is improving due to club investment. They can’t compete on that level because their players can’t leave for those leagues. The public doesn’t even have access to the FIFA rankings table. So from a propaganda perspective, it’s better to live on past glories than it is to play and show progressively worse results against the bigger teams.
Once again, you've shown you don't understand at all how these rankings work. It's just equations with a very predictable schedule. Japan has only played friendlies since the WWC. Friendlies generally don't move the rankings much in the first place. (Despite what you seem to think in other threads concerning teams like Spain.) So yes, Japan beat Canada, but that wouldn't have been worth much more than 10pts to begin with, and then they put on a fairly weak performance against RSA, which would have cost them points. Both of those friendlies were at home, too, so that makes it harder for Japan to earn points and easier for them to lose points. England fell by a whopping 21 points, which is impressive with no official competition being had, PLUS those results you mention were already factored in to the previous ranking release. The results that have happened since are home losses to BRA and GER and away wins to POR and CZE. DPK's inactivity is not what caused them to drop from the top 10. Ratings don't "decay". The only reason they've "dropped" is because other teams around them actually improved their rating. (And the Cyprus Cup results are oooold - they've already been factored in to previous ranking releases.)
Looking a bit further around the rankings, you can really see the shake-up happening in Africa: both NGA and CMR lost three spots in the ranking, and GHA lose ten spots, while CTI gained six spots and CON and KEN gained ten spots each. Granted, some of those gains came from teams dropping out of the rankings, but it's still quite impressive. You can also see KSV's gains and TUR's losses sticking out in UEFA, as well as TRI's crash versus SKN's rise in CONCACAF.
In terms of CAF nations, Senegal & Burkina Faso should return to the rankings in June as long as they participate in the African Cup of Nations qualifiers in April. Others not currently ranked but scheduled in the qualifiers in April are: Gabon, Central African Rep., Sao Tome E. P., Burundi, Djibouti, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Togo & Niger.
I understand the ranking system, I'm just sayin; I personally don't believe in them. I'm obviously not the world's greatest expert on woso, but my pre WC prediction was that the Dutch were going to make it into the final despite at the time they were only ranked #8 by FIFA.& have a rather weak, domestic league(you made a big deal of this on that other threat) Despite not looking that sharp for the year, there were various other reasons to pick the Dutch finalists; 1) their coach implantments very rigorous/extreme training/conditioning programs just prior to a major tournament 2) the so called superstars it had; FIFA's 2017 poy, Lieke Martens/the potential of having the world's best player in Miedema/perhaps the speediest in van de Sanden/excellent 'free kick' specialist in Spitse/strong enough play making skills from both DVD & Groenen/and for the rest as well; a nice balance of technical/physical & athletic players 3) they went into the tourney without major injuries(though Martens broken toe doomed them in the end) 4) what they understood what the French men understood in 2019, as well as Jill Ellis understood(add pre-WC, #9 Sweden); right now what works best in both mens & womens is fast transition. As compared to previous soccer tactics like 2010's tiki taka or Jorgie Low's retro, total futbol concept of 2014 so again, if you feel FIFA ratings are the way to show who are the top teams in the world, then more power to you, I prefer by how well they do in the World Cup(in this case that got Holland & Sweden completely wrong) and of course the US will stay at #1, but what's hidden by FIFA's ranking, is the main reason why the US stays on top in woso...........the little thingy called TITLE IX
It's fine if you don't believe them, but then don't say because every single one of those three situations is worded as if you don't know which matches are or aren't causing the differences between this release and the previous one, or know how timing and weighting work in general. If you understand how the FIFA rankings work, you wouldn't make those kinds of statements.
I think it's important to remember that your having predicted the Dutch would make the final does not mean you're good at ranking teams or the FIFA system isn't. Any more than the FIFA system having the USA at #1 and the USA winning the WCC means that the FIFA system is good at ranking teams. These are too small data sets from which to draw conclusions about how good you or FIFA is at ranking teams. (Arguing from one data point is a good example of the apparently built-in tendency of people to fall victim to the false "Law of Small Numbers," which is a very hard tendency too overcome. The Law of Small Numbers being that any data set, no matter how small, is a good one from which to draw conclusions.)
right your are, now N Korea even pulls out of qualifying for the Olympics. Woso is one of the few sports they were good at, as they won the 2016 u20 World Cup(so their future should of been bright) N. Korea to skip women's Olympic football qualifying tournament in S. Korea: source - The Korea Herald
Standard operating procedure for totalitarian states is to chase medals/achievement in sports that are “low hanging fruit”. Maximum achievement for minimum cost. WoSo was one of those things 25 years ago when it was basically USA, GER, NOR, SWE and a handful of 2nd tier teams. Now we have ITA, ESP joining rising NED, ENG, FRA. Canada and Australia improving but basically treading water because almost everyone is improving. Brazil lingering, but countries like Chile and Argentina improving. Japan making enormous strides. Time was a huge advantage earlier. Assemble 40 of your best female athletes, feed and shelter them and toss them on a muddy pitch for hours at a time together. Make that their job while a gifted player in France has to hold down a full time job and play on the side. You’d have a reasonable expectation of placing fairly well internationally if you only gave the women time and nothing else. You need technical resources that extend beyond time today. So they’ll probably be moving on.
For those wondering, North Korea would need to be inactive for 18 months to be removed from the rankings.
new rankings out The FIFA Women's World Ranking - Ranking Table - FIFA.com France takes 3rd place over Netherlands/Japan falls out of top 10/Spain still can't seem to move up/one bright spot for poster, Lechus....Poland moves up two spots....to #28! But then with one of the world's best striker's & GK's, shouldn't they've moved up much higher?
Let's see.... Japan lost points, but not many, so I overestimated their change. Norway gained exactly one point, so I think I called that correctly. I got this, but I overestimated Spain's rise. They did gain 15 points, which is way larger than any other change in the top 30 save for Sweden and China, but still way less than I expected. Yes, but only 2pts Canada didn't drop any points overall, so their loss to the USA definitely wasn't that bad So I got NOR and CAN pretty spot-on, and got positioning correct for most others if not the extent of the points swings. = = = Elsewhere in the ratings, New Zealand taking a small slide further from the top 20, staying in 23rd but dropping a few points. South Korea and Scotland gained positions at the expense of other mid-tier UEFA sides. Thailand took a massive hit, dropping 24pts. Cameroon also took a massive hit, dropping 31pts, allowing Jamaica to gain a rank despite losing a point. Panama dropped a ton as well, but Haiti went up. = = = Not with their record. They haven't beat anyone above them in the rankings since last year's Algarve - which is only a friendly tournament - and have even lost to lower-ranked teams since then. Their only two games since the last release were pastings of minnows, which are worth nothing, even if you want to argue "power rankings". Also, two players do not a team make. And with all due respect to those two players for being on two of the strongest teams in Europe... They aren't *that* great. PSG leaks more goals than they should based on how strong the rest of the team is and how weak their league is overall - heck, Kiedrzynek has been supplanted by Endler this year. And as good a Pajor was in Germany's domestic league last season, she's never a top scorer in the UWCL and has been silent in the Bundesliga in previous years - last year was an anomaly, accounting for nearly half of her total domestic goal output.
I'll add a short observation about Italy: they basically didn't move, keeping their position with no great effort (gained 7 points, but remained at 14th place). If it's true that they had quite an impressive winning record in the last months, it's also true that the teams they have beaten in Euro qualifiers were tools (the highest ranked of them, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is sitting 45 positions behind Italy, and the worse one, Malta, is 101 places deeper!) and some of them even lost by the minimal margin. The two Algarve Cup's wins were against some better opposition, but Portugal and New Zealand were anyway massively under-ranked compared to Italy. tl;dr: Italy only won matches they were definitely expected to win.
Ewa Pajor in Bundesliga: 2015/16: 7 games, 1 goal 2016/17:12 games, 5 goals 2017/18: 15 games, 4 goals 2018/19:19 games, 24 goals 2019/20: 13 games, 13 goals Minutes played in games in 2015/16 season: 21,15,42,22,5,8,14 Minutes played in games in 2016/17 season: 33,4,59,18,45,15,50,90,79,90,90,90 The first one and a half year at Wolfsburg Pajor was only used as a substitute. It is not surprising that she scored less goals per game compared to the last two seasons. Scoring one goal per game in the last season is surely not an indication that her 2018/19 season was an anomaly. Considering that she was a young player at the start of her Bundesliga career (born December 1996) it is much more likely that she has increased the quality of her game in the last years. If someone is a top scorer in UWCL usually depends on how many minnows they play.
Points lost (albeit not many) during SBC were balanced by 2 games won at EAFF plus big win over Canada. Poland was ranked 33rd with 1636 points when Stępiński took the job over three years ago. At that time results 0-5 vs opponents like Sweden, Denmark, Italy or even Belgium were common. Today Poland is ranked 28th with 1683 points and showing steady growth. The team average age is only 23,7 but still Polish players already have some good results against higher ranked teams, even from top 10. Three years ago Polish FA finally did open the purse for woso in PL. Last year league reforms are starting to show some effects. Rising number of western clubs are now intrested in Polish players. PZPN (Polish FA) plans to double the money in their woso budget for next season with steady 10m rise for each 2-3 years Short term goal is to qualify for EURO21 either from 1st spot in the group (draw or win in Spain) or as one of three best runners-up (2 wins with Czechia).
Exactly. @SiberianThunderT @hotjam2 After Hansen went to Barcelona, Pajor was given bigger role in the team. She creates a lot more in this season, not relaying only on her striker abilites. She has 9 assists out of 13 games now (2nd after Dallmann with 10)
Okay, anomaly was maybe a bad word. But one goal per game from a striker on the top team in an imbalanced league still isn't exceptional; I'd say it's expected. But it is certainly better than maybe I insinuated in my previous post. Thing is, it hadn't stopped other Wolfsburg players from getting high up in the scoring charts, even accounting for that. Pajor has 6g in 11 matches over the past three seasons, which is good, but still behind other teammates even considering only similar matches. I'll admit I knocked her too much in my previous post, but I'm still not sold on hotjam's declaration of her being among "the world's best".
I puzzle at this being criteria. But then again, the USA only won matches they were definitely expected to win also, and they gained the same 7 points and didn’t move in the rankings either.
When was the last time North Korea played? If they go 18 months without a match, they'll be removed from the rankings. The current coronavirus isn't letting anyone play now.
Think it was 6 March 2019, the Cyprus Cup final when they beat Italy on penalties. Past 6 months their women's U19s and men's U23s have played in tournaments in Thailand. The seniors might be back in around April 2021 for the AFC Women's Asian Cup qualifying.
I don't think it was stated as a "criteria" and was more an explanation for growth rates. It's harder to gain points the more you're expected to beat someone; you only gain lots of points for winning close matchups or beating teams you'd expect to be better than you are. Put another way, we often say in this thread that you don't grow into X rank until you start regularly beating teams around X rank, e.g. you don't get into the top 10 until you start beating top-ten teams.
That's where they've been hanging out for a while now, yeah. They most certainly can play better than that too, (I for one maintain they played the USA toe-to-toe in 2019 and were the USA's toughest test that tournament,) but they're not the most consistent team.