Wednesday, October 18, 2006

FIFA Ranking: Argentina down to 4th place

OK, I think this ranking is rubbish. That's the first thing I want to make perfectly clear.

BUT. Here's where I've got a mixed feeling about it.

For years, we've been in the Top 3 of that list. WC Qualy and probably Copa America and Confederations Cup helped us scored points in that questionable rank.

Call it inaccurate, biased or commercial, it was the FIFA Ranking who allowed us to be one of the seeded teams in the last World Cup and based on the way FIFA select the head of each group after every 4 years I think we should give this ranking the importance FIFA want us to give it.

Because they calculate the final position of every team in the last 3 World Cups plus the FIFA Ranking points to determine if a team is seeded or not and if it wasn't for our position in that table we would have been unseeded. Despite that priviledge we had, we still ended up playing two European teams (Holland + Serbia & Montenegro) and the strongest of the African representatives (Ivory Coast) but in order to avoid another unpleasant surprise in the draw for South Africa 2010 we need to keep our status high and stay as close as the Top 3 as we possibly can.

Now we've slipped to the 4th position in a rank still owned by Brazil who are followed by World Champions Italy and runners-up France.

Here are the Top 10 nations in the latest FIFA Rankings:

1. Brazil 1560
2. Italy 1540
3. France 1483
4. Argentina 1446
5. England 1370
6. Germany 1339
7. Netherlands 1313
8. Czech Republic 1253
9. Portugal 1224
10. Spain 1198

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Seba to Everyone else,

To me there is something quite wrong pertaining to this World Ranking System. In the last World Cup, how could have Mexico ended up as a seeded team.

Is it because of their consistent performance in the CONCACAF zone? Fine I can accept that. But in the end, don’t you think the level playing field in that zone plus quality of your opponent does play a role as well?

John
Malaysia

Anonymous said...

About FIFA ranking, US was in top 10 before WC, so how do you think of that?

Arg only played two friendly games after WC and lost both. I don't think 4th place is too bad.

Will FIFA ranking really help? I don't think so. Arg was ranked 2nd in 2001 but you were still assigned to the group of death.

2002 is really a heartbreaking experience for me, as the strongest Arg team in the decade failed so miserably. Would Arg win as everyone expected, things will be totally different nowadays.

Anonymous said...

How do FIFA calculate this ranking really? They include friendlies too? I agree with Helen that FIFA ranking don't help much. FIFA do what FIFA want and Arg seem to always get the shit end of the stick. Back in Italia 90, Arg came to the tournament as world champion and it don't seem to mean anything significant. It was agreed that first European team drawn would play Arg and second team played Italy in order to avoid 2 other South America teams end up playing Arg and Brazil which are both seeded teams. Czech was the first team drawn and was given to Italy and Arg faced Russia (got it from Diego's book). My point is FIFA do whatever they want regardless. And the almighty FIFA don't like Argentina much do they?

People have very high expection for Argentina in 2002 because they were excellent in the qualify round but failed miserably on the last stage. Were Arg too cocky in that tournament? They were flying high and came into the tournament as favorite to win the cup (first time that it's not Brazil and looked how it end). Arg were humble in 2006 and frankly I love this team more with the teamwork and the style of play. Still sad to go out like that but the kind of football Arg displayed showed that sometimes the best team don't always win. You can play beautiful effective football but if other factors go against you then it's hard.

Anonymous said...

Andaman, the short answer is yes they count friendlies. For the long answer I refer you to the ultimate pillar of wisdom....
wikipedia. They explain the complete calculation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings

-argentinafan

Anonymous said...

well this is what i think .. one argentinas 4th spot is just or maybe to leniant, especailly after there loss to spain ...i still donno how brazil are first and italy second germany should be infront of england, i mean come on they lost to macedonia and spain do not deserve to be in the top ten

Anonymous said...

heh, wanna know where my country comes in at?

cheerio!

Anonymous said...

this is crap..
how come England who lost to Croatia be ahead of teams like germany, Portugal who went ahead in the WC .

Anonymous said...

Hi All,

To me this entire world ranking this is just a formality sake and doesn't even potray the real picture of the national teams. Correct me if im Wrong but during the World cup...Group E (Italy, USA, Czech and Ghana)...putting aside Ghana who to me did brilliantly to come out of that group..but what im trying to say is that the 2 teams who did not make it from that group were in the top 10 in the world at that time. No disrespect to team USA but i feel that Fifa got the entire ranking system wrong. It just doesnt reflect on the entire picture.

On the brighter side though, as i type my comments now, im seeing the Zaragoza vs Betis game live and VAMOS to DIEGO MILITO who up till half time has scored 2 goals to put Zaragoa 2-0 in the lead andl also notches up his tally to 7 goals in La Liga so far..Common COCO..give this guy a chance, i want to see him in the Albiceleste!!

Cheers,
Alwin
Malaysia

Anonymous said...

Zaragoza hold on to win 2-1 thanks to the Diego Milito Double. He is already knocking very hard on COCO's door.

Cheers,
Alwin
Malaysia

Anonymous said...

Diego did awesome against Betis and so did Aimar who had a spectacular game. The two look like they work well together and during this game were a strong attacking force. Just some food for thought.

-argentinafan

Anonymous said...

Hi there,
Does anyone have any links to torrents of all of Argentina's matches at the recent World Cup? Please, if you do, kindly send them to me:

ingisar583@hotmail.com

VAMOS Argentina

Anonymous said...

Sorry correct address is:
ingisaro583@hotmail.com