Spain has reclaimed the top spot in the FIFA rankings after winning their first ever World Cup and, ironically, the run was good enough to surpass the five time World Cup champs of Brazil who fell all the way to number three in the newest rankings. The Dutchmen impressively climbed up to the second highest seed with their finals loss and Germany climbed all the way up to number four in the world with their impressive Cup run.
Argentina finished in the FIFA rankings at number five and Uruguay, England, Portugal, Egypt, and Chile all finished out the rest of the top ten. The Yanks had a strong push up the boards to lucky number thirteen and the most improved squad in the rankings was who other than New Zealand who moved up twenty four spots in the total rankings are now at 54th.
For the teams that should be ashamed of their performance, Italy and France were the leaders. Italy dropped out of the top ten and the powerhouse nation is supposedly undergoing a drastic change in their national team methods. France also was a humiliated nation following the Cup and Les Blues are now out of the top twenty with a current ranking of 21.
But the biggest news of the release of the FIFA rankings was Spain is number one and Italy is out of the top ten for the first time in a long time.
photo credit: Daniel Dionne