European champions Spain leapt five places to sixth in the FIFA world rankings for October, released on Thursday.
Seven wins in eight games have Spain on the verge of Euro 2016 qualification to challenge for an unprecedented third consecutive continental title.
World champions Germany are back up to second above Belgium, but still behind Argentina – the team they beat in the 2014 World Cup final.
Joachim Loew’s impressive charges are on a roll with five wins and a draw from their past six matches.
Cristiano Ronaldo had further reason to smile a day after scoring his 500th career goal, as Portugal climbed two places to fourth.
Colombia, renowned for their rousing ‘football with a smile’, are fifth, Brazil are seventh and Wales will raise a few eyebrows, moving up a place to eighth, while England remain tenth.
Australia have climbed three places to sit 58th.
The Socceroos have recorded three straight wins in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, the most recent a 3-0 defeat of Tajikistan in Dushanbe.
World top 10 rankings (previous rank in brackets):
1. Argentina (1)
2. Germany (3)
3. Belgium (2)
4. Portugal (6)
5. Colombia (4)
6. Spain (11)
7. Brazil (5)
8. Wales (9)
9. Chile (8)
10. England (10)
Paul
Guest
maybe so, but we are not even trying to test our mettle against non-Asian sides except the oddity of playing Germany in a friendly. playing other countries who are higher ranked like Osiek tried to do is what is needed will give a better idea of our relative strength. perhaps we we could play similar ranked teams from CONCACAF, Africa and Europe rather than highly ranked teams
Philip Coates
Roar Guru
If you are trying to get your rankings up it isn't as easy as just playing Portugal in a friendly. If we did play Portugal and win our ranking points would rise about 10 points due to that game. That just might move us up one place depending on numerous factors. But a draw or a loss and our ranking points would fall perhaps as much as 20 points due to that one game and there is a higher likelihood we would actually fall in the rankings. It is possible to manufacture higher rankings by clever scheduling (and winning) but you have to look at the past 4 years results and do some clever maths on where your 12 months running averages (over a 4 year period) are going.
Paul
Guest
plus the former powerhouse of the Netherlands possibly dropping out of the top 20 next month. Australia has an outside change of getting into the top 50 next month depending on Euro 2016 results, plus South American qualifying starting this month too.
144
Roar Guru
AAAAAAND Italy's out of the top 12!
KJ
Guest
Thanks Paul. It must've taken a while for them to update to page.
Paul
Guest
just looked at the page today. Australia is ranked 58 up 3. why isn't postecoglou using the FIFA international window to play a friendly? there was a game on the FFA website scheduled against Egypt! The FFA could have tried to schedule a friendly against European teams not involved in the Euro 2016 qualifiers like Portugal or Denmark as a real test. Australia is still the 4th ranked team in Asia behind Iran (39), Korea Republic (53), Japan (55) and will only go in the rankings significantly by playing and drawing or beating higher ranked teams!
KJ
Guest
The FIFA page is saying we haven't moved at all? http://m.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/index,page=2.htmx