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Friday, June 8, 2012

FIFA Ranking: How are Uruguay second?

That's the big question on Twitter it seems :)

Uruguay are second because they managed a draw against Venezuela and Germany lost against Switzerland. La Celeste will most likely leave the podium and drop to 5th in July.

Of course there's more than the draw against Venezuela. Of the 1292 points they have in the June ranking, more than half (51.96%) come from only 9 matches.

100.99 - 12 July 2011 Win vs. Mexico (2011 Copa America)
94.50 - 24 July 2011 Win vs. Paraguay (2011 Copa America)
86.25 - 11 November 2011 Win vs. Chile (2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier)
84.94 - 19 July 2011 Win vs. Peru (2011 Copa America)
71.76 - 22 June 2010 Win vs. Mexico (2010 FIFA World Cup)
71.25 - 16 July 2011 PSO Win vs. Argentina (2011 Copa America)
60.00 - 26 June 2010 Win vs. Korea Republic (2010 FIFA World Cup)
55.78 - 7 October 2011 Win vs. Bolivia (2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier)
45.88 - 16 June 2010 Win vs. South Africa (2010 FIFA World Cup)

By competition:

412.43 points from the 2011 Copa America.
248.57 points from the 2010 FIFA World Cup final tournament.
229.93 points from friendlies.
207.35 points from 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
194.06 points from the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

By team (top 10):


Mexico 172.75
Paraguay 144.66
Peru 129.91
Chile 125.63
Argentina 71.25
Bolivia 60.93
Korea Republic 60
Colombia 54.46
South Africa 45.88



About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.

15 comments:

  1. You just simply have to LOL at those outraged by Uruguay being high on the ranking:

    World cup semifinals, Copa America Winners, virtually first on WC2014 qualification, impressive undefeated strake in international friendlies.

    But their players are not famous...

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  2. I'm not so much outraged by them being 2nd, but that Ghana, who should have been the WC semifinalist is 25th!!!

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    Replies
    1. Uruguay's ranking would actually be better if Ghana had won the shootout. It would still have been a draw in the rankings for Uruguay, and the two losses they took in the semi and 3rd place match would have been off their record.

      Delete
    2. Possibly, but you do get additional points for winning a shoot-out.

      The biggest problem with the FIFA ranking is the weights various federations get.

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  3. Ghana did not get to the semifinals because they failed from the penalty spot. Uruguay's second place is fully deserved, a fantastic achievement from this nation of only 3 million people.

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    Replies
    1. Ghana deserved the semi-final, not Uruguay. Besides my issue if with Ghana being so low down the rankings, not Uruguay being so high up. Ghana should be in the top ten.

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    2. Freekick leading to last minute penalty was an absolute joke and Ghana still got the chance to decide the game. In fact Ghana should have been knocked out in the group stage as Serbia were robbed by the referee when a point against Australia would have taken them through at Ghana's expense. Credit to Ghana for being one of the top three sides in Africa but they are not in the top 10 in the world IMHO.

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  4. The Ghanaian player got clipped. There were side replays which proved that, but which Uruguay fanboys decided to pretend don't exist. Plus Lahm blocked a certain goal with his hand in the Germany - Ghana game (much like Suarez), so Germany should have conceded a penalty and been a man down when the score was 0:0. Without referee mistakes Ghana should have made it out of the group as group winners, whilst Germany maybe should have not. Ghana not a top 10 team in the world? Whatever. They still outplayed Uruguay, supposedly team no 2 in the world, and were the only team apart from Spain to be Germany's equal.

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    Replies
    1. Serbia beat Germany.

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    2. Yes. They did - but it was a game dominated by Germany and Serbia scoring a lucky goal against the run of play.

      BTW: How funny is it when Uruguayans complain about someone diving to win a freekick, when that was the exact tactic they employed... freekicks mostly won by diving and flopping were almost the only way Uruguay managed to create a threat to the Ghana goal.

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    3. You make is sound like Ghana is a squeaky clean team that doesn't dive, or embellish etc. which isn't the case. It isn't the case for any team. Name a team, and I can dig up a clip of someone on that team diving embellishing, faking injury or whatever and gaining advantage from it. Aside from that, there is a difference between deceiving the referee and getting a call, or non-call as the case may be and committing some sort of foul (in this case a hand ball) and getting caught and penalized for it (in other words the difference between getting away with a crime and being caught and punished for it)

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    4. Not supporting the argument either way, but I accept your challenge:

      Japan.

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  5. Uruguay are currently N3 in the list, having a population of 3.25 million people. How is it possible? Simply because they are the most dedicated footballing nation in the world. The very existance of this tiny country at the international stage is only possible, because of football. Just look at their incredible achievments throughout the whole history of the game.

    Ghana, who are they, in first place?...

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  6. Uruguay is the best...

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  7. Dropped down to 9th currently on FIFA rankings but what astonishes me is the fact that they still manage to lead the WCQ Conmebol table with only 3 million people! To up that into perspective, Los Angeles has almost 4 million people, which leads me to wonder what on earth are they feeding their kids? Uruguay had the worlds best attacking trio with Suarez-Forlan-Cavani, now Forlan is retired from Uruguay National Team and Uruguay still have the best attacking duo in the game. Cavani is brilliant, and Suarez, well, the name itself strikes fear in the opposition. Uruguay #1 in my book. Pound for pound the worlds deadliest team.

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