Wins for the bottom team

American Samoa finally won a match. Samoa also won a match and both Samoas are ranked 204th, along with Andorra, Montserrat and San Marino. With these wins, they'll leave the bottom spot behind and those three teams will fall to 206th - an all time low for all of them.

How many times did the bottom team register a win? Only 9 times.

Date - Match type - Team 1 - Team 2 - Result - Rank 1 - Rank 2 - Rank difference

06-Feb-08	WQ	Belize	St. Kitts and Nevis	3:1 (3:1)	201	151	50
25-Feb-00	F	British Virgin Islands	Anguilla	3:4	161	202	41
04-Sep-06	CQ	Cayman Islands	Turks and Caicos Islands	0:2 (0:1)	176	197	21
04-Feb-96	CQ	Macau	Philippines	5:1 (2:0)	180	166	14
13-Jun-09	F	Tonga	Cook Islands	1:2 (0:2)	189	202	13
22-Nov-11	WQ	Cook Islands	Samoa	2:3 (1:2)	196	204	8
11-Mar-09	F	Guam	Mongolia	1:0 (1:0)	201	193	8
16-Nov-07	WQ	Djibouti	Somalia	1:0 (0:0)	200	193	7
22-Nov-11	WQ	American Samoa	Tonga	2:1 (1:0)	204	202	2

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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.

Defeats for the top team

Spain lost to England this month. They do have a habit of losing friendlies, don't they? They also lost to Argentina, Portugal and Italy. They only lost one competitive match - against the US at the Confederations Cup.

How many times did the top team leave the team defeated (including PSO losses)? 39 times.

Order of columns:

Team - Friendlies - Friendly losses - Competitive matches - Competitive match losses - Total matches - Total losses

Brazil	88	8	107	19	195	27
Spain	14	4	18	1	32	5
France	9	2	8	3	17	5
Argentina	3	0	4	1	7	1
Germany	2	0	5	1	7	1
Italy	1	0	3	0	4	0
Netherlands	0	0	2	0	2	0

Australia caused the greatest upset in a competitive match, while Korea Republic caused the greatest upset in a friendly game.

Top 20 defeats

Date - Match Type - Team 1 - Team 2 - Result - Winner's Rank

1-Jun-01	CC	Australia	France	1:0 (0:0)	68
11-Oct-09	WQ	Bolivia	Brazil	2:1 (2:0)	59
28-Mar-01	WQ	Ecuador	Brazil	1:0 (0:0)	53
17-Nov-04	WQ	Ecuador	Brazil	1:0 (0:0)	44
31-May-02	WC	France	Senegal	0:1 (0:1)	42
28-Mar-99	F	Korea Republic	Brazil	1:0 (0:0)	36
23-Jul-95	CF	Uruguay	Brazil	1:1 (0:1) 5:3 PSO	36
1-Sep-01	F	Chile	France	2:1 (1:0)	35
14-Jul-04	CF	Brazil	Paraguay	1:2 (1:1)	29
10-Jul-94	WC	Bulgaria	Germany	2:1 (0:0)	29
10-Feb-98	CF	USA	Brazil	1:0 (0:0)	26
20-Nov-07	WQ	Colombia	Argentina	2:1 (0:1)	25
18-May-02	F	France	Belgium	1:2 (1:1)	23
15-Aug-00	WQ	Chile	Brazil	3:0 (2:0)	22
11-Jun-02	WC	Denmark	France	2:0 (1:0)	20
21-Aug-02	F	Brazil	Paraguay	0:1 (0:1)	19
18-Jul-00	WQ	Paraguay	Brazil	2:1 (1:0)	19
19-Jun-03	CC	Brazil	Cameroon	0:1 (0:0)	18
12-Jul-98	WC	Brazil	France	0:3 (0:2)	18
30-May-97	F	Norway	Brazil	4:2 (3:1)	15

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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.

FIFA Ranking: Greatest upsets (25 November 2011)

See previous version.

Two new results in the top 20: Korea DPR - Japan 1 - 0 (5th) and Oman - Australia 1 - 0 (19th).

There was another upset in October: Wales - Switzerland 2 - 0 - ranked 29th.

Top 20 upsets with two restrictions:

• only competitive matches
• losing team must be in the top 20 of the FIFA ranking at the time of the match

Of course, this list only includes matches played after 8 August 1993 - the first edition of the FIFA ranking.

Date - Match type - Team 1 - Team 2 - Result - Rank 1 - Rank 2 - Rank difference

10-Oct-10	CQ	Niger	Egypt	1:0 (1:0)	154	9	145
20-Aug-97	WQ	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Denmark	3:0 (3:0)	117	3	114
06-Jun-07	CQ	Armenia	Poland	1:0 (0:0)	128	18	110
07-Sep-05	WQ	Northern Ireland	England	1:0 (0:0)	116	7	109
15-Nov-11	WQ	Korea DPR	Japan	1:0 (0:0)	124	17	107
07-Jun-95	CQ	Belarus	Netherlands	1:0 (1:0)	113	7	106
02-Sep-11	CQ	Wales	Montenegro	2:1 (1:0)	117	19	98
10-Nov-96	WQ	Congo	Zambia	1:0 (0:0)	110	16	94
06-Jul-95	CF	Mexico	Paraguay	1:2 (1:0)	7	100	93
06-Sep-08	WQ	Austria	France	3:1 (2:0)	101	11	90
17-Oct-07	CQ	Georgia	Scotland	2:0 (1:0)	104	14	90
08-Oct-10	CQ	Armenia	Slovakia	3:1 (1:1)	105	16	89
09-Sep-07	CQ	Equatorial Guinea	Cameroon	1:0 (1:0)	105	16	89
10-Oct-98	CQ	Denmark	Wales	1:2 (0:0)	18	107	89
21-Nov-07	CQ	Belarus	Netherlands	2:1 (0:0)	94	7	87
11-Oct-95	CQ	Georgia	Bulgaria	2:1 (1:0)	100	14	86
28-Mar-01	WQ	Belarus	Norway	2:1 (1:0)	99	14	85
06-Sep-98	CQ	Norway	Latvia	1:3 (1:1)	11	94	83
11-Nov-11	WQ	Oman	Australia	1:0 (1:0)	103	20	83
04-Sep-04	WQ	Albania	Greece	2:1 (2:1)	94	14	80

CQ = Continental Qualifier
WQ = World Cup Qualifier
CF = Continental Final

---

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.

New bugs in the FIFA Ranking

Take a look at the FIFA ranking.

In reverse order of importance.

1. The "POINTS IN THE PAST 4 YEARS" section is not displayed for San Marino. Granted, they have 0 points and this makes no difference, but this section is displayed when you click on Andorra - also with 0 points.

2. Seychelles and Maldives. Clicking on them you'll still see the October ranking info. Although, their points are OK in the table, the detailed ranking info is for October.

3. Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Their 1 - 1 draw on 15 October appears in the "POINTS LAST MONTH" section, although it was included in the October ranking.

4. Incorrect match points for 4 matches:

Team - Opponent - Result - FIFA Points - Correct Points

Argentina	Colombia	2:1	1267.5	1275
Lebanon	Korea Republic	2:1	1102.95	1090.05
Somalia	Ethiopia	0:0	139.75	137.6
Venezuela	Colombia	1:1	422.5	425

As Tobcoach and EngelRS4 pointed out, it could be caused by FIFA removing two matches: Korea Republic - Poland 2 - 2 and Ethiopia - Sudan 1 - 2. Most likely FIFA have recomputed the October ranking without those matches and used it to compute the November ranking.

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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.

FIFA Ranking: November 2011 final preview

Fixed Zimbabwe error. Thanks Tobcoach!

______

FIFA will publish the ranking on November 23.

Croatia return to the top 10 (climbing to 8th), with Greece and Denmark dropping out, while England overtake Brazil.

Sao Tome e Principe return to the ranking in style - they will be 192nd - bad news for Mauritania, Tonga, Timor-Leste, Andorra, Samoa and San Marino - all will thus drop to their worst ever ranking.

Egypt drop from 2nd to 4th in Africa, Ghana up to 2nd, Algeria to 3rd. Nigeria replace Senegal as 5th in Africa.

Italy out of the European top 5, replaced by Portugal.

Best movers:

35 - Lebanon
31 - Puerto Rico
29 - Haiti

Worst movers:

-21 - Dominica
-18 - Suriname and Thailand
-14 - New Zealand


Best movers in the top 50:

14 - Czech Republic
10 - Ecuador
5 - Algeria

Worst movers in the top 50:

-12 - Montenegro
-6 - Greece and Colombia
-5 - Wales

Three teams will improve their best ever ranking:

Venezuela (39th - 40th in July 2011)
Cape Verde Islands (57th - 66th in October 2011)
Antigua and Barbuda (82nd - 90th in October 2011)

Estonia will return to their best ever ranking - 58th - first achieved in September 2011.

14 teams will drop to their worst ever ranking:

Bulgaria (85th - 75th in October 2011)
Finland (88th - 87th in November 2010)
Cyprus (125th - 120th in October 2011)
Singapore (152nd - 145th in April 2011)
Barbados (161st - 152nd in July 2006)
Hong Kong (168th - 156th in November 2008)
Swaziland (179th - 175th in October 2011)
Kyrgyzstan (188th - 186th in October 2011)
Mauritania (201st - 200th in October 2011)
Tonga (202nd - 201st in September 2011)
Timor-Leste (203rd - 202nd in February 2008)
Andorra (204th - 203rd in June 2011)
Samoa (204th - 203rd in September 2011)
San Marino (204th - 203rd in July 2009)

November 2011 rank - Team - November 2011 points - +/- Ranking - +/- Points

1	Spain	1564	0	-60
2	Netherlands	1365	0	-60
3	Germany	1345	0	-7
4	Uruguay	1309	0	79
5	England	1173	2	72
6	Brazil	1143	-1	-1
7	Portugal	1100	1	56
8	Croatia	1091	4	76
9	Italy	1082	-3	-53
10	Argentina	1068	0	38
11	Denmark	1035	-1	5
12	Russia	971	1	-4
13	Chile	970	3	29
14	Greece	964	-6	-80
15	France	915	0	-38
16	Côte d'Ivoire	911	3	13
17	Switzerland	898	1	-22
18	Sweden	891	-4	-64
19	Japan	884	-2	-40
20	Mexico	867	2	7
21	Republic of Ireland	864	4	52
22	Australia	851	-2	-17
23	Bosnia-Herzegovina	838	-2	-26
24	Paraguay	795	4	10
25	Norway	788	-1	-50
26	Slovenia	780	1	-7
27	Serbia	775	-4	-79
28	Turkey	769	-2	-34
29	Ghana	761	4	27
30	Algeria	758	5	45
31	Egypt	757	-2	-18
32	Korea Republic	752	-1	-2
33	Czech Republic	749	14	149
34	USA	721	0	1
35	Peru	712	-3	-34
36	Colombia	709	-6	-48
37	Hungary	665	-1	-36
37	Israel	665	1	-4
39	Venezuela	661	1	29
40	Slovakia	648	1	19
41	Belgium	647	-4	-23
42	Ecuador	630	10	50
43	Nigeria	628	1	3
44	Senegal	625	-2	-1
45	Iran	616	-3	-10
46	Armenia	612	0	4
47	Jamaica	609	3	17
48	Cameroon	602	-1	2
49	Scotland	599	2	18
50	Wales	591	-5	-28
51	Montenegro	586	-12	-69
51	Panama	586	2	7
53	South Africa	577	-4	-18
54	Honduras	570	3	15
55	Ukraine	568	3	17
56	Romania	562	-1	-13
57	Cape Verde Islands	544	9	44
58	Estonia	543	1	1
59	Tunisia	537	1	-4
60	Morocco	524	-4	-42
61	Sierra Leone	521	2	2
62	Burkina Faso	518	-8	-60
63	Libya	514	2	10
64	Costa Rica	502	-2	-20
65	Belarus	501	-4	-28
66	Poland	487	-2	-19
67	Mali	472	1	-1
68	Latvia	466	7	19
69	El Salvador	463	13	37
70	Zimbabwe	462	4	14
71	Austria	459	1	1
72	Canada	455	11	30
72	China PR	455	-2	-8
74	Georgia	451	-7	-24
75	Albania	450	-4	-12
75	Uzbekistan	450	-2	-2
77	Gabon	445	-9	-28
78	Haiti	438	29	131
79	Zambia	436	1	4
80	Guinea	435	-5	-12
81	Iraq	429	10	50
82	Antigua and Barbuda	418	8	37
82	Jordan	418	-1	-10
84	Angola	412	2	8
85	Bulgaria	409	-10	-38
85	Trinidad and Tobago	409	-6	-24
87	Malawi	407	0	7
88	Finland	406	-10	-32
89	Northern Ireland	403	-5	-18
90	Guatemala	397	9	57
91	Uganda	394	-3	1
92	Cuba	390	8	58
93	Oman	387	10	70
94	Lithuania	382	-9	-34
95	Qatar	375	-3	4
96	Botswana	371	-7	-15
97	Guyana	370	0	24
98	Saudi Arabia	362	0	21
99	Niger	361	-4	9
100	Kuwait	350	-4	0
100	Togo	350	-6	-9
102	Bahrain	340	-1	16
103	FYR Macedonia	333	-10	-28
104	Iceland	325	4	25
105	Mozambique	324	5	43
106	Bolivia	309	9	36
106	Puerto Rico	309	31	110
108	Grenada	308	8	38
109	Bermuda	307	23	82
110	Korea DPR	305	14	51
111	Lebanon	304	35	133
111	Sudan	304	-9	-19
113	Azerbaijan	300	4	35
114	Rwanda	298	-2	21
115	Syria	292	-9	-17
116	Faroe Islands	285	6	28
117	St. Kitts and Nevis	284	-8	-5
118	Gambia	280	-7	0
119	New Zealand	271	-14	-39
120	Namibia	264	7	16
120	United Arab Emirates	264	-7	-12
122	Suriname	261	-18	-52
123	Liberia	258	-2	0
124	Benin	257	-5	-3
125	Congo DR	253	8	30
125	Cyprus	253	-5	-6
127	Luxembourg	252	-9	-11
128	Central African Republic	251	-3	0
129	Dominican Republic	247	-1	2
130	Liechtenstein	246	-4	-3
131	Congo	245	7	58
132	Thailand	243	-18	-32
133	Kenya	240	2	35
134	Vietnam	234	0	12
135	Moldova	229	-12	-26
136	Tanzania	228	-5	-3
137	Ethiopia	225	-1	24
138	Kazakhstan	219	-9	-16
139	Tajikistan	207	-9	-25
140	Belize	194	3	17
141	Chad	188	11	37
142	Bangladesh	181	-1	-2
143	Indonesia	177	-3	-7
143	Nepal	177	1	1
145	Burundi	174	-4	-9
146	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	170	0	-1
147	Turkmenistan	164	-2	-8
148	Lesotho	160	14	46
149	Curacao	154	22	55
150	Yemen	153	-1	-5
151	Equatorial Guinea	148	4	8
152	Singapore	146	-13	-39
153	Bahamas	141	1	0
153	Nicaragua	141	7	26
155	Malaysia	140	-4	-15
156	Malta	139	2	12
157	Madagascar	135	8	24
158	Fiji	133	-9	-25
159	Philippines	130	-1	3
160	Guinea-Bissau	129	7	23
161	Barbados	125	-13	-39
162	India	119	-2	4
163	New Caledonia	116	-7	-12
164	Palestine	113	0	1
165	Chinese Taipei	109	1	1
166	Maldives	106	-4	-8
166	Mongolia	106	1	0
168	Hong Kong	105	-12	-23
169	Cambodia	103	7	18
169	Myanmar	103	1	2
171	Vanuatu	96	3	8
172	Aruba	92	0	0
173	Dominica	90	-21	-61
174	Pakistan	87	-1	-4
175	Laos	86	6	12
176	Sri Lanka	85	1	2
177	US Virgin Islands	82	-8	-22
178	Afghanistan	77	6	8
179	Solomon Islands	75	1	0
179	Swaziland	75	-4	-12
181	Cayman Islands	74	4	23
182	Tahiti	73	0	0
183	Seychelles	69	-5	-13
184	Eritrea	65	6	37
184	St. Lucia	65	-5	-13
186	Comoros	55	-3	-17
187	Somalia	51	5	28
188	Kyrgyzstan	42	-2	-7
189	Guam	36	-2	0
190	Papua New Guinea	34	-2	0
191	Mauritius	32	-2	0
192	Sao Tome e Principe	27	16	27
193	Macau	26	-2	1
194	British Virgin Islands	23	-2	0
195	Turks and Caicos Islands	13	-1	0
196	Cook Islands	10	0	0
197	Anguilla	9	0	0
198	Bhutan	6	1	0
198	Brunei Darussalam	6	-1	-3
200	Djibouti	5	-5	-7
201	Mauritania	4	-1	0
202	Tonga	3	-1	0
203	Timor-Leste	2	-2	-1
204	American Samoa	0	-1	0
204	Andorra	0	-1	0
204	Montserrat	0	-1	0
204	Samoa	0	-1	0
204	San Marino	0	-1	0

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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.

EURO 2012: Official final draw seeding

The draw will take place at the Palace of Arts in Kyiv, Ukraine at 18.00CET (19.00 local time) on Friday 2 December.

Pot 1: Poland, Ukraine, Spain, Netherlands
Pot 2: Germany, Italy, England, Russia
Pot 3: Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Sweden
Pot 4: Denmark, France, Czech Republic, Republic of Ireland

Source: UEFA.com

Croatia needed two wins to climb to Pot 2. After their 3 - 0 win in Istanbul I was sure they would overtake Russia, but in the end it didn't happen. I don't know if HNS were aware of this. If anyone from Croatia reads this post, please tell me if it was reported in the press that Croatia need two wins to climb to Pot 2. Thanks!

Poland will be automatically placed in Group A as A1, Ukraine in Group D as D1.

The draw will start with Pot 1 in order to fill position one in Groups B and C. The draw will continue with Pot 4, from which a team will be allocated to each group consecutively, from Group A to Group D. This procedure will then be repeated for Pot 3 and finally for Pot 2.

The position of each team within its group (2, 3 or 4) will also be determined during the draw.

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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.

Best teams to play against in November

This is based on (FIFA points for a win) / (actual effort from Elo rating).

Doesn't include teams that have competitive matches for both of the November dates or teams that would bring less than 250 points for an OFC opponent.

Team - Opponent(s) in November

Algeria (Tunisia, Cameroon)
Armenia
Slovenia (USA)
Slovakia
Sierra Leone
Greece (Russia, Romania)
Switzerland (Netherlands, Luxembourg)
Denmark (Sweden, Finland)
Russia (Greece)
Serbia (Mexico, Honduras)
Belgium (Romania, France)
Hungary (Liechtenstein, Poland)
Italy (Poland, Uruguay)
Israel
Wales (Norway)
Norway (Wales)
France (USA, Belgium)
Georgia (Moldova)
Cape Verde Islands
Sweden (Denmark, England)

Armenia, Slovakia, Sierra Leone, Israel and Cape Verde Islands are still available, but I think it's too late to schedule a friendly.

A month ago, a certain FA asked me for such a list, although in the end they didn't use it. My, how the tables have turned. Not long ago, I was still writing to FAs about ideal opponents for friendly games... I must be moving up in the world. :)

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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.