Sports / Soccer
Zimbabwe Warriors rises on FIFA World Rankings
24 Aug 2011 at 16:25hrs | Views
Zimbabwe Warriors continued their good ascendancy on the FIFA World rankings by climbing 12 place to 74th from 86 in the latest Fifa World Rankings released on Wednesday. They are now ranked 17 in Africa.
The Warriors leap froged teams like Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana, Uganda, Mali, Benni, Sierra Leone and Angola.
Zimbabwe beat Zambia 2-0 at Rufaro on August 10 through goals by the Ajax Cape Town duo of Willard Katsande and Khama Billiat. The pair has been named in the 23 –man squad for the next Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Liberia at the National Sports Stadium set for September 4.
The good news come at a time when the Warriors are preparing for a do or die encounter with Liberia and after some good performances by Mapeza's team.
The Netherlands went top of the FIFA world rankings for the first time on Wednesday without playing a match in the last month.
Although their friendly against England was cancelled because of the London riots, Netherlands benefitted as previous leaders Spain were beaten by Italy to lose their place at the top.
World and European champions Spain had led for one year.
The Dutch became the seventh team to head the rankings since they were introduced in 1993 after Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Brazil's 3-2 friendly defeat by Germany cost them two places as they dropped from fourth to sixth, meaning that Uruguay, who remained fifth, became South America's highest-ranked team.
Rankings (last month's positions in brackets)
1. (2) Netherlands
2. (1) Spain
3. (3) Germany
4. (6) England
5. (5) Uruguay
6. (4) Brazil
7. (8) Italy
8. (7) Portugal
9. (10) Argentina
10. (9) Croatia
1 Cote d'Ivoire 918 points
2 Egypt 739
3 Ghana 726
4 Nigeria 659
5 Burkina Faso 646
6 Algeria 612
7 South Africa 602
8 Senegal 591
9 Cameroon 582
10 Tunisia 546
11 Morocco 529
12 Libya 504
13 Gabon 482
14 Guinea 464
15 Cape Verde Islands 444
16 Malawi 436
17 Zimbabwe 434
18 Zambia 427
19 Botswana 424
The Warriors leap froged teams like Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana, Uganda, Mali, Benni, Sierra Leone and Angola.
Zimbabwe beat Zambia 2-0 at Rufaro on August 10 through goals by the Ajax Cape Town duo of Willard Katsande and Khama Billiat. The pair has been named in the 23 –man squad for the next Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Liberia at the National Sports Stadium set for September 4.
The good news come at a time when the Warriors are preparing for a do or die encounter with Liberia and after some good performances by Mapeza's team.
The Netherlands went top of the FIFA world rankings for the first time on Wednesday without playing a match in the last month.
Although their friendly against England was cancelled because of the London riots, Netherlands benefitted as previous leaders Spain were beaten by Italy to lose their place at the top.
The Dutch became the seventh team to head the rankings since they were introduced in 1993 after Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Brazil's 3-2 friendly defeat by Germany cost them two places as they dropped from fourth to sixth, meaning that Uruguay, who remained fifth, became South America's highest-ranked team.
Rankings (last month's positions in brackets)
1. (2) Netherlands
2. (1) Spain
3. (3) Germany
4. (6) England
5. (5) Uruguay
6. (4) Brazil
7. (8) Italy
8. (7) Portugal
9. (10) Argentina
10. (9) Croatia
1 Cote d'Ivoire 918 points
2 Egypt 739
3 Ghana 726
4 Nigeria 659
5 Burkina Faso 646
6 Algeria 612
7 South Africa 602
8 Senegal 591
9 Cameroon 582
10 Tunisia 546
11 Morocco 529
12 Libya 504
13 Gabon 482
14 Guinea 464
15 Cape Verde Islands 444
16 Malawi 436
17 Zimbabwe 434
18 Zambia 427
19 Botswana 424
Source - Byo24News
