FIFA World Ranking Top 20: July 2010

Rank (previous)	Team	Points	Comment
1 (2)	Spain	1883	Back on top for the World Champions
2 (4)	Netherlands	1659	#2 in the world again
3(1)	Brazil	1536	Expected better
4 (6)	Germany	1464	Great effort but run into Spain
5 (7)	Argentina	1289	Great talent; Entertaining coach; Not good enough.
6 (16)	Uruguay	1152	A great run with Diego Forlan leading the way.
7 (8)	England	1125	High ranking for a team that sucked and whined.
8 (3)	Portugal	1062	Pretty fair.
9 (12)	Egypt	1053	Highest ranking ever (for staying home to watch TV)
10 (18)	Chile	988	Good run. Lost to Brazilin the round of 16.
11 (5)	Italy	982	Two ties (New Zealand??) and 1 loss…
12 (13)	Greece	975	One win against a good team maintained the rank.
13 (14)	USA	969	They deserved a higher ranking
13 (15)	Serbia	969	A win over Germany will get you a lot of points!
15 (10)	Croatia	968	Lost ground (for staying home to watch TV)
16 (31)	Paraguay	961	Meteoric rise after losing to Spain in the quarterfinals
17(11)	Russia	956	Stayed home; Watched TV.
18 (24)	Switzerland	940	Win (over Spain) and tie: +6 spots.
19 (25)	Slovenia	917	A decent run and the highest ranking ever
20 (20)	Australia	911	A win and a tie. Not bad for a team from Oceania!

I was actually surprised that Greece maintained its position but it came against a former top 20 team.

Spain is rightly the number 1.

Holland deserves to be number 2.

Uruguay could have been higher.

England should have been lower.

Why did Egypt go up?

Why did Russia go down?

France dropped 12 spots and out of the top 20. The way the played they were easily the worst team of the 2010 World Cup.

The latest full table can be found at the FIFA World Ranking website.

The best & worst of the 2010 World Cup - Goal.com

Good one!

The best & worst of the 2010 World Cup - Goal.com

World Cup 2010 Final: Netherlands 0 - Spain 1

Spain is #1! They beat Holland in extra time with a marvelous goal by Iniesta (116th minute.) It was a tough game with both teams missing several chances to score. Credit goes to both goalkeepers (Stekelenburg and Casillas) for playing so well. Stekelenburg could do nothing to stop the goal by Iniesta.

The Spaniards have been ranked #1 for months and after a great campaign (7 games with one fluke loss to Switzerland) they proved they deserve to be called 'best in the world.' Well done!

New England Revolution 2 – Los Angeles Galaxy 0

Our second game with Jason exactly one year after the first one! Complete with blue cotton candy (which he does not like but I guess he remembered from last year.) May be we should make it a ritual: Go to a soccer game around July 11, eat junk food, and drink sugary liquids!

It was fun but the atmosphere was not as exciting as that of Sounders game. BTW, note the half empty stadium (by design) in the third picture. (Forget the empty second tier; That does not even count for the MLS!) You cannot see that on TV since the cameras are placed in front of the empty half. This is not Seattle…

 

The game itself was not bad for NE which was rather unexpected! After all they were playing against one of the better MLS teams after they have suffered four straight losses. Revolution scored two goals in the second half and could have scored more if they were a better team. But I should not complain; My expectations were pretty low so we were pretty happy that we cheered twice for the home team.

The first goal was scored by Marko Perovic in the 66th minute; A free kick from just outside the box that drilled into the right corner of the net. The second goal was scored by Sainey Nyassi in the 74th minute off a rebound. Landon Donovan did not play for LA but the rest of the starters were present.

To commemorate the event: