Sport

Bafana rocket up world rankings

Brad Morgan

16 July 2010

Bafana Bafana may have exited the Fifa World Cup™ after the group stage, but a win over France and a draw with Mexico has helped the South African national football team leap 17 places up in the latest Fifa World Rankings.

South Africa is now in 66th place, way better than the 83rd position it occupied at the start of the World Cup. It's also Bafana Bafana's highest ranking since August 2007.

In terms of points, South Africa is 112 points better off than it was before the World Cup kicked off.

Only one other World Cup finals team showed a bigger improvement than the hosts and that was traditional rugby rivals New Zealand, who showed they are also adept at the game played with the round ball.

Strangely enough, the All Whites didn't win a game in South Africa. Then again, they didn't lose one, drawing all three of their group matches and exiting the event on goal difference only, the same method of elimination that saw Bafana Bafana ousted.

Big movers

There were a number of other big movers: Japan improved 13 places to 32nd, while Paraguay rose 15 spots to 16th. Fourth place finishers Uruguay surged into the top 10, improving 10 places to sixth.

Naturally, there were some big losers and Bafana Bafana had a say in the slump suffered by two of their group rivals: Mexico and France. The Mexicans fell seven places to 24th, but France suffered a bigger fall, tumbling 12 places to 21st.

Italy, the 2006 champions, finished bottom of their group in South Africa. That failure saw them fall out of the top 10, from fifth to 11th place.

The biggest loser, however, by a long way, was Cameroon. The Indomitable Lions plunged 21 places, from 19th to 40th.

Top 10

While champions Spain improved only one place in the rankings, they built up a big buffer between themselves and the Netherlands, in second place. Only the third nation to hold both the World Cup and the European title at the same time, the Spanish are on 1883 points, well clear of the 1 659 of the Dutch, who went into the World Cup final unbeaten in 25 matches.

Brazil, ranked number one before the World Cup, has slipped to third and Germany, scorers of four goals in a match three times in the World Cup, are up two places to fourth, well clear of fifth placed Argentina, whom they crushed 4-0 in the quarterfinals.

The bottom half of the top 10 consists of Uruguay, England, Portugal, Egypt, and Chile.

The Egyptians are Africa's highest ranked team and also the highest ranked team not to contest the World Cup. South Africa occupies 12th place in the continental rankings.

SAinfo reporter