FIFA Ranking: Netherlands dethrone SpainWith some help from Italy and the London riots, Netherlands finally claimed the top spot in the FIFA ranking (see the August FIFA ranking final preview).
Why did the London riots help the Netherlands? For top teams, friendlies will bring their average points down. Before the cancelation, I wrote:
"If Spain lose against Italy and Netherlands defeat England, Netherlands will overtake Spain. If Spain manage a draw and Netherlands get the 3 points, they will be tied for 1st place with 1581 points."However, with the England friendly canceled, Netherlands' total rose to 1596 points - and they only needed Italy to hold Spain to a draw.
These are Netherlands' top 10 matches (point-wise):
126 - 12/Oct/2010 Netherlands - Sweden 4 - 1 (2012 ECQ)
123 - 25/Mar/2011 Hungary - Netherlands 0 - 4 (2012 ECQ)
123 - 29/Mar/2011 Netherlands - Hungary 5 - 3 (2012 ECQ)
111.75 - 07/Sep/2010 Netherlands - Finland 2 - 1 (2012 ECQ)
90 - 08/Oct/2010 Moldova - Netherlands 0 - 1 (2012 ECQ)
69.88 - 02/Jul/2010 Netherlands - Brazil 2 - 1 (2010 WC)
64.29 - 06/Jul/2010 Uruguay - Netherlands 2 - 3 (2010 WC)
59.09 - 24/Jun/2010 Cameroon - Netherlands 1 - 2 (2010 WC)
58.59 - 28/Jun/2010 Netherlands - Slovakia 2 - 1 (2010 WC)
57.88 - 14/Jun/2010 Netherlands - Denmark 2 - 0 (2010 WC)
These 10 matches are worth 883.49 points - more than 55% of Netherlands' 1596 points.
P.S. I do know I'm not the only one computing the ranking - but if you're a journalist and use info from my blog, please mention the source.
http://www.football-ranki(...)-dethrone-spain.htmlhttp://www.football-ranki(...)1-final-preview.html[ Bericht 4% gewijzigd door Van_Poppel op 12-08-2011 10:40:30 ]