The USA remain top of the FIFA / Coca Cola Women's World Rankings

The USA remain top of the FIFA / Coca Cola Women's World Rankings

The top 20 as of September 23rd 2011

Ranking -Team -Points

1 USA 2151

2 Germany 2146

3 Brazil 2121

4 Japan 2106

5 Sweden 2085

6 England 1985

7 France 1982

8 North Korea 1967

9 Canada 1964

10 Australia 1956

11 Italy 1930

12 Norway 1928

13 Netherlands 1897

14 Denmark 1888

15 Iceland 1860

16 South Korea 1845

17 China 1831

18 Spain 1819

19 Finland 1813

20 Russia 1802

Following their disappointing showing at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany 2011™, Korea DPR (8th, up 4) have returned to the top ten of the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking on the back of three victories and two defeats in their quest to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

In doing so, they have overtaken former world champions Norway (12th, down 2), who lost 3-1 to Iceland in Reykjavik on 17 September. Twelfth place represents the Norwegians’ worst-ever position since the introduction of the women’s world ranking in 2003.

China PR (17th, down 2), another former powerhouse of the women’s game, are also in free fall. After failing to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ for the first time ever, the Chinese also have bowed out of the race to reach London 2012 with one victory, two goalless draws and two defeats to their name, a record that has seen them slip to 17th in the world ranking.

Despite being held to a 1-1 draw by neighbours Canada (9th, down 1), the USA continue to hold a narrow lead at the top over Germany (2nd, unchanged), who enjoyed a 4-1 victory over Switzerland (25th, up 1) in their first qualifying match for UEFA Women’s EURO 2013.

Cameroon (66th, up 2), meanwhile, tri­umphed at the All-Africa Games and have not only climbed to fourth place in CAF’s internal ranking but are also in hot pursuit of their vanquished opponents, Ghana (51st, unchanged), in the world ranking.

A total of 93 matches have been taken into account for this edition of the women’s world ranking, a third of which were qualifying matches for next year’s Olympic Games in London and UEFA Women’s EURO 2013 in Sweden.

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking will be published on 23 December 2011.

Source: fifa.com