Brazil still #1, USA slips further

The November FIFA rankings are out and there is little movement to report. Brazil and Italy still sit on the top two spots with Argentina now filling in the third.

The big news from the US perspective is that Mexico almost fell below the 20th spot. If that would have happened, then there would be no CONCACAF representation in the top 20. The US also dropped a few spots from 29th to 31st.

These rankings don't really mean much, however, if the World Cup does end up staying in South Africa, I think FIFA will want to give Africa an additional spot in the tournament. That spot will not come from Europe or South America, so who is left? If CONCACAF doesn't have some teams in the top 30, it will be difficult to justify 3.5 entries. The good news is Asia is in an even worse position.

Anyway, here are the top twenty:

Rank	Team	Aug Rank	Change
1	Brazil	1	0
2	Italy	2	0
3	Argentina	4	+1
4	France	3	-1
5	England	5	0
6	Germany	6	0
7	Netherlands	7	0
8	Portugal	9	+1
9	Nigeria	9	0
10	Czech Republic	8	-2
11	Cameroon	12	+1
12	Spain	10	-2
13	Ukraine	13	0
14	Sweden	16	+2
15	Croatia	19	+4
16	Greece	14	-2
17	Switzerland	15	-2
18	Côte d'Ivoire	18	0
19	Romania	23	+4
20	Mexico	19	-1

The only team to fall out of the top 20 was Uruguay who went from 17th to 29th.

So which teams moved the most on the full list?

The biggest gains were Turkmenistan (up 18 to 151), Cuba (up 22 to 46) and Laos who jumped 26 spots to 157.

But what about those who fell? The biggest losers are Antigua and Barbuda down 17 to 126, St. Kitts and Nevis dropped 23 to 141 and St. Lucia fell 39 places to 155.